Comparing The Lottery And Let America Be America Again

American values and traditions, such as democracy and individualism are the cornerstone of our culture, and are passed down from generation to generation. However not all values and traditions in American culture and history are positive, systematic racism and oppression of minorities is still prevalent in society, both The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, and “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes speak to this message. Jackson’s and Hughes’ works attempt to demonstrate how American culture has remained stagnant, and not attempted to change and adapt for the betterment of our society to be more inclusive of minorities. Both authors however, use different means to display this message, Jackson uses dialogue and metaphor, and Hughes used

It speaks to how the wealthy white class receive a priority and many advantages over their peers, and thus view America to be a good, safe, and fair place, because they’re not being harmed by the culture. Whereas those who don’t fit into the first class are brushed away as outsiders and treated unfairly, Hughes cites slavery, the American treatment of Native Americans, immigrants, and poor lower to middle class Americans, who are able to view the flaws in our culture and society, and realize the irony in viewing America in such a high standard. The juxtaposition of those two cultures can be seen in the poem immediately when the first group, the wealthy white class, begins to say how America isn’t offering the same opportunities it used to, and the second class, everyone else, saying how America has never offered them opportunities, which stems into an entire monologue by the second group. This monologue of sorts truly displays the harshness of American culture against those who don’t fit perfectly into the mold of rich and white, saying how the poor worker works away for years has never gotten ahead, who moved to the New World to escape the confines of the rigid social hierarchy, only to land in a new one, but invisible one. The vivid language is present all throughout this story to demonstrate the hardships that many Americans go through. Take for example, the second stanza on the second