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Importance Of Time In Langston Hughes 'Poem I, Too'

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agree with. Time plays a crucial role in the role of the meaning of “America” and the American dream. Not all outlooks on America are positive and inspirational. Although America thought of as this land of unlimited resources, jobs, and happiness; the harsh reality is that it is a place of unequal ‘equal’ opportunities. Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too” highlights how the oppressed can hold onto hope for a more equal future. “They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed- I, too, am America (Hughes 1040),” neatly sums up the idea that change will come and when it does, all of America’s inhabitants will become seen as people and not as “the darker brother, They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes (Hughes 1039),” as to say a few lines
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In the poem, “ Let America be America again”, Langston Hughes asserts that America does not live up to what it actually should be. Hughes’ tone seems to be angry and [exasperated]. He implicates the perspective of one particular group, but many people. The poem represents that many people come here with high hopes and big dreams but they are let down. He states that [prosperity] is one of the reasons that there is an economic inconsistency where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.

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The poem also created a new idea in my mind about the given theme of "The American Experience". The experience is not automatically becoming successful; it is the opportunity to work and support a family freely. To choose how to live,

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America has often been referred to as the land of dreams by many different cultures. The early nineteen hundreds gave the margins of society a different perspective on what the American dream consisted of. The idea of the American dream is central to Zitkala-Sa’s Impressions of an Indian Childhood and Mary Antin’s The Promised Land. America is seen as a land that offers opportunity, equality, liberty and happiness. America is essentially the symbol of a better life.

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In “Let America be America again,” “The Latin Deli,” and “Two ways to Belong in America” America has been proven that it is only free for some but not for all. In these stories, they insist that that America has only been free and equal towards its American born citizens. They explain how most of the immigrants have been discriminated against and treated poorly. Most of them tell how they have been forced to make their own communities because of how they have been treated. The immigrants have all been discriminated against and are not free unlike American born citizens.

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Is the American Dream really available for everyone? In the poem “Let America be American Again”, Langston Hughes tries to get the point across that the American Dream isn’t open for everyone. He describes the hopeful immigrants who seek America for a new start but arrive to find only that America “The Land of the Free” is full of mighty people who dominate the weak. Hughes depicts the downtrodden Negroes who bear who bear many scars, physically and mentally, of the seeming to have no end slavery. Even in present day America, black people still do not have all the equality rights they deserve and long for.

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How has the American Dream changed from the 1920’s to now and how has the theme of the American Dream been supported by works of American Literature. We will see how the American Dream though time did not follow what the founding fathers set out for us in the declaration of independence and when they said, “The authors of the United States’ Declaration of Independence held certain truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". We will see how the American Dream suffers, what an American Dream is centered on, and how, for some, the American Dream is unattainable. In "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and in "Harlem" by Langston Hughes we see the American dream depicted, as the loss and utter death of a distracted corrupt American Dream, as the love of the American dream, and as the American Dream for Blacks in a time of segregation and discrimination.

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America is well known as the land of the free and the home opportunity. Although it is said everyone is equal in every way, that has not always been the case. Langston Hughes is a poet who tried to emphasize the idea of equality among all human beings. Hughes underlined the basis of the American Dream with what is and what should be in the societal era he lived in. In hindsight he believed his poems helped others realize the injustices that all minorities had to face during this era.

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A Better Tomorrow America—the land of the free and home of the brave—is known worldwide as one of the most powerful, influential, and greatest nations on Earth. Freedom of belief, equal opportunities, and even diversity in groups are just some of the many rights Americans are granted from birth. It 's hard to believe there was a time when these fundamental human rights were not privileged to everyone! Langston Hughes’ short poem “I, Too,” tells of this troubled period in American History. Hughes’s poem makes clear that the country does not provide a happy and equal experience for all its people.

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The tone of Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Sing America” is determined and talks about how “tomorrow” he will do what he pleases instead of doing what his master

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In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints a vivid word picture of a depressed America in the 1930's. In this poetic expression, a speaker is allowed to say what he wants for America to be America, what is that we don't have that high gas prices. I think that I would change, that people who aren't working should not get any money from the state, freedom is a privilege instead of the state giving it for free. My brother is epileptic and he works so how come everybody in the world wants something for free. I learned over two years that everything is the same in Germany as in America sure we speak different we have different opinions about something, but we are still the person who we want to be is our decision about how we want to live our lives.

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For over seventy years America has bought into and celebrated the idea of an American dream. An ideal that sets us apart from all other nations and a story that Americans and immigrants alike have honored for years. This dream has even penetrated its way into pop culture, used by anyone from Toby Keith, to Johnny Cash, to Kanye West to represent their true feelings on America and the dream itself. However, many of these artists fail to capture the whole story with their songs. Despite each of them representing true factors in the dream and American history, biases created by their lives and past block them from being able to recognize the whole story behind the American dream we know today.

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America is known as “The Land of Opportunity” and it established the concept of the American Dream in the 1900’s. The fight for this dream was prevalent even before it was given a name in 1930. The founding fathers wrote this belief into the constitution with the words “All Americans are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” .Some Americans believe that the American Dream can still be obtained in the 21st Century with hard work and perservance ; however, a majority of the American population among race gender and class has a different point of view on what America still provides to their citizens because economic insta8bility and lack of equal opportunity.

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752 Words | 4 Pages

“I, Too” Poetry Analysis Poet Langston Hughes has written many great works including, I, Too. The poem was written in the nineteen twenties when Hughes, along with other African Americans, were facing segregation everywhere. This poem was one of the many pieces that was a part of the Harlem Renaissance, an African American movement in the fine arts. As the piece focuses on the struggles and hope for the future, it was definitely appropriate to be a part of the evolution of African American artists.

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The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

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