REDISCOVERING AMERICAN DREAM with Let America be America Again of Langston Hughes by Johanna Meneses Mr. Maza English 1102 REDISCOVERING AMERICAN DREAM Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the greatest black poets of 20th century. His main contribution was interpretation of Afro-American experience in United States since discovering of America. All his life, Langston Hughes searched for own definition of his perception of the American dream. Considering his poems Let America Be America Again and Freedom’s Plow, let us try to make attempt and look inside ideas and aspirations of poet about American dream. What brought our ancestors to America? There was many reasons people left their homeland and come to unknown shores of new continent. Those first Pioneers were looking for new lands.
It was rebirth, the craving for men to be born again, the yearning for a second chance. With all of these ideas comes the true American dreamFreedom. This is the condition when man feels like a human being. It is the purpose and consequence of rebirth. The America has always been known as The Land of Immigrants. People from all parts of the globe have traveled to America, to be free from oppression, disease and misery, or simply to start a new life: Some were free hands Seeking a greater freedom, Some were indentured hands Hoping to find their freedom, Some were slave hands Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom, But the word was there always: Freedom.
What is the American Dream? When asked, this question would receive a lot of responses, but the main response would probably be freedom. There is a lot of meanings of the American Dream: the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity of personal happiness and material comfort, power, liberty, success, as always sought by people in the America. In his “Let America Be America Again”, published in 1938, Hughes pleads for fulfillment of the Dream that never was. It speaks of the freedom and equality, which America brags, but never had. It looks forward to a day when Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath” and America is “that great strong land of love.” Hughes, though, is not limiting his plea to the oppressed Negro; he includes, as well, the poor white, the Indian, the immigrant farmer, worker, “the people” share the Dream that has not been. The Dream still beckons (Presley).
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In America today, it seems that people do not understand the separation of work and leisure. Weekends present many choices regarding the potential use of leisure time. It is interesting that many Americans choose to pursue activities that ultimately require the most exertion. The intensive, demanding work environment that most people are subjected to for a dominant portion of their waking life has ...
Langston Hughes in his poems Let America Be America Again and Freedom’s Plow captures the essence of the American immigrants quest for freedom. He tells us that people had been arriving with nothing but dreams. But, first in the heart is dream then the mind starts seeking a way. They build America with the hopes of finding greater freedom or freedom for the first time. He describe how people of all backgrounds worked together for one cause: freedom, Im the one who left dark Irelands shore, and Polands plain, and Englands grassy lea, and torn from Black Africa strand I came to build a homeland of the free. In “Freedom’s Plow ” he points out that “America is a dream” and the product of the seed of freedom is not only for all Americans but for all the world.
The American Dream of brotherhood, freedom, and democracy must come to all peoples and all races of the world, he insists: America! Land created in common, Dream nourished in common, Keep your hand on the plow! Hold on! Throughout Hughes’s life and his literary expression the American Dream has appeared as a ragged, uneven, spotted, and often unachievable goal, which often became a nightmare, but there is always hope of the fulfilled dream even in the darkest moments. During World War II Hughes, commenting on the role of American Negroe in the war, he stated: “we know, that America is a land of transition. And we know it is within our power to help in its further change toward a finer and better democracy dm any citizen has known before. The American Negro believes in democracy. We want to make it real, complete, workable, not only for ourselves the fifteen million dark ones but for all Americans all over the land.(Presley) For many people 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:Im the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, Im the Negro bearing slavery scars. Im the red man driven from the land, Im the immigrant clutching the hope I seek. And finding only the same stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
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This essay briefly discusses the similarities and differences of the ‘Australian and American Freedom Rides’ history. Throughout the essay, there is a discussion on what the reasons were for the protest of the Freedom Rides. It also points out the duration of the protest and the major locations where they were held. The essay also shows the different reactions to the protest and the influential ...
The American Dream is bruised and often made a travesty for Negroes and other underdogs, Hughes keeps saying, but the American Dream does exist. And the Dream must be fulfilled. In one of his verses he put it more plainly: Listen, America I live here, too. I want freedom, just as you. Deeply inside Hughes knows that America should be discovered once again, the land has never been yet and yet must be, and become the land where every man is free. And then Americans must bring our mighty dream again he states undoubtedly.
