Comparing Hughes 'And Dubois Poem I Sing America'

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Hughes and Whitman use the symbol of acceptance to illustrate the inclusion of an individual's dreams in the American community, however, in DuBois’ prose, he contrasts that an individual's dream is not to be a part of the community, but to change the American community to promote equality. Hughes and Whitman’s poems show how a person’s dream is to be an American. In Whitman’s poem, “I sing America”, the meaning behind being an American citizen comes from the work that that citizen does. Throughout the poem, Whitman embeds stylitic elements including gerundive of the verb to sing to reinforce the American dream. This song, causes men to view work as the key to their dreams. Whitman uses the action of singing the “song” while working, to prove that the only way for acceptance this community is to work hard. Anything opposite will be a disgrace. Hughes’s wrote the poem, “I, Too”, as a response to Whitman’s poem “I sing America”. The poem explains how a black man wants to join the American community as well. Hughes utilizes the word “beautiful” to illustrate that …show more content…

Their dreams are not for acceptance, but for change in the community. During this time, a baby has died, and the father says: By invoking the symbol of the Veil, DuBois illustrates how it represents the gap between those who the accepted and those who are still in “bonds”. If the Veil does not exist anymore, then there will be no need for belonging in the community. Acceptance will be easy to access. To end the prose, DuBois writes: Dubois uses the symbol of the Veil to emphasize that dying is the only way to escape the hardships of living in this type of world. In the quote before, the Veil was lifted in the dream of the person, but here DuBoise is writing that as long as the Veil is still here, acceptance will always exist before equality. So the person’s dream has to end in order to gain this

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