Thursday, February 9, 2012

Let America be America Again - Langston Hughes

I do not like this poem. It is way too long. But this isn't the point of the post.

I feel as if Mr. Hughes is describing America as a land devoid of the "American Dream." People who aspire for the American Dream almost never obtain it, and those who do obtain or have it, corrupt it by removing everything about the Dream besides money.
I also feel like Hughes makes a really big point about equality. Besides the one obvious reference to equality he has in the 15th line, he says things like "Where never kings... by one above." and "I am the poor white... crush the weak." These lines point to how America is not much different from monarchies. The poor stay the poor, despite promises of riches and new life. Man still acts as though one is superior to another, as a king does to his subjects.
Another theme of the poem would be hopeless jobs (best title I can think of). From Hughes' writing, I feel as if though he is complaining about the useless, super-grind jobs that people take to live a futile climb to reach their "American Dream." The fact that people are doing useless jobs is ubiquitous (VOCAB WORD) across the U.S.A.
All in all, Mr. Hughes is saying that he wishes America would be the America that everyone dreams of, and not the one that he lives in.

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