Summary Of Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again

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.

As time has passed humanity still tends to separate each other based on our racial being rather than seeing each other as one human race. Langston Hughes’s, “A New Song,” published in 1938 introduces the idea of a new vision of social relations in American society. Hughes’s original version of this poem written in 1933, does not encompass his growing anger on this subject that is dwelled upon in his published version. However, with Hughes’s powerful tone and word choice throughout his 1938 rendition, his reader is able to understand his urge to transform America into an interracial culture. (Central Idea) His poem voices the importance of transforming society into a multiethnic unity and working-class established through cultural ties between whites and blacks. (Thesis) Hughes voices this crucial need to change through his emphasis on African American’s past struggles as opposed to the new dream, his militant tone, and through expressing the role that the establishment of cultural ties plays in society.

The United States of America is thought to be the “land of the free and the home of the brave” yet nothing here is given. There are no easy ways to be an American. Everyone in our country either had to fight to get here, and stay here or had to fight for something they wanted or believed in.Yes, America does have more opportunities and rights than other countries but they aren’t accessible to everybody. Being an American is having determination, independence and courage to fight for something you want and/or need.

America is arguably the most robust country and yet it also one of many countries where we are not all free. In the poem "Let America Be America Again" Langston Hughes shows his opinion of America and declared that America has never been great and never will be if there is varied equality among the ethnics and their social classes. Learned Hand announced “That spirit of an American which has never been, and may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americas create it”, her he feels that America is only as good as the common people in it, therefore, Americas future lies in our hands and the way we use it. Both Langston Hughes and Learned Hand presumed that America has never been great yet, Hand is unsure on whether America has the potential to change their ways but, Langston Hughes let out his emotions exclaiming” America never was America to me, and yet I swear this oath America will be! These two Americans have shown how they feel and believe that we can only be a magnificent country if we believe

Langston Hughes, “I too, Sing America” chronicles an African-American male’s struggle with patriotism in an age of inequality and segregation in the United States. The poem cleverly uses metaphors to represent racial segregation faced by African-Americans during the early twentieth century. The speaker presents a battle cry for equality and acceptance, and his words are a plea and a declaration for nationalism and patriotism. Although, the poem does not directly imply racism, the speaker’s language suggests that he equates the kitchen to racial discrimination by the general American society. His word usage signals his wish to participate in a land that he proudly claims as his own despite his personal experiences of rejection. Despite

During the 20th century, the people of America had to adjust to new desires, lifestyles, and the new materialistic economy. After entering World War I, the aftermath included false positives that in the end, turned out to be complete negatives. Citizens of America possessed materialistic beliefs that led to disappointments. African Americans were confronted by atrocious social conditions. The frustrations faced by many Americans living in the 1920s, included the desires for materialistic possessions in hopes of contentment, the aspirations for freedom and the dignified need for racial equality, are all elucidated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “Winter Dreams”, and both poems, “Democracy” by Langston Hughes and “The White House” by Claude Mckay.

One such author, poet Langston Hughes, wrote “Let America Be America Again.” Hughes is known for his portrayal of the African American life in America during the early to mid 1900’s. Hughes was born in 1902 in Missouri where his parents divorced when he was a young child. He was raised by his grandmother until his teenage years before he moved to live with his mother and her new husband. He was a college graduate from Lincoln University and was an award winning novelist. Another author, Edward McClelland, we don’t learn as much about. We know he grew up in an auto making town in the 1970s, a time during which middle-class America was strong and prosperous. McClelland tells us his ideology through personal experience, examples, and the use of some statistics. With our last author, meet D. Watkins, a college professor who has a master’s degree in education from John Hopkins University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Baltimore. (3) We

Life, liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, and so many other words have been used to describe the United States of America. Every American child grows up with the words “the land of the free” pounded into their heads, and every morning schools declare America as a place of “liberty and justice for all.” Such inflated rhetoric presents America with large shoes to fill. Thus, America’s shortcomings should not be surprising. Langston Hughes and Upton Sinclair were two 20th Century writers, who saw past this idealistic talk and saw the jungle that the United States really was. Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Let America be America Again”, “Let America be America again. –Let it be the dream it used to be. –Let it be the pioneer on the plain –Seeking a home where himself is free. –(America was never America to me) (1).” He highlights not only the experience of African Americans during the 1930s, but identifies with other oppressed groups including immigrants writing, “I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—And finding only the same old stupid plan –Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.” Likewise, Upton Sinclair conveyed his repulsion to immigrant oppression during the Industrial Revolution in his book The Jungle, emphasizing the gullibility behind trusting the grandiloquence of the American dream.

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.

     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.

In light of the sea of differences between Hughes' poem "Let America Be America Again" and Trump's "Make America Great Again " speech, the subtle similarities are even more remarkable as they speak with hope to outrageous behaviors, dominating rulers and the need for this country to align with its founding ideals. Langston Hughes writes from the view point of a thirty something "radicalized" minority who was raised by relatives and people close to his parents, while living in multiple homes and communities. (Roberts & Zweig, 2015, pp.

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.

“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

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.