• Home Page
  • Langston Hughes Let It Be America Again Essay

Langston Hughes Let It Be America Again Essay

Improved Essays
Show More
Blacks. Whites. Racism. Sadly, during the Harlem time, people were being segregated based on the color of their skin. Blacks were treated poorly by the white people during this time and nobody knew how to put a stop to it. Langston Hughes was one of many blacks who suffered during this time. However, to get him through this tough time he believed in what is known as the American Dream. In other words, the American Dream is simply for everyone to have equal opportunity to live a better and more prosperous life. This is what Langston Hughes referred to as he wrote his poetry. Langston Hughes’ poetry showed his view of the American Dream by taking real life experiences and putting them into words. Inspired by his time living in the New York neighborhood of Harlem and his familiarity with the racist attitudes of early twentieth century America, Langston Hughes, born february 1, 1902, in Joplin Missouri, wrote poems starting as an eighth grader. After being named editor of the yearbook and class poet his senior year of high school, he moved on to study at Columbia University in New York. However, after experiencing racial prejudice, he dropped out a year …show more content…
America was never really America to him. Because in America, people were not judged based on the color of their skin. In America, people are allowed to be free and do what they please. He says, “There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “Homeland of the free.” Langston Hughes wishes for a land of the free where everyone is actually free. “O, let America be America again-/ The land that never has been yet-/ and yet must be- the land where every man is free”. He will not give up until America is America again. Langston Hughes’ poetry speaks just as loudly as he did ("Let America be America

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Similarities Between I Hear America Singing And Langston Hughes
    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Similarities Between I Hear America Singing And Langston Hughes

    It describes all types of people and their jobs, like carpenters, masons, and woodcutters. This poem is also patriotic, because it is celebrating American workers and their success. Langston Hughes poem, Let America be America, again was not optimistic. He writes the poem from a point of view as one being left out of the American dream. The theme is that America has let a lot of people down and it has not lived up to their dreams.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes: Change In Views Overtime
    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Langston Hughes: Change In Views Overtime

    Change in Views Overtime Langston Hughes had a rather difficult life in post-war United States, as with the United States being a rather racist society, excluding and handicapping all races besides white. Hughes, being partially African American, White American, and Native American, Hughes experienced the worst of the worlds firsthand. He was under the stereotypes all the time, it be African American stereotypes, or Native American stereotypes. As a result of this racism he endured, Hughes poems was directed towards American society and towards the ruined dreams of people that were suppressed by the racism.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes And Claude Mckay's The Weary Blues
    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Langston Hughes And Claude Mckay's The Weary Blues

    Using his poetic artistry, he encompassed African music such as blues and jazz in his poems. Moreover, because of his unique way of portraying the African lifestyle he was criticized by many black intellectuals and the white press. In some of his poems he promoted the American dreams and dignity. Langston believed that one day African American will be free and able to pursue careers. Moreover, his poems expressed the feelings, fears, and dreams of African American`s urging them to find dignity in their daily struggles.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Difficulties In America Analysis
    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Difficulties In America Analysis

    Due to this issue, Langston Hughes was inspired to write“Let America Be America Again”, frustrated with the discrimination he, and so many others face daily, Hughes writes about his personal feelings on the issue of equality and freedom in America. Hughes states, “(There’s never been equality for me,/ Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’/)”(Hughes Line 15-16). For many, feelings such as these are far too common, and this quote reflects some of the emotional difficulties of being an immigrant in America. This country was built on the ideals of freedom and equality.…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes 'Let America Be America Again'
    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Langston Hughes 'Let America Be America Again'

    In Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again,” the speaker says that he longs for the America that everyone dreamt. “The Land of the Free,” “The Home of the Brave,” and “the Melting Pot” are all names that America has gained over the years. America endured many hardships including racism, slavery, and wars. In this poem, Hughes specified the different people who lived and worked in America’s society, such as the farmers, the pioneers, the Negro slaves, the immigrants, and the opportunist whom all came to America seeking hope and happiness, but what they received was far different. If you were not white, you did not inherit what America promised.…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing I Hear America Singing And Let America Be America Again
    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparing I Hear America Singing And Let America Be America Again

