Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

The Harlem Renaissance was “variously known as the New Negro movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance, the movement emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918, blossomed in the mid- to late 1920s, and then withered in the mid-1930s. The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time mainstream publishers, critics took African American literature seriously, and that African American literature and arts attracted significant attention from the nation as a whole (1).”

Thesis statement: Hughes wrote this when Jim Crow laws were still imposing an bitter segregated society in the South. There were still lynchings of innocent African Americans, there was no Civil Rights Movement, there was no Civil Rights legislation yet, and Blacks couldn't eat at lunch counters in the South. Harlem, however, was not at all like the South in terms of blatant, legal segregation. However, racism was very much in place in many places in America. Blacks were second class citizens, their children attended schools that were ill-equipped, and the dreams of Black citizens were not being realized in this period.

Harlem Renaissance was undoubtedly a cultural and social-political movement for the African American race. The Renaissance was many things to people, but it is best described as a cultural movement in which the high level of black artistic cultural production, demanded and received recognition. Many African American writers, musicians, poets, and leaders were able to express their creativity in many ways in response to their social condition. Until the Harlem Renaissance, poetry and literature were dominated by the white people and were all about the white culture. One writer in particular, Langston Hughes, broke through those barriers that very few African-American artists had done before this

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

The Harlem Renaissance is an important time in American literature. There were writers at this time like Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote many poems such as the “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “The Weary Blues.”

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.

The promise of America is that anyone, from anywhere, can live a free and prosperous life in the United States. As President FDR once said "We are all bound together by a hope of a common future rather than by reverence for a common past". He and many others believed in the American Dream, that has drawn hopeful masses of people to this country in search of "a better life". Although some believe that the American promise is still achievable, America no longer provides access to this dream. It has evolved to be a pursuit of money not liberation, and the discrimination of groups of people has masked the fundamental ideals that the dream is based upon. The American Dream is rooted in equality and success, and has become about riches. Everyone

The speaker opens the poem by questioning, "What happens to a dream deferred?" (1). This single line instantly gives the reader an idea of what the poem is about. The first question produces curiosity in the reader--makes the reader want to find the answer to the question.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where creativity flourished throughout the African American community. At the time many African Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Harlem Renaissance acted as artistic and cultural outlet for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as “The New Negro Movement” was an unexpected outburst of creative activity among African Americans In the poems Harlem by Langston Hughes, America by Claude McKay, and Incident by Countee Cullen all use frustration and hope as reoccurring themes to help empower the African-American population and realize the injustices they face day to day. The Harlem Renaissance was a period marked by great change and forever altered the

His poem, “Let America Be America Again”, questioned the American promise by structuring the poem so it can be read from the perspectives of different types of people in America, especially those persecuted, and it enlightened people on how a large population of immigrants and others did not have the life everyone guaranteed in America. He also strengthened this idea by repeatedly stating “America was never America to me” (127). This statement implies that the American promise was never real and most immigrants never experienced any of the positive freedoms of living in

" 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.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

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

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.