Kyndal Sims Mrs. Evans ENG III 5 February 2024. Let America Be America Again Langston Hughes used powerful words and metaphors that shed light on the oppressive reality faced by many Black Americans and exposed flaws in the structure of America’s foundation. He also wrote in solidarity with other marginalized groups who have faced oppression while living in America. Since its founding, America has been a land portrayed as being full of new opportunities, including a greater chance of a better livelihood. Yet, for a lot of Americans, especially Black and Indigenous Americans, that promise is shadowed by mistrust and false hope. “Let America Be America Again” is a poem that exposes the many contradictions of the American Dream ideology, for …show more content…
I think of American society and what it has portrayed to all its citizens. Except that what it portrays is not always accurate. The American Dream is an ideology that translates differently depending on who you ask. But the central point of the ideology has never been clear, for it has never accounted for all its people. However, the oppressors have benefited from the labor of others to achieve it and live up to it in its entirety. To dissect the concept of the American Dream would be to dismantle the false narrative that all people in the United States are treated with equal rights and to acknowledge all people and their contributions to society. Langston makes a great example of this throughout the poem. From the perspective from which he is writing, the narrator seems helpless. He is angered that this is the reality in which he lives when he knows his efforts are much more deserving than they are given credit for. Which is common among Black people living within this oppressive society. Langston states, “We, the people, must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain— All, all the stretch of these great green states— And make America again!" Hughes. These are the hopes of the
In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints a vivid word picture of a depressed America in the 1930's. To many living in America, the idealism presented as the American Dream had escaped their grasp. In this poetic expression, a speaker is allowed to voice the unsung Americans' concern of how America was intended to be, had become to them, and could aspire to be again.
Often depicted as a melting pot, America is always being put on a pedestal by the rest of the world due to the large amounts of successful immigrants in the United States. Millions of people have packed their bags and moved to America in hopes of achieving their dreams. While some succeed, others fail and are let down by the dim reality that not everyone can achieve their goals. This essay will compare the poems, “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes and “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus to exhibit my perspective on both works. Both poems portray people’s hopes that America will be great, however, due to the different eras and the authors’ backgrounds, the poems have different meanings. Lazarus’ poem was written in the early stages of America, as it describes her cheerful
Alexis de Tocqueville and Langston Hughes both have their own ideas about what America is, was, and should be. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America praises American democracy in which everyone is included. This inclusion allows for democracy that everyone can be a part of and feel like they are contributing. On the contrary, Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” depicts an excluding America that does not treat everyone equivalently. Hughes portrays America as a misrepresentation that does not uphold the ideals that it is so famous for. The two works contrast in many ways but do have some similarities. Although their ideas are different, politics is still a choice. Tocqueville describes politics as a choice that everyone should make as it benefits them all while Hughes describes politics as a choice that some do not have the power to take part in. The differing sentiments between Democracy in America and “Let America Be America Again” stem
The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.
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).
The Harlem Renaissance gave a voice to many gifted artists, writers, and poets. Perhaps, for the first time, people were using the arts on a broad scale to give national and international voice to the long-silenced personal and political struggles of America’s ethnic other, specifically the African-American. Among the many gifted poets of the movement, Langston Hughes is, easily, one of the most recognizable and influential. Although his poems are lyrically beautiful, many of them also admonish a mythologized, free America as little more than a quaint, and for many, wholly unattainable model. Two of Hughes’ best known works, “Let American Be America Again” and “I, Too” speak directly to the grotesque imbalance of freedoms and rights in the U.S.. Using a number of literary devices, Hughes creates poems that are as poetically striking as they are politically and socially defiant. Through precise word choice, metaphor, and physical structure, Hughes creates multi-dimensional speakers who address two separate and unequal audiences. In these anthem-like poems, the speakers expound on their overwhelming desire for equality, unity, and freedom by addressing the short-comings of a capitalist system that makes commodities out of oppressed individuals and populations. Hughes’s poems focus on the American dream, a fantasy that is off-limits to anyone on the wrong side of the color line or income gap; however, despite their scathing criticisms, a patriotic hopefulness resides at the core of these two poems.
