"Let America Be America Again" and Failings

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again" portrays American history as a failure to respect the propositions and principles it had set for itself in the beginning. The paper explains how the poem is composed to deceive the reader into believing that the text is lamenting the ideal past of the American nation, while the first stanzas are actually interrupted by parentheses in which