Langston+Hughes

__Let America Be America Again__ Langston Hughes

Summary: In this poem by Langston Hughes, he talks about the individual values of Americans. The first three stanzas talk about what the country should be like based on the principles set forth by our **finding** fathers. He says how Americans should be able to dream and pioneer their lives. Also, people should believe in what they want to believe and should not have a king telling them what to do. America is the land of the free, where equality is keystone to the country. Between all of these stanzas, Hughes says "(America never was America to me)". This shows the main theme to this whole poem. America should be and is said to be the land of the free and where everyone is welcome, but to Langston Hughes this America never existed. In the next few stanzas, it talks about the people's lives and occupations across the nation. In all of the situations, Hughes uses anaphora by using the words "I am the.." in almost every line. It talks about how man does not always receive the equal opportunity as promised and uses the idiom of living in a "dog eat dog" society, which means people will hurt other people for their own sake. For every person that lives the American dream successfully, there is someone on the other side of the spectrum. The eighth stanza specifically describes how people left their homes in foreign countries so they could start their own dream by practicing their own beliefs in their new lives. Then Langston Hughes goes into denial about America being a free country. He questions the freedom of the country because issues like poverty, violence and lack of fairness. Even with all the songs we sing, hopes we talk about, and flags we hang because of freedom and equality, the practice of it is nearly dead in the country. Langston shows his opinion and emotions on how America has to rebuild and how everyone needs to be equal. Every person in every corner of the country has to help each other "make America Again". There are many poetic techniques that Langston Hughes uses in this poem. One he probably uses the most is anaphora. You can split this poem apart in sections not just by the details and ideas but also the words. In the first section, "Let it be" is the common beginning of a sentence. "I am the" is the anaphora in the second section and "And all the" is for the final section. Hughes also has apostrophe by saying "O," in the beginning of stanzas three, nine, and eleven. He does use a rhyming scheme throughout the poem, also using poetic license with again and plain.

Correlation: //"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 he himself is free.

(America was never America to me.)// Explanation: This is the showing the ideal lifestyle for an American. Being able to control your destiny, live on the great plains or anywhere for that matter, and following your own beliefs and opinions. In the poem however, the poet, who in this case is Langston Hughes, feels that the America he lives in never was the America that everyone talks about. He wants this to change and for America to be America. One of the reasons I believe Langston Hughes wrote this poem is because of his ethnicity and the issues he dealt with. Hughes was an African American **an** since this poem was published in 1938, he was feeling the effect of racial discrimination. When he wrote this poem he was expressing the feelings on equality and freedom that many African Americans felt, just he wrote them down in a poem. He feels that with being an American he should be able to live where he wants and follow his own rules.

//"I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!//" Explanation: With these words that Hughes uses, he tells of the history of a black man. The first line in the stanza states of a young man who is capable of doing anything because of strength and hope. The entanglement in the ancient endless chain is a metonymy referring to slavery and how they were forced into coming to America centuries ago. When he uses the anaphora in the next few lines, he is talking about the white men who stole his land from power and money. The white men stole their gold, money, and more importantly, their lives out of greed. All together, Hughes is talking about how he does not have the freedom to live the way he wants, the white men have the power to do that.

//"The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today."// Explanation: This whole poem leading up to this point, Langston Hughes describes the history in America. On what America should be like and the people that are suffering in America. In this stanza, he finally goes into coming out and saying truly the point he is trying to get across. He asks who believes that America is the "homeland of the free". The millions on relief are all the people living on welfare and do not have any material items to call their own. The millions shot down when we strike is describing the violence when African Americans express their opinions, like the way Martin Luther King, Jr. did years later. He tells how even though Americans boast about freedom, equality, and opportunity, it is nonexistent today. He is showing the injustice in America. I believe that Langston Hughes is 100% right and I think that it still goes on today, but not as bad. Back then it was the law that African Americans could not go to school with white children or eat at any restaurant. Things have changed since the 1930's but there are still millions of people without homes and food.

Reflection: This poems comes from the heart of every African American in the first half of the 20th **century, Langston** Hughes was just one of the only ones to write about it. America was always meant to be the country where anyone can become whatever **they** want to become, contrary to the kings and dictators of of countries. The racial discrimination during this time was the opposite of what America was supposed to be, a land where one certain group was always better than the rest. Langston Hughes tells how he never seen America and hopes that some day he will be able to. He wants America to be America again. Inequality and injustice were the main two themes in this poem.