Langston Hughes: The Meaning Of Liberty

The Meaning of Liberty “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 today” (Hughes). Langston Hughes’ “let America be America Again” and Learned Hand’s “I am an American Day Address” both adress the elusive topic of liberty in America, but each author examines the complexity of freedom in a different way. There are many similarities and differences between these two pieces of text. The similarities between these two papers are gonna focus on how both of the authors involves themselves, speaks of a minority, and speaks of freedom. The differences between these two are that one speaks of only his perspective, there’s difference …show more content…
For example in Learned Hand’s writing he makes a point in his second paragraph that the definition of liberty depends on the person. In his paper he states “What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; i can only tell you my own faith” (Hand). In other words he doesn’t assuming that everybody's view of liberty is the same because people have varying opinions. This is something that isn’t present in Langston Hughes’s paper. Langston Hughes just goes on with only really speaking about what he thinks are the issues and what freedoms we should have. Another example of a difference is the target for whom the paper is written. In Langston Hughes’s paper it's already been stated by the line “I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the negro, servant to you all” (Langston). That it is focused more on slaves and the freedom wanted for them. He doesn’t really mention the freedom of any other type of minority. While Langston Hughes talks mainly about slaves Learned Hand is talking about immigrants. It has also already been discovered that he is speaking of immigrants by the line “Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption” (Hand) and “For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land” (hand). He speaks about liberty …show more content…
however they go about it in different ways. In summation there are quite a bit of similarities in the paper like how both of the authors involves themselves, speaks of a minority, and speaks of freedom. There are also many differences such as that one author speaks of only his perspective on the matter, the minorities written about are different, and the restraints of what the author wishes for differ. You know what the authors think of liberty but its know that liberty is different for everyone, so what is liberty to