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Langston Hughes Let Usa Be America Again Literary Devices

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Langston Hughes is a poet known for his portrayals of black life in his time. This is evident in his poem, Let America Be America Again. Hughes uses his experience and reality of American Society to contrast the American Dream and what people want to accomplish. With tones of seriousness and hopefulness, Hughes conveys the ideas of freedom and equality. He mostly relies on his perspective, repetition, and imagery. He shows this in lines 1-4 when he says, “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." Hughes uses repetition and a slight rhyme scheme to grasp the reader’s attention. He uses words such as “pioneer” and “seek” to help the reader imagine …show more content…

He says, “Who said the free? Not me?/Surely not me?” He talks in first person to show how black people were not free and there was a problem with the equality of the US. Even though this poem is relatively old, it still can relate to the US today. Although striving for overall equality is impossible, we should treat everyone with respect, no matter their backgrounds. He further explains in lines 56-61. He said, “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.” He highlights how dreaming something into reality is difficult and the American Dream isn’t isn’t very achievable now. The last line shows how the American Dream is almost an imagination because of how unachievable and hard it is. He uses the words “dreams we’ve dreamed” to leave a lasting impression and thought on the reader. Competition is hard to beat and finding something unique to make a living isn’t the easiest thing to do. Everyone tries to achieve their ultimate American Dream, usually coming out unsuccessful. Also, because there is a lot of competition, wages aren’t the best for them. For example, teachers do not get enough credit for what they have to accomplish and do not get paid

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326 Words | 2 Pages

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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495 Words | 2 Pages

The “American Dream” in this case is symbolic for self-advancement and materialism. He chooses to use this phrasing instead of elaborately describing the climb of the corporate latter or the effects of spending more time at work than with family. Rector’s bridge says, “Are we just running in the dark or living,” which is one of the most evident examples of symbolism in this song. This is his way of saying live with purpose, don’t just conform to society, create your own opinions, and do not be afraid to be different. Unlike prose, he does not have a paragraph to describe his opinions, so he has to be deliberately with every word choice and concise.

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1227 Words | 5 Pages

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek.” In the poem “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes, the reader here’s from two different speakers, and how they both seperately want America to change. One of the speakers wants America to go back to what it was before, while the other responds in small comments, building up to say the quote you read at the beginning. In the poem “Let America Be America Again” the author has two separate speakers with contradicting thoughts, the author relates to problems that were happening in the real world, and how the author’s rhyme scheme is a vital component to how this poem reads.

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2131 Words | 9 Pages

He talks about a time here where we used to be, a time in which we can get back if this country actually wanted it. The vision of America is that of some place people dream of living, a place where you are in control over your actions and not your government. This country is on a path leading to its own destruction because we are letting it instead of changing its direction. Like Walt Whitman says in I hear America singing "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong." (Whitman).

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1587 Words | 7 Pages

The poem calls for the return of the great America that he and others have been promised. The poem is told in first person point of view indicating that Hughe’s is the speaker of the poem. Hughes uses the first person point of view to include his personal point of view of what it is like to be an African American. The people Hughes describes in his poem are mainly the poor, the immigrants, the African Americans, and the Native Americans. They are the people who have worked to find the American Dream, but have only found that it was not meant for them.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

Makayla Long Professor Van Epps ENGL 1102 13 February 2023 How Poetry affected America during the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Let America Be America Again” (1935) during the Harlem Renaissance period. Hughes used this poem to reveal his feelings towards the inequality in America. He used literary devices such as metaphors and repetition to show more about his theme of freedom and equality. Using these metaphors and repetition, Hughes gets his theme and feelings across in a very descriptive way.

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572 Words | 3 Pages

In “Let America Be America Again” Langston Hughes uses an abundant amount of imagery, tone and has a specific style of writing to show how America never was the “America” people thought it was. Hughes uses a lot of imagery when he explains jobs of certain people, “I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the negro, servant to you all…”.

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3253 Words | 14 Pages

In ‘Let America be America Again’ published in 1936, he calls for America to be known for the people that helped to create what it is today, rather than to be known for those that benefit from the people that made America what it is. The first three stanzas, read as though it is a speech that the speaker is reading aloud. This is shown through the minimal use of enjambment in the first stanza and the repetition of the verb ‘let’ at the beginning of most lines in the first stanza, for example, ‘Let it be the dream it used to be| Let it be the pioneer on the plain.’ However, between these first three stanza’s, Hughes writes the speakers inner thoughts in parentheses saying, ‘America never was America to me’ and ‘It never was America to me’, splitting the poem into two sections of the speaker’s mind. He speaks of America as ideals in his speech, to mirror the intrigue of the American Dream that was sold to many, saying ‘opportunity is real and life is free, ‘Equality is in the air we breathe.’

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922 Words | 4 Pages

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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399 Words | 2 Pages

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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835 Words | 4 Pages

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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744 Words | 3 Pages

This quote appears in the poem, in the third parenthesis within the poem. Langston Hughes communicates in the poem by addressing how America does not act as it use to. Langston Hughes will say that America has no equality between African Americans and caucasians with the African Americans getting the short side of the straw. Writing the last part of the poem allows, Langston Hughes, to express how he remained affected by the inequality in America. For the short phrase “There’s never been equality” Langston adds the words “for me” at the end of the phrase, allowing readers to understand the main point of why Langston Hughes writes this poem (Hughes, Line 16).

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Background Langston Hughes wrote “Let America Be America Again” in 1935 and published it in 1936. The poem discusses many topics, but the common theme is inequality. He mentions several groups of people that have been mistreated and discriminated against including Native Americans, African Americans, and poor people. The poem serves as a plea for better and equal opportunities for everyone.

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686 Words | 3 Pages

(There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this homeland of the free) “1. Like many of Langston’s poem Let America be Great Again is rheumatic one. Reading his poems is almost like read music, naturally follow the rhythmic tone of the words. “Hughes wrote in several literary genres including poetry, plays, short stories and novels. He is best known for his poetry, using jazz and Black folk rhythms in his work, ignoring classical forms in favor of the oral and improvisational traditions of Black culture”3.

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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