Let America Be America Again: 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.

The American Dream can be defined as an ideal that every American citizen has equal opportunity in achieving success and prosperity. In Martin Luther king Junior’s I Have a Dream speech, Sherman Alexie’s “Hymn”, and Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America be America Again”, all authors talk about how America does not provide the dream that it promised. The I Have a Dream speech was presented in 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr. He was an African American who was a civil rights activist and wrote the speech in hopes to stop discrimination. “Hymn”, by Sherman Alexie, is a poem about how many events provoked protests and divided the country. He was a writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. Let “America be America Again” was written by Langston Hughes in 1936. Hughes was an American writer and social activist.

It is now a competition of millions of selfish, greedy, and covetious people, searching for riches in America. Equally important, is a clear discrimination of people based on race, religion, class, and gender that is prominent in American society. These inequalities undermine the idea of an impartial ambition permitted to all. Renowned poet, Langston Hughes, discusses this in his poem "Let America Be America Again" when he says, "For all the dreams we’ve dreamed And all the songs we’ve sung And all the hopes we’ve held And all the flags we’ve hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay— Except the dream that’s almost dead (pg 44, line 55) He is arguing that no matter how hard they seem to try, people who are different, cannot get ahead. This poem was written in 1935, if the dream was gone then, it is most certainly not attainable today. Hughes writes "America never was America to me" throughout the poem; it really emphasizes the fact that equality (an essential part of the American Dream) is no longer something made available to various groups of people. In "the land of the free" white males have the upper-hand, cutting off of the dream from everyone else. In a different light, many argue that the American Dream is not dead, and is in fact thriving more now than ever. For example, many take this argument straight from the Declaration of Independence, which laid the foundation of the

Abstract 1: Westover, Jeff. "Langston Hughes's counterpublic discourse." University of Georgia. Langston Hughes Society, Oct. 2010. Web. 28 May 2017.

The American Dream is defined as the “idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative” (Adams). This idea has been relevant to Americans ever since the creation of the United States of America. Everyone has their own interpretation of it and embody it in their own way. Over time, the American Dream has been altered and changed in regards to how our society has evolved. During the 1920s, the American Dream became corrupt and America’s main focus was on materialism and wealth. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, he depicts the corruption of the American Dream based on greed and false prosperity which strayed from the true version of it which valued hard-work, and initiative.

The American Dream is fundamentally the idea that anyone in America can accomplish through hard work and can achieve success and happiness. It has been expanded on through the years and now incorporates ideas of attaining freedom, wealth and power. In the 1920s when 'The Great Gatsby' was written the Jazz Age was taking hold and the American Dream became more about material possessions being used to show a person's wealth and status and to indicate that they have been successful in life. The materialism of this period of time in America corrupted the American Dream by the intense focus on gaining wealth and power and

It was posted in the New York Times. According to the article, the American Dream has become more materialistic since the 1930’s. “Instead, in the 1930s, it meant freedom, mutual respect and equality of opportunity” (Shiller). The American Dream being about freedom and equality continued until the 1970’s and 1980’s. Martin Luther King Jr. talks about the American Dream in his I Have A Dream speech in 1963, the article points out. In fact, the term “American Dream” could be tokened from the speech given by Mister King. The article talks about the progression of the Dream as decades go

In “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes addresses the reality of inequality and discriminative behaviors of the American people in the pre-Civil War era. Many Americans during this time felt the American Dream was just an illusion because they can never get the opportunity to make it their reality. In this poem, Hughes voices these silent Americans’ concern of how the founding principles of America are not being fulfilled unless a person is wealthy or powerful. He shows the contrast between what America claims to be and what the minority have experienced. Hughes use of repetition, “America [It] never was America to me” (lines 5, 10, 77), emphasizes how America failed him and other

The American Dream is a theory that is controversial and has many different prospects for each individual. America is the land of the free. It comes with many struggles that are faced by the people who choose to settle here. From the very beginning, the settlers who came to escape from Great Britain and start a new life started the standard life in America. The treatment of African Americans was one example of how the American Dream can be taken away from a group of people, but it also shows how much the American Dream is wanted by that same group of people. “The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson, and the “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr., speech are just small beginnings to something as great as what America is today.

