Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again" is being written from not only a black man's perspective, but also from that of an immigrant, a poor man and an Indian. Hughes is hopeful of what America could one day be "Land of the Free," although it has never truly been. Hughes causes readers to question the patriotic images that are wonderfully painted for us and for those who come to America with the hopes of achieving the “American dream.” In the third stanza of the poem Hughes writes "But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe" this line in particular makes the reader question the true meaning of “opportunity” for all because as Hughes states, "There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this homeland of the free." Although America has never truly been America "the land of the free," we should never stop fighting for that dream, we must never forget what the original dream was and why we started fighting for our freedom in the first place.
It is up to those who have been deprived to get back their America. It
is up to those... to us who have seen the people that have come before us fight
so hard up until this point. It is up to us to continue the long journey
and to always fight. America has not been "good" to everyone
equally there are people who have come to America with hopes and dreams and who
have believed this land to be a promising one yet have been let down. For some
America has never lived up to its reputation. Hughes ends the poem with the
hopes that America can someday fulfill its destiny. He believes that America
can still be all the things it was supposed to already have been. Everyday
people forget what we originally started fighting for in the first place.
Instead, we continue to fight each other when we should be lifting one another.
Hopefully as time goes on we continue to fight for the original American
dream... EQUALITY FOR ALL!
No comments:
Post a Comment