When Langston Hughes was younger, he was a hopeful youth who thought America would make his dreams come true and he could finally live the American dream. His dreams were slowly degraded as he saw he wasn’t treated as an American, and it wasn’t his America. He saw that the poor could work for their entire lives and still not have the opportunity that those of richer social classes enjoyed. There was no one attempting to change the system either, as it benefited the upper classes greatly, and the lower classes were silenced by their tyrant leaders. Langston first had high hopes as a young man; he believed he was ready to receive all the fruits of prosperity that were available to Americans. His poem speaks on the prospective of a black man. …show more content…
He calls for America to be America again, but he later comments on how even that isn’t good enough. America once had slavery, discriminating against an entire race of people for almost 200 years. It was created by pushing Native people off the land they have lived on for generations. None of these people are able to gain anything for their years of hard work. They were cheated out of the spoils of labor for generations. His poem is written in the point of view of all discriminated peoples. Poor whites, Negros and Native Americans are some of those mentioned in the poem. He states that the American society was run by a tyrannical upper class. In “Let America be America Again.” He was the poor farmer who worked hard and had hoped to topple the rich man’s regime. He was a factory worker who worked hard and hoped for a promotion to make change. He commented that he felt that the people who immigrated here with their dreams, strong enough to uproot them from their ancestral homelands and bring them all the way over to America to start over with nothing and hope to gain riches. Langston is now calling for action to help the dying American dream. In “Dream Differed” he comments on the status of the American Negro. He states that the American Negro does not have the ability to dream because of their social state. Their dreams are differed as the title states, or their put off, often indefinitely. His
Langston Hughes was dedicated to writing about the hardships and problems of African Americans. He wrote for and connected with the average, everyday African American. While he connected majorly with the African Americans, Langston also managed to attract attention from many white people, too. In one of Langston’s poems titled, “Let America Be America Again”, he writes “And yet must be- the land where every man is free / The land that is mine- the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, Me.” (Lines 63-64).
To conclude, Langston Hughes uses race in his poems as a way to break down the racial barriers that are placed on society. It is seen in his poem, Let America be America Again, that he doesn’t only want racial equality for African Americans but for all races. It is also important to point out that some of his poems use race as a way to describe the struggles of slaves or the oppression on slaves. He does this to provide an insight into how African American’s view slavery and how they feel about it. The poems that Hughes writes can relate to today’s time period as well as his, although racial issues aren’t as severe as they were in his time there are still issues in 2014 that can be made more equal to all races. A great thing about his poetry is that many of the poems that have a theme of race also result in a subsiding theme of h
...itman’s love of America with its lively atmosphere and the people’s achievement. What Whitman failed to see was that he was looking from the white American perspective and not the eyes of the African American man. Langston Hughes, being American, tells all of us in his poetry that freedom must belong to all of us before it can be freedom for anyone. For, indeed, the black man’s roots are deep in America, even deeper than those of most white Americans. Therefore, Hughes celebrates America as well, but not an America that is but an America that is to come.
"Let America Be American Again" by Langston Hughes is an essential addition to the syllabus. Hughes captures many themes in his poem, all of which reflect cultural characteristics of America and features of Modernist literature. The overall theme is unification against unjust treatment; Hughes concludes his poem with an emphatic call to action invoking the neglected farmers, Negroes, workers, and Indians to break the chains of oppression and to reestablish the American Dream. Hughes reveals the widespread racial and social segregation that existed during a time of economic turmoil, the have-nots were abandoned to provide for themselves, receiving minimal government aid. As a result, there was a prevalent sense of impotence in regards to their ability to continue on despite isolation. Written in 1936,
I came to the conclusion that Langston was writing about te struggle to freedom for blacs. Lanston Hughes wrote about racism often in his poems, and this particular poem seems to follow that pattern. Hughes gives the feeling of loneliness and dismay at the fact that he is not considered equal to white people. The poem represents the struggle for freedom and to be considered equal. The speaker conveys a feeling of sadness and loneliness in the tone of their voice, as stated in the opening sentence of the poem.
