Langston Hughes The American Dream Essay

Langston Hughes is a key figure in the vision of the American dream. In his writings his African-American perspective gives an accurate vision of what the American dream means to a less fortunate minority. His poetry is very loud and emotional in conveying his idea of the African-American dream. Most of his poetry either states how the black man is being suppressed or is a wish, a plea for equality. He does not want the black man to be better than everyone else, but just to be treated equal. Able to meet their dream with the same level of success and failure as everyone else. This is most simply stated in Hughes poem I Dream a World. Hughes begins the poem by stating: “I Dream a World where man No other man will scorn,
Something that everyone would like but will probably never come true. This statement is an excellent attention getter. It tells about a dream that everyone would like without singling out any group of people to blame for the dream not coming true. Then as the poem goes on he gets more and more specific. Hughes then goes on to dream that everyone “Will know sweet freedoms way,/Where greed no longer saps the soul.” (World lines 6-7) Here Hughes is wishing to abolish greed. He is hoping that not only the rich will be able to know what it is truly like to be free. Hughes goes on to
He wishes to “whirl and dance” (Variations line 3) meaning to do as he wishes and not to be controlled as a slave. The “White day” (Variations line 4) is the daytime in which slaves must work. When he states “Night ... Dark like me” (Variations line 8) he is welcoming the night. Because it is the time when he is not working as a slave. It is the time he has to himself. Just him and his thoughts. The second half of this poem is just a restatement of the first. Except it is louder and more emotional. Hughes