Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes

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.

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 American Dream can be defined as an ideal that every American citizen has equal opportunity in achieving success and prosperity. In Martin Luther king Junior’s I Have a Dream speech, Sherman Alexie’s “Hymn”, and Langston Hughes’ poem “Let America be America Again”, all authors talk about how America does not provide the dream that it promised. The I Have a Dream speech was presented in 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr. He was an African American who was a civil rights activist and wrote the speech in hopes to stop discrimination. “Hymn”, by Sherman Alexie, is a poem about how many events provoked protests and divided the country. He was a writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. Let “America be America Again” was written by Langston Hughes in 1936. Hughes was an American writer and social activist.

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

America still to this day holds on to the idea of the “American Dream”. This is rather surprising in today’s society and the ups and downs that the nation is facing. The dream in the past was more about freedom and equality. Moving through the decades, this dream has morphed into something quite different. Instead of what America means for all of its inhabitants, the nation has become more individualized. Society has moved to interpret the dream of what America can do for the one. Instead of the unified nation, America has been known for in the past, a shift has started creating an inconsistency in who can realize the dream. The myth of the “American Dream” has been hugely affected by increased materialism, the gap in economic status, and the fantasy of “rags to riches” idea.

We must restore what we once called the American Dream, not only for our own sake, but for those that will be citizens of America in the nearer

I think that many people had different opinions on their dreams of America. Based on the evidence in Langston Hughes ‘poem, “Let America Be American Again”, I do not think that America was a great dream for everyone. Each person had a different experience here in the states, and that could either be a good experience or a bad one. It could have gone either way. In the poem, there were two lines that really

Why is America never America? “America never was America to me” is a line repeatedly written in the poem ‘Let America be America Again’ by an African American poet Langston Hughes. This poem was published in 1936, when being African American was one’s greatest sin. African Americans were treated as things that elite whites can own rather than free- willed humans. In this poem, the pain and suffering of colored Americans, who were considered less than humans, is reflected clearly. Despite being written by an African America poet, the poem ‘Let America Be America Again’ does not represent African Americans only. Minority groups including economically disadvantaged whites are represented in this poem. For these people America is not America. It is a sleepless night where dreams are not allowed. They never get freedom in the land of the free. They never get opportunity in the land of opportunities. They never get justice and equality in the land of the justice. America is not America they want to see, and the poet Langston Hughes repeatedly mentions, “America never was America to me”. In 1936, when the poem was first published, being colored immigrant was the same, or even worse than being a murderer, justice was never served, and there was no equality. The privileged elites had all the America to them but to the lower racial groups and immigrants, American dream never existed. Despite the fact that the poem ‘Let America be

Although the Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual time for African Americans, they still faced discrimination from whites in America. During those times there were many segregated public places that separated blacks and whites. Along with being an influential poet and writer, Hughes was also a social activist and a proponent for equality in America through his writings and used them to influence young African Americans to have pride in their race and be proud of who they are

     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.

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.

In this stanza, disappointment and desirement is shown. “ Let is be the dream it used to be”(2) shows disappointment with how America is not what is used to be. Thus the poet demands America to be what it used to be. In addition to repetition, Hughes also use personification. Hughes personifies America to the pioneer in order to emphasize the hard work and sacrifice a person came to just for this country. Furthermore, Hughes exposes the reasons why he is disappointed:

In Langston Hughes poem “Let America be America Again” he talks about how America should return to the way that it was perceived to be in the dreams before America was truly America. Throughout the poem he uses various methods to evoke the patriotic images and dreams that he feels America should and will eventually be. Hughes states that America is supposed to be a place of equality for everyone including both white and colored people. During this period in time though there was not equality for everyone. Hughes talks about an America where both whites and colored people will have equality in all aspects socially, politically, and economically. What Hughes is saying is that both whites and colored

Let America be America Again is a clear expression of Langston Hughes’s dissatisfaction towards what America has become. Written in 1936, it is a cry for help, imploring people to regain the dream they once had, so that America can return to that land where dreamers went full of hope seeking freedom. We can observe themes such as the idealization of America vs the reality of America, oppressed voices, the inequality experienced by many rightfull Americans and the corruption of the American dream. The speaker puts his focal point on how the common American dream of achieving freedom, realizing their dreams, and attaining equality have been reduced to nothing almost making them impossible. Hughes gives examples of the darker days of America and makes a plea so others hear and feel how and why America has changed so much. With this poem Hughes intended to be a voice who

America is often thought to be the land of opportunity, where dreams come true, where people leave behind their old lives running from corruption, poverty, famine, or could just simply be looking for greater opportunity. Is this really what America is today, do these dreams still really exist in the common folk who wish to make something come true, make the “American Dream” come true. In the poem I, too sing America by Langston Hughes the people of story express how they are living in the shadows of others, how their looked over in society. America too has lost its luster of hope and the reputation that held behind the name “America”. In Let America be America Again Langston Hughes again demonstrates how America has lost its luster where he says, “Let America be the dream dreamers dreamed.” In this quote Langton Hughes tells us how America has changed, that it’s different from when the first dreamers created the land of dreams that America once was. The American dream is a something that is highly based on perspective, from the perspective of a second class citizen named Walter Lee from A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry Walter cries, “All of it, it’s all gone….” In this Walter just learned that the money he had received from his father’s death was stolen. He had been wanting the money to try to invest and make something of himself, for himself, for his family, but all that is lost in the blink of an eye. This is how Walter's dream died before