He’s the brains behind "Let America be America Again" and many other pieces of poetry. When first reading "Let America be America Again" I was really intrigued about why and how he was displaying all the different cultures and races in America and how it always ends the same way because they are overpowered by the rich and powerful. After analyzing this poem, I believe that Langston Hughes shows that America is once again America, must accept all the people living in it. This theme was communicated through the use of the abstract language poet, personification, and its history.
This poem was written by Langston Hughes and an African-American man who was alive from 1902-1967. Obviously, times were a lot different to what rights certain groups had. His writing definitely reflects on opinions of that time period. The poem starts out with the first speaker saying that we need to revert back to our ways before. That we needed to let America be America again. The first speaker represents the more conservative majority of that time period. Of course, the majority wanted things to go back to how they were before. After the first speaker says this, there is a small comment that says that America was never America to me. From this, I assume that this is intended to be a comment from a minority. It is not loud enough or a strong enough comment to be heard yet, but it is definitely there. The first speaker then speaks about how great America was before, while the small comments become longer, and more powerful statements. The first speaker continues by saying that everyone has liberty and equality. The second voice then makes an even longer and more powerful statement by saying,”There’s never been equality for me. Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’” This is when the first speaker stops and acknowledges the smaller voice. This symbolizes the Civil Rights Act in a
In the poem it seems as if Langston is talking from the perspective of someone living in Harlem he
Both poets use social protest to make their points. Langston is talking of times that were not particularly good in any way for African Americans. In the poem “Harlem [1]”, he speaks of a time when black people were considered lower than the average American citizen. He remembers how they were not accepted when he was younger; and for him and his race, he feels things haven’t changed; and even if they had, how could the past be forgotten or forgiven?
Langston Hughes uses poetic elements to express the reader his feelings towards America. Langston Hughes is very upset that America is not what it promised to be. Living in America, he never saw America to be the land of the free, what it promised to be. Instead, he saw America to be cruel to him and now wants to change America to be the country of the free he thought it was. He expresses all his emotion about America, in his poem, Let America Be America Again, by using connotative diction, repetition, narrative tone and organization; poetic elements.
Langston Hughes was a phenomenal poet, whose poem not only gave a glimpse into the injustices, discrimination, hardship and frustration that African American s faced during the Harlem Renaissance. The way he was able to capture those attributes and makes that the main themes of his poems; showed his ability to give the African Americans a voice and share the same issues . In his poems he uses styles such as imagery, slangs, and “analogies to emphasize the main themes of his poem and to allow it to be relatable to anyone. In the poems I too, sing America, Theme for English B, The Weary Blues, and Mother to Son they all share the common theme of discrimination and hardship that African Americans faced during the Harlem Renaissance.
The poem is titled Let America be America Again and it follows the main perspective of many minorities and discriminated people through their arbitrary community. This poem sees the racist nation that America once was and explains that the American Dream is not a fairy tale promise of ease of life, but instead is a hollow mold of lies structured upon pyramids of exploitation and bigotry beliefs. It is due to the substandard life that Langston Hughes grows up in, that influences his writing along with the the harsh truths of being a black man in America. “I am the man who never got ahead” Hughes writes in Line 36 of his poem. This sentence from his piece symbolizes the systems of injustice established in the United States, with only “desirable” people able to succeed in life.
Langston Hughes writes a detailed analysis of the desires of the average Black man in his poem "Dream Variation". Hughes was related to John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. Born into a family with a strong sense of culture but a desire to be accepted, it is foreseeable that his poem reflects his aspiration of cultural freedom. Hughes uses representative imagery to portray... ... middle of paper ... ...
My goal in this paper is to show the readers how Langston’s poems are connected to the racism he faced every day, and the struggles he had to overcome to achieve the American Dream. In the poem “Harlem” Hughes discusses what happens to one person’s dream of becoming successful. In the poem he questions does it get put on the back burner, does it go away, or does it haunt you like an open wound? In the poem he lets the readers know he believes in America, even though he was an African American, and being discriminated against.
The poem exposes America for its hypocrisy and invites it to live up to the ideals it publicizes to the world. This source will be useful in demonstrating how the issues of inequality included not only race but all classes and all those considered lower on the social hierarchy. I will have a paragraph dedicated to the poem “Let America Be America Again” and it will discuss the hypocrisy of the nation and how Hughes expresses how those who are not in the upper class white community are impacted by the false sense of democracy in