Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

America is known to be the country of liberty. The definition of Liberty is simply the reason America was created; it is a place where everyone is treated equal with hopes of achieving their American dream. As a result, many people dream of coming to live in the wonderful country known for its freedom. However, America does not seem to hold that value as it used to. In the poem “Let America Be America Again”, the poet Langston Hughes expresses his disappointment with the country. The poem was written in 1935 where discrimination and inequality still exist. In the poem “Let America Be America Again”, the poet Langston Hughes uses repetition and alliteration in order to show desirement for a better country and disappointment of the country America came to be, and also imagery in order to exemplify the struggles of those who came to live in country they thought was dream.

In the first couple of lines in Hughes’s poem he speaks upon past African American struggles and encourages them to move forward from them with the use of his refrain lines, ‘that day is past,’ and ‘bitter was the day.’ He makes various references “responding to the early days of depression, moreover…having a range of tone, language, and insight…” (Shulman 295), to speak upon slavery and inequality. For example, he awakens the memories of slaves being lynched, whipped, and

In Langston Hughes poem “Let America be America Again” he talks about how America should return to the way that it was perceived to be in the dreams before America was truly America. Throughout the poem he uses various methods to evoke the patriotic images and dreams that he feels America should and will eventually be. Hughes states that America is supposed to be a place of equality for everyone including both white and colored people. During this period in time though there was not equality for everyone. Hughes talks about an America where both whites and colored people will have equality in all aspects socially, politically, and economically. What Hughes is saying is that both whites and colored

     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.

Written in the first half of the 20th century, “Let America Be America” is a poem that documents and responds to the oppressed state of the United States, in both the past and present. The poem is a plea for a return to the original principles of freedom that our country has seemingly forgotten. Additionally, the speaker sees America as the broken home to oppressed people who have lost sight of the ultimate goal of freedom and happiness. Although America is often perceived as the “land of the free,” Langston Hughes’s poem contradicts this ideology by not only painting a vivid picture of oppression in America but also by providing a desperate hope for the future.

Despite equality existing in a number of forms, perhaps, Hughes’ vision refers to racial equality, it can be suggested that Hughes’ outlook onto the future is of an egalitarian manner - to the extent in which ‘Equality’ will be ‘in the air we breathe’. Considering the collection of poems does the trope of equality seem to recur, more so the on-going motifs that run throughout all the poems does it help to formulate a general incentive that the removal of discrimination or alienating a race is what ‘Let America Be America Again’ amongst the other poems attempts to convey. In this essay, I’ll comment on how the tropes in ‘Let America Be America Again’ alongside the collection of poems does it posit as a synecdoche of equality, of which Hughes wants not just racial equality but as well as fulfilling the true American dream. Although it can be implied

" Let America be America Again" In “Let America be America”, by Langston Hughes, the author expresses his feeling about racism in the 1920s. His intentions are to show the reader that racism and inequality are still prevalent and that even though word “free” does not apply to him now, he believes that America will be free to him in the future. For example, when Hughes states, “America was never America to me”, he is implying that freedom does not apply to him because he is African American. While it is true that slavery was outlawed, Hughes is still being treated as inferior to whites simply because of his skin color.

A Higher Allegiance To what do we owe our allegiance: our conscience, the law, or something else? For what seems like a simple question, there seems to be a lot of stances taken. Some people may argue that individual freedom is far more important than the society we are apart of, while others take solace in society’s control over them instead of following their own conscience. However, most people agree with a combination of sorts, where our conscience can determine several of our decisions along with the law.

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.

In the fight for equality, people of color often feel isolated and separated from those whose privilege reinforces their oppression. However, there are and always have been white people who see the inequalities that are practiced in society and speak out against them in hopes of reaching equality for all. Langston Hughes used his voice in poetry to express his experience as a black man in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement, and his is a household name. There is no doubt that his words have power. The reader expects to feel his experience and gain empathy and understanding through his poetry. In his poem, “Let America Be America Again,” Hughes presents his experience of American life in a powerful contrast to the experience

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

In “ Make America America Again” Hughes describes the false promises made to many by the Constitution. Freedom and equality were among the promises that Hughes believed were not given to all people. Consequently because of this false narrative of the American Dream Hughes poem creates a negative America. Negative America is seen as unfair to the working middle class which is evident when Hughes writes, “Who made America, whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain…”. When Hughes asks whos sweat and blood and whose pain and faith, he is talking about the effort and hard work down by the working class.

n the Poem, “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes, his desire for America to become the fair, just, and free country that it was meant to be, is exposed within the context of the mid 1900s and the Civil Rights Movement, the movement when African Americans, tired of the unfair treatment protested to receive equal treatment. In his poem, Langston Hughes states “Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.” Langston Hughes was expressing his doubts about America and what she stands for. America was supposed to stand for freedom and equality but during the mid 1900s African Americans were not only treated like dirt but had no rights.

I think the poem Let America be America Again but Langston Hughes is about who he want America to be what it never was, a place of equality and opportunity. He writes about how though it may be for the privileged, but not for the rest of America. He starts with lines such as “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed- Let it be that great strong land of love”, only to invalidate it with a line like “(It was never America to me)”.

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.