Written in response to Walt Whitman's “I Hear America Singing,” a poem that suggests that the United States offers freedom and equality to all citizens, Hughes implies that freedom and equality are not extended towards all citizens. As a result, the the African American speaker “sing[s] America” (1), a patriotic voice declaring for change. The optimistic tone is further shown through the final line, “I, too, am America” (18). By exchanging “sing” for “am,” the assertion that African Americans are—and will be accepted and treated as—Americans and equals is
Many may agree with the message Langston Hughes was conveying in his poem entitled Let America Be America Again, wishing things didn't happen the way it did that caused America to look corruptive. I felt as though throughout his poem based on the title he states the hardships that Americans had to face in the past and even how America is glorified as "land of the free" but with many struggles as well the terrible things that have occured in America it will never be America again and Hughes knows that because there is no such thing as "America being America again" he only wishes it was that way.
Poems are expression of the human soul, and even though, is not everyone’s cup of tea when the individual finds that special poem it moves their soul one with the poet. There are many poets in the world, but the one that grab my attention the most was no other than Langston Hughes. It would be impossible for me to cover all the poems he wrote, but the one that grab my attention the most is called “Let America Be America Again.” It first appeared in “1938 pamphlet by Hughes entitled A New Song. Which was published by a socialist organization named the International Worker Order” (MLM) and later change back to its original name. I have never felt such an energy coming out of a poem like this one which is the reason that I instantly felt in love with it.
Let America Be America Again, written by Langston Hughes, was written to make a satirical statement about the American Dream. He uses personification, alliteration, and imagery to bring home his point that the “dream the dreamers dreamed” (Hughes ???) not only has never existed but will never truly exist for the common man. According to the speaker, assumed to be Hughes but in reality could be anyone who is hopeless and unhappy in this land where “equality is in the air we breathe” (???), that as long as there are “kings” and “tyrants” (???), the American Dream is only an unobtainable goal but is something that must be kept alive.
The poem “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes is dedicated to the America that never was. Hughes narrates the poem, taking on multiple identities to represent a small portion of the groups that America has lied to. Hughes manages to recreate a broken American Dream, sold to the minority of rich white men only, which in turn becomes fool’s gold for the actual minorities of America. However, Hughes neglects to reflect the marginalized women of America and projects a falsified dream upon Native Americans, while still providing commentary on the hypocrisy of “freedom” in America. This is seen by the lack of female voices, a common dream extended to the Red Man, and the concept of equality.
Langston Hughes was an activist for the African-American community and made significant artistic contributions to the Harlem Renaissance throughout his career. In one of his most famous poems, “Harlem [Dream Deferred]”, he addresses the limitations and oppression of African Americans after the Great Depression. Many African Americans dreamed of equality, but often times that dream became neglected and pushed aside. In his poem, Hughes responds to a question about a deferred dream with a series of vivid similes, inquiring what happens to a constantly ignored dream.
In 1920, Langston Hughes became the voice of black America. He was the inspirational voice of the African-Americans, the hope and motivation of many. Langston wrote about freedom of creative expression, about ordinary people leading ordinary lives, politics, America, dreams, equality and inequality. No surprise was created when his poem: “I, Too, Sing America” was about a black man wish and hopes to live a life with equality. This poem conveys the fact that despite the differences of color, all people living in America are Americans and have the right to be treated equally. Langston’s poem “I, Too, Sing America” illustrates the hope of equality, ambition and freedom of an oppressed person.
Langston Hughes’s poem “I Dream A World” grants a voice to any person, who has been exposed to a life in racial prejudice and inequality, including the writer. That voice belongs to any black person, who has lived the poorer than poor life. This life was full of consistent violation of basic human rights, full of frustration, and overflowing with hopelessness. Upon closer examination, the situation of the poem uncovers the painstakingly raw yearning for humanity and equality.
In Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes pliably shares his opinions on the American dream. Hughes composed this poem in the year 1935 and its title was later used as the slogan by John Kerry while running for a presidential seat in 2004.In the entire poem, Hughes divergences his expectations of America with the truth of life for those individuals outside religious and social groups. He reminds the dreams of the many people who came to America in order to fulfill them yet they have not been able to do so because America is not the land they thought it was. The poem begins with the poet wishing for America to be what it was once was. The use of the phrase ‘again’ in line one shows that the country has gone done to a lower position than