I Never Was America To Me Analysis

Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” is a poem that could be endlessly applied to where America stands today. This poem illustrates the morals, ideas, and visions set forth by those who found this country and how America has begun straying from those principles. The poem expresses that America is made up of all walks of people and that no man should be crushed by those above him, but rather be given the same opportunity as those above him. Hughes desire to make America great again can be shared in some way or another by most Americans making this poem everlasting. “Let America Be America Again” has the personalization, the language, the connection shared by every American, and the rhyme to allow readers of every race, gender, or religious belief to be brought together as not only people but as Americans.

Additionally, it was primarily for the free blacks in the United States. This address, and many like it in this time, is filled with many juxtapositions, which contrast each other. For example, the speaker calls them country men which generally has a positive connation, and evokes feelings of pride and belongings. However, then in the next sentence the speaker says that they do not belong in America because they are not treated like citizens. However, this is important because this is how America was for these black men who were free. They were free but they still had no political rights. They were free while their brethren were held in captivity. It is important to note that these this individual highlights the hypocrisy, that in the 21st century we can also see. The hypocrisy of the founders who used such sophisticated and liberating language to justify their freeness but does not include the African American men and women of this time period. It is interesting to see that men of this time period shared some of the same ideas as the 21st century about this time

To all my fellow classmates, my name is Elleni and I will be discussing Langston Hughes’s “Let America Be America Again” which uses context and devices to serve as a voice for all the under-represented racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups in America who lived through events in the 1920s such as the Harlem Renaissance, which helps us to actually empathise with the experiences of this marginalized group. The widely held conviction that everyone in America has an equal chance to follow their goals and make a good livelihood is known as the "American Dream. " The idea that freedom is a fundamental aspect of American life for every person makes up the ideal of the dream. In his poem, Hughes uses alliteration in “Let America be the dream the

“America” expresses the speaker 's feelings towards America. The poem 's theme in a broad sense is describing the conflicting feelings of the speaker towards America. Though America is constantly fighting the speaker, he expresses that “I love this cultured hell that tests my youth” (McKay, 928)! This mixture of love, bitterness and hate towards America that is expressed in this line continues to be expressed throughout the poem. According to James Keller the speaker “expresses an admiration that is requited with contempt” (Keller). Though the speaker admits that he

Mr. Hughes has become quite the legend from multiple works of art that he has created. This particular poem, he shares a very descriptive version of America and the greatness of it. Looking at this poem in detail, he writes:

The poem “Let America Be America Again” was a poem published in 1994 by poet, novelist, fiction writer, and playwright, Langston Hughes. Hughes wrote this poem because he feels that America does not live up to the expectations it is portrayed to be. The tone of this poem swings from angry and resentful to a little hope at the end. The poem isn’t just speaking on behalf of one group of people but all Americans. The poem says that there are many people who’ve come to America with hopes and dreams but they are getting let down. Also he emphasizes how the economic disparity between the rich and poor is getting worse because of the government. Basically the rich people are getting richer, while the poor people are getting poorer. The poem is really

Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again” portrays a man describing the inequality within America and that he longs for the country to be as it used to be in the past. The speaker, Hughes, tells his story in first point person of view as he continues to use “I” throughout the poem. The audience appears to be America itself because Hughes desires for “equality” between everybody (14). The poet writes his work in stanza form, however, he includes three quatrains in the beginning of the poem. The quatrains contain a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEF.

America did not in any way treat colored people the way they deserve to be treated. He also explains what he believes is the ¨common enemy. ¨We have a common enemy¨ He says, ¨The white man¨ Here he explains his feels for the opposite race.

The poem “Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes, brings up two sides to the discussion about what America means to people. It discusses the fact that to some people, America is an amazing land, where people are free from oppression and have rights. The poem, however, does not neglect the fact that there are people who have never experienced those freedoms and rights, nor does it neglect the fact that the people who have not experienced those rights also live in America. The issue about people living in America but never experiencing rights that are thought to be American was very prominent at the time that Hughes wrote the poem. Now the discussion is not “what it means to live in America” but “what it means to love America.” The issue contemplates whether someone can love America and still notice its flaws; or, if in order to love America one must neglect its ugly truths and only focus on the great accomplishments. One of the main causes for this discussion derive from the fact that right-winged people claim that Obama does not love America. However, they fail to see that in order to love something you must also notice its flaws and fix them.

Another major issue in society during the Harlem Renaissance era that Langston Hughes (among the other poets) addressed was the issue of the lack of opportunity provided to those of color and to those who were not privileged in the class system. A second infamous poem by Hughes addresses such an issue perfectly. His poem titled “Let America Be America Again” is once again going to challenge and criticize society and its values by attacking the concept of the American Dream, in which he will claim that the American Dream is out of reach for those who are not white and those are not privileged. The stanza that represents Hughes’s message perfectly is that of “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—let it be that great strong land of love… Where

America by Claude Mckay is a poem and also a sonnet. Most sonnets in the time of Williams Shakespeare were always about a person feelings towards something and that’s exactly what he did. He wrote about the feelings he has towards America. According to a biography I read about Claude Mckay, he was a Jamaican who immigrated to the United States. He was a poet and was inspired to write several poems in New York. It started off stating, “Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth.” He mentions how America is a “Her,” in other words, comparing America to a woman like a motherly figure. Those first two stances meant disgust towards America and also expresses his dependence on the country as well. Throughout

The author allows us to infer that he is among those from the African-American heritage by the specific language used to describe the various types of people. The author is careful to use neutral wording; however, when referring to the Negro, the use of oppressive terminology suggests that the listener responding is especially sympathetic to the plight of the blacks. It is phrases such as, "I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars" (20) and "torn from Black Africa's strand I came" (49), which enable us to perceive the speaker's special affinity with the African people. By using a more specific designation when referring to the Negro, it is natural to assume that the speaker is also a Negro. 'The speaker subtly interjects the continuing oppression of the African American and establishes a hierarchy

This essay will explicate five of Hughes poems that scrutinize the racial or social injustices for African Americans of his time and how they viewed the ‘American Dream’. These five poems are “Harlem”, “Let America be America Again”, “I, Too”,

Hughes’s descriptive writing prompts the reader to visualize strong images of oppression in America. The speaker provides an image of an extremely suppressed group of people in the statement: “I am the red man driven from the land” (Hughes 21). This simple phrase creates a picture of the Native Americans being driven from their lands and forced to live on undesirable land, and, as a result, this invites the reader to acknowledge their severe oppression. Similarly, the speaker mentions the people who were “torn from Black Africa’s strand” (Hughes 50). This generates an image of boats packed with a depressing amount of broken people, waiting to be sold into slavery. These visual examples portray the severity of the situation that many Americans found themselves in. These

McKay uses his poem “America” as an avenue to express his indifference towards facing the challenges due to his race and of the dark future for his race. He develops these concerns in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet with three quatrains and a final heroic couplet to conclude the poem. Diction utilized by McKay within the first quatrain such as with “feeds” and “cultured” gives America a nurturing or even motherly essence. This exemplifies his love for America. However, McKay juxtaposes this affection by the various harsh descriptions containing cacophonous consonant sounds such as “bread of bitterness” or “sinks into my throat.” He utilizes similes within the next quatrain to further demonstrate this juxtaposition. The comparison of how America’s “vigor flows like tides into [his] blood” and how “her bigness sweeps [his] being like a