The American Dream has changed over time because people were trying to live unrealistic lives. They were trying to live their life based on the media and what they saw on television. People weren’t trying to live by there needs and morals, they were trying to live by wanting what was in style and by buying the latest styles.

   Webster's dictionary describes the American dream as the widespread aspiration of Americans to live better than their parents did.  F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby is a literary masterpiece that takes a fascinating look at the nature of the American dream that made its fiery inception during the American War of Independence 1776-83 when it became the central theme of the American Declaration of Independence.   In short, it stated, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (Dream 1).  Through the voice of the

America has changed throughout the years and so has the meaning of the American dream, the American dream in not what it used to be. Michelle Obama once stated that ex-president Barack Obama had lived the American dream, Michelle said ‘Barack knows the American dream because he's lived it and he wants everyone in this country to have the same opportunity, no matter who we are, or were where from, or what we look like, or who we love’. The land of opportunities and hope no longer let’s people accomplish their dreams, but it only lets its own people to do so.

The views expressed by King and Hughes are similar because they both want America to be a free and civilized country. Both speakers have experience in the times of discrimination and are helping motivate the people, but in their own way. Langston Hughes wrote a poem called “Let America Be America Again,” his poem was to help motivate the oppressed people and call them to action, to rally together and do something about their issues rather than be a bystander. Martin L. King’s “American Dream” speech is very similar, given that he also wanted to do something about inequality and hoped for a better future. “We the people must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers…” This quote from the poem shows how the segregated people have a

During this era the American dream was the notion that a man could create a successful life for himself and his family. As discussed earlier, America effectively isolated women and African Americans, therefore they had no way to make a living to support themselves. A prime example of this would be in the poem I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman. Whitman describes the sound of America as one of hard work produced by workers. He writes, “the carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam ” (Whitman 3). It illustrates the hard work that Americans put into their careers, and their willingness to support the nation's economy. No African Americans appear in the poem, and Whitman describes women working in the house. Once again, the exclusivity of the nation only allows white males to have a chance of achieving a pleasant, stable life. At this time, a majority of African Americans remained enslaved across the Nation, which prohibited them from being able to build any sort of life for themselves. Therefore the American Dream is not even an option for almost a quarter of the population. How could someone prohibited from leaving a plantation be able to support themselves and live an acceptable life? For almost all African Americans the idea was unthinkable until the later half of the 1860’s when the government abolished slavery. When it comes to women, however, one could say that living the American dream was possible. Women in America worked in the home cleaning, cooking

While the meaning of the American Dream has evolved multiple times between 1865 and 1980, almost every person agreed on as to what the American Dream meant in their respective time periods. The definition of the American Dream in some form has always consisted of freedom, and the ability to advance economically. Also, in more recent times things such as owning a suburban home, moving into the middle-class, being able to spend on consumer goods, and having a perfect family became a part of the American Dream. However, throughout American history there has always been groups who have not had equal access to the American Dream. External factors such as legislation, racism, sexism, and the political environment, resulted in former slaves, blacks, poor Americans, women, and immigrants not having fair access to aspects of the American Dream such as complete freedom, equal opportunity, the ability to advance economically, and the ability to enjoy the luxuries of an affluent society. Between 1865 and 1900 former slaves did not have equal access to aspects of freedom such as, “Self-ownership, family stability, religious liberty, political participation, and economic autonomy.” Later on, between 1900 and 1939 lower-class Americans, women, and immigrants did not have equal opportunity to advance economically. Later on, the American economy shifted after the second World War, and Americans were moving into the middle-class, however blacks, and immigrants did not have equal access to the