    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.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again
    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Langston Hughes Let America Be America Again

    Could you imagine your life without freedom you wouldn't be able to speak or write freely, even express yourself. It is for this reason that freedom matters, more so to those who have once been without. Poets have the ability and perception to capture the theme of freedom matters succinctly in their poems through the use of many aspects such as poetic elements, the metaphorical meaning and figurative language which also allows poets to exaggerate or alter specific linguistic points of interest. The three poems that I shall be looking at for this discourse is I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou, Let America be America again with Langston Hughes and where the mind is without freedom by Rabindranath. I know why the caged bird sings…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Let America Be America Again, By Langston Hughes Essay
    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Let America Be America Again, By Langston Hughes Essay

    Because he says “ make America again,” (85) but what is America to him? Like he says America used to be the land of slavery and when men would work for others, but not in a good way. America is the land of the free but Hughes goes all frantic and explains this misery of this country. He says “I am the negro servant to you all,” (32) which is slavery of what hes talking about. Now that’s misery in America.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Let America Be America Again Analysis
    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Let America Be America Again Analysis

    In “let America Be America Again: by Langston Hughes”, it said,“I am the immigrant clutching the hope i seek, and finding only the same old stupid plan of…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes
    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes

    America in Reality “ Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes is a poem which is similar to Walt Whitman’s “ I hear American Singing”, Whitman is confident about America’s democratic opportunity. However, Hughes is writing from a black man’s perception, thus less optimistic about what America has been or will be. Hughes’s has his poem organized with rhyme, tone, rhetorical questions, and more unified with repeated anaphora. Connotation is used in the poem which evokes the magnificently patriotic images of America but it also raises questions about these images. “But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in air we breathe ( Hughes, 13-14 ), these lines makes the reader ask the question whether America was a dream…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes
    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes

    “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes “Let America be America Again,” by Langston Hughes is a poem about someone who feels that America isn’t how it was built up to be. As an observer, the narrator notices many injustices and events that have been influencing his disbelief of this land of the “free.” He is being the voice of many Americans in which he wants to have freedom and equality for everyone. Especially because there is still white power, which keeps many minorities such as the African Americans below whites on the social pyramid. Hughes background is African American therefore Hughes is speaking of personal experiences which includes slavery discrimination and anything else the white majority has against black people in…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    A Comparison Of I Have A Dream And Harlem By Langston Hughes
    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Comparison Of I Have A Dream And Harlem By Langston Hughes

    In past times African American people were discriminated against and segregated, making a lot of people stand up for their rights in different ways. The speech written by Martin Luther King, “I have a dream” and the poem written by Langston Hughes, “Harlem”, both of them talk about the times of the brutality over African American people. The two works are similar because they both talk about African Americans not having the right of freely expressing their dissatisfaction with oppression. However, the two works are different in that one has a message with hope and the other one is without any optimism.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Langston Hughes-American Poet
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Langston Hughes-American Poet

    Langston Hughes grew up in a time period during racial segregation. He also got to experience integration. Hughes did not only struggle in society, but he also had family struggles. Langston was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri.…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Impact Of Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance
    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Impact Of Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance

    The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that started in New York City during World War I and continued into the 1930’s. It was an African American movement, which was also known as the “New Negro Movement”. Many African American’s were sick and tired of the way they were being treated by white Americans and used many forms of art to express and represent who they were and what was happening in their culture. The Jim Crow laws and white supremacy were becoming too much for many to handle, which is why the Harlem Renaissance had such major impact on society during this time period. The Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of artists who came together to express their feelings using poetry, music, photography, literature and more.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Response to Langston Hughes' Poem I, too, sing America Essay
    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Response to Langston Hughes' Poem I, too, sing America Essay

    Hughes, Langston. “I Too. Sing America.” New York Times 5 Jan 2010: A16 Online.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings