America By Tony Hoagland Essay

514 Words3 Pages

In the poem “America” by Tony Hoagland, the author discussed the American lifestyle, and the culture presently in his own perspective and opinion. I agree with his opinion about the people in America, and the atrocious reality that we are living in today. This present reality that Hoagland addressed reflects my view and my perspective not just about the people who lives in America, but innumerable people that lives on Earth. Hoagland, not just criticized the lifestyle and the way Americans are living, but also the materialism that exists in most of the people. Hoagland begins the poem by describing America as a “maximum-security prison”, which means that it traps the people like a prison. He continued describing America by writing, “Whose walls are made of RadioShack's and Burger Kings, and MTV episodes”, which describes the materialism and the priorities of the people in America. Hoagland continued by emphasizing how Americans care about the display and the show off, which makes them very materialists. He then used a very crucial metaphor in poem where he described America as “suffocated”. Hoagland feels that Americans makes him suffocated because of their behavior. I truly agree with him because it reflects my feeling about multifarious people in this …show more content…

He then described in the poem how when he was dreaming about stabbing his father, that he did not bleed but instead it money that appeared. Hoagland wrote, “It was not blood but money”, which describes how money is everything for people now days and that it is inside the people. Money now is an addiction for people, and it is an object that people would die for. Hoagland distinguished that the money was clogging his heart and once it was released, he started feeling great. Hoagland wrote, “Freed from that which kept me from my liberty”, which describes how he feels free after the money came out from his