Idealism in Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes Essay

Idealism in Let the States Be America Again by Langston Hughes In the song Let America Be America Again, Langston Hughes paints a vivid word picture of a depressed America in the 1930s. To many living in America, the imaginationlism presented as the American Dream had escaped their grasp. In this poetic expression, a loudspeaker system is allowed to voice the unsung Americans concern of how America was intended to be, had set out to them, and could aspire to be again. Using a conversational style, the author allows the speaker and listener to interact with each other. The issue addressed is that America is non 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 matt-up as well as the urgency of the message. The listeners response contains the main idea of the piece, comparing the democratic ideal to the condit ions of those who are victims because of race, age, or economic status. The authors close use of alliteration in phrases such as pushed apart (19) and slaverys scars (20) emphasizes the struggles and craziness experienced by less fortunate Americans. The speaker begins the narration by making a statement that America should return to the idealistic expression it used to be Let it be the dream it used to be (2). Then the narrator continues to relate nostalgically the longing for an America construct on freedom and equality for all. This could be the dream of the author himself. Wagner states of the author, comparable his first masters Whitman and Sandburg, like his fellow black Toomer, and like so many other American poets of the period, Lan... ...tion in Depression (Ramperstad 371). Commenting on this poem and its author, Langston Hughes, Ramperstad observes, Perhaps his finest poem of the thirties combined his allow for to revolution with his Whitman-like nost algia for a vanishing America. Hughes gives us a richer insight of American idealism, American realism, and what, America will be (73). Works Cited Hughes, Langston. Let America Be America Again. _Literature An cornerstone to Reading and Writing_. 4th ed. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs Prentice-Hall, 1995. 723-24. Rampersad, Arnold. Langston Hughes. _Voices & Visions the Poet in America_. Ed. Helen Vendler. New York Random House, 1987. 352-93. Wagner, Jean. Langston Hughes. _Black Poets of the unify States_. Trans. Kenneth Douglas. Chicago U of Illinois P, 1973, 385-474.