Talking about plow, which plows a furrows across the field of history and seeds of freedom dropped into that furrows, from which a tree grew, he affirms: That tree is for everybody, For all America, for all the world. May its branches spread and shelter grow Until all races and all peoples know its shade. KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON! Using a conversational style, the author allows the speaker and listener to interact with each other. The issue addressed is that America is not the democratic ideal of all of its people. The original speaker begins in a fairly common quatrain stanza; however, when the listener is allowed to respond, the stanzas become irregular indicating the passion felt as well as the urgency of the message. The listener’s response contains the main idea of the piece, comparing the democratic ideal to the conditions of those who are victims because of race, age and other causes.
This kind of literature is unique in a certain sense. Hughes poetry is not the poetry in a common meaning. His poetry is a kind of preaching, shamanism, when narration breaks with emotional expressions, when word submitted to rhythm, and notional meaning, inseparable with its emotional sense. This is a sort of poetic jazz, or blues as Hughes considered himself. Just as jazz simultaneously stresses the collective and the individual, Hughes component poems are each individual statements, but they are also part of a larger unity. Significantly, Hughes as an individual is deemphasized in the work, even as various individuals speak and are spoken about.
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Richard Wright’s autobiographical book entitled “Black Boy (American Hunger): A Record of Childhood and Youth”, explored many of the obstacles that Richard Wright faced throughout his life. Published by Harpers and Brothers in 1945, Wright narrates his journey and experiences growing up in the Jim Crow South, and having to come of age during such a racial charged period in black history, from ...
In other words, Hughes becomes a medium, a sensitive and subtle medium, but a medium nonetheless, a medium between collective and individual consciousnesses. Many critics say that Hughes’ poem is written in the tone of a black sermon, as if he were preaching to his audience. Others say that the poem is written in a conversational style, in which Hughes enables the speaker and audience to interact with one another. Still, the rhythm and rhymes contribute to the overall effectiveness of the poem, in which Hughes conveys his thoughts, emotions and beliefs about America in the 1930’s (Wagner 311).
Only this way Hughes could put his ideas, dreams and beliefs into hearts of those who had been thirsting for them. Those, whose hope was still alive regardless of all miseries. Those, who knew simply things but had no words to express them.
Those, whose hearts had no limits and boundaries: An ever-living seed, Its dream Lies deep in the heart of me. Hughess poetry is full of such words as freedom, dream, hope. These words have deep sense and meaning. Nevertheless, in his stanzas they begin shining with new glaring tints and hues. And new meaning of this words emerges when rays of that shining refracting by the prism of readers soul. Someone could say that these words had come from slavery backgrounds, and there is a part of truth. But another part of truth that not only black men comprehend these words all do because they come from the heart.
In Langston Hughes’ poems he emphasizes the struggle to enjoy the freedoms that he knows are rightfully his. He reflects the American desire for freedom now when he says, “I do not need my freedom when I’m dead. I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.” He recognizes the need for freedom in its entirety without compromise or fear. Hughes’s writing captured the essence of black America in a way black Americans felt it had not been captured before. As biographer Arnold Rampersad said, From the start, Hughes’s art was responsive to the needs and emotions of the black world. Arguably, Langston Hughes was black America’s most original poet.
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Critical Commentaries On Langston Hughes dana smith January 8, 2001 Mrs. Gold Both as an accomplished author in many genres of literature, and as a public figure to the Black Americans, Langston Hughes is recognized as one of Americas Cultural Heroes. In his poems he talks about folk, jazz and blues rhythm to express his feelings, of the Blacks living in Harlem during the nineteen thirties, ...
Certainly he was black America’s most representative writer and a significant figure in world literature in the 20th century (Rampersad 26).
Conclusively, Langston Hughes questions the past and present moralities of America, which shows a greater care for country and its people than blind patriotism ever did. Would that more people could be brave enough to question and examine United States principles today.
Bibliography:
Langston Hughes. Selected Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1981).
Wagner, Jean. Black Poets of the United States. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1973. Rampersad, Arnold, and Thomas C.
Phelps. Langston Hughes: The Man, the Writer and His Continuing Influence. Langston Hughes: The Man, His Art, and His Continuing Influence. Ed. C. James Trotman. New York: Garland, 1995.
Presley, James. The American Dream of Langston Hughes. Southwest Review 48 (1963): 380-86. Modern American Poetry Homepage. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/ hughes.htm.
