Whitman and Hughes Comparison Essay
The two poems we have studied and analyzed, Walt Whitman’s “I hear America Singing” and Langston Hughes’ “Let America be America Again”, each have very different central meanings. Both poems show the authors’ outlooks on America, Whitman’s being positive, and Hughes’ being negative. The tone and diction that each of these very successful authors choose to use in their writing come together to create the central message and the mood of the poems, and each author creates very different moods for the reader, with dissimilar central ideas. Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” shows great contrast from Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” for many reasons. For example, direct evidence …show more content…
He begins the poem with writing about what America should be, a place of freedom and equality. He then states that the “great” America he envisioned never was the place that he was living in, writing: “America never was America to me” (line 10), creating a disappointing mood for the reader. Later in the text, Hughes depicts the country as a place filled with inequality and false “patriotic wreath.” Throughout the text, Hughes writes that people are not free in America, and states that: “There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this “homeland of the free”, creating a mocking and sarcastic tone towards the false promises in America. Also, in contrast, while Whitman writes that the people of America were singing strongly, Hughes writes that the people of America were weakly “mumbling in the dark” instead of speaking against the inequality they were facing. Hughes continues to compare the America that he and others who came to the country looking for a place where they thought they would have freedom, envisioned in their dreams, and the actual reality of America. In addition, Hughes continues to write that America was never the “homeland of the free”, stating that the American dream is not present for many groups of people. For example, Hughes’ states that for poor Whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants, America is not a place of redemption, and instead is a place with “the same old stupid plan, of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak,” meaning that people who were considered “mightier” would try to harm the groups of people who were considered weaker. The author continues to refer to the American dream as “dead”, while Whitman considered it alive and strong. Hughes then stated that those who do not have freedom (the poor, the Native
The two poems we have studied and analyzed, Walt Whitman’s “I hear America Singing” and Langston Hughes’ “Let America be America Again”, each have very different central meanings. Both poems show the authors’ outlooks on America, Whitman’s being positive, and Hughes’ being negative. The tone and diction that each of these very successful authors choose to use in their writing come together to create the central message and the mood of the poems, and each author creates very different moods for the reader, with dissimilar central ideas. Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” shows great contrast from Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” for many reasons. For example, direct evidence …show more content…
He begins the poem with writing about what America should be, a place of freedom and equality. He then states that the “great” America he envisioned never was the place that he was living in, writing: “America never was America to me” (line 10), creating a disappointing mood for the reader. Later in the text, Hughes depicts the country as a place filled with inequality and false “patriotic wreath.” Throughout the text, Hughes writes that people are not free in America, and states that: “There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this “homeland of the free”, creating a mocking and sarcastic tone towards the false promises in America. Also, in contrast, while Whitman writes that the people of America were singing strongly, Hughes writes that the people of America were weakly “mumbling in the dark” instead of speaking against the inequality they were facing. Hughes continues to compare the America that he and others who came to the country looking for a place where they thought they would have freedom, envisioned in their dreams, and the actual reality of America. In addition, Hughes continues to write that America was never the “homeland of the free”, stating that the American dream is not present for many groups of people. For example, Hughes’ states that for poor Whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants, America is not a place of redemption, and instead is a place with “the same old stupid plan, of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak,” meaning that people who were considered “mightier” would try to harm the groups of people who were considered weaker. The author continues to refer to the American dream as “dead”, while Whitman considered it alive and strong. Hughes then stated that those who do not have freedom (the poor, the Native