Let America Be America Again Essay

Langston Hughes, a famous American poet, became a popular writer around the 1900’s. He was first recognized for going against classical ways of writing and using “jazz poetry” or “black rhythm”. In his poems, he usually displayed messages or ideas others could not share such as the poem, A Dream Deferred. Hughes poem Let America Be America Again was written in 1935 during a time of poverty and racism. He used the poem to tell a story of the less advantaged part of the people. Langston Hughes hopeful yet devastating poem, Let America Be America Again, uses imagery, repetition, and flashbacks to compare present day America to past America while also describing the American dream and the struggles to reach it. He also describes the values America's
He uses "I am" combined with a series of statements that have negative connotations. Hughes states in the fifth stanza, " I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-". The red man driven from the land describes the people(Native Americans) who were forced off of their land by newer America. He also describes the immigrants who come to America in hope of a better life because of America, at the time, was the best place to start a new life. Hughes uses several other examples of repetition to further emphasize his point of people who are struggling to achieve the success they strive for because America's values are
Flashbacks, in his poem, are ways to show examples of how peaceful America used to be before the corruption of the country. In his flashbacks, he refers to older America before the amount of poverty and false freedom they had at the time. He refers to the pioneer days when pioneers were in search of freedom and “the dream the dreamers dreamt”. Hughes then goes on to say, “We must bring back our mighty dream again.” His now determined and hopeful demeanor expresses how he wants the people of the land to take back what is theirs. He wants every person to come together no matter the race or color of skin to get their freedom and happiness returned back to