America Again Langston Hughes Analysis

We tend to express ourselves through our writing and what happens in society also can reflect on to our writing. Langston Hughes poured his life into his poetry while having a sociohistorical aspect to it. His words influenced many people and will perpetually do such. In Hughes poems: Let America Be America Again, Theme for English B, and Mother to Son we can see the historical period in which he lived. Times were hard in the 1900s, especially for a black man. His best know works are from the Harlem Renaissance Era and the Great Depression. The Harlem Renaissance a time where a new Black cultural exploded in the United States and the Great Depression is when America’s stock market crashed. Let America Be America Again was written in 1935 during the Great Depression. Hughes wants “America to be America again” the “dream it used to be,” but then says “America was never America.” Hughes feels that the ideas of equality and liberty are not being carried out by America. Hughes feels it is not just about one group of people, he is talking about the poor whites, African Americans, American Indians, and immigrants who have been left out. During this time money had seemed to become what America was about, and when
This poem shows that Hughes cares deeply about his mother and respects the struggles she has been through and faced in her life. The struggles his mother had faced very similar to many other Black people. The “crystal stair” is a metaphor for the American dream and the idea that all Americans are given equal opportunity. Hughes mother wants him to know that it is not going to be easy getting up the stairs. Through the hard times the Black community cannot give up, they have to keep pushing and keep fighting. Hughes was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance to write Mother to Son. Writing this poem helped Hughes become one of the most influential leaders of the Harlem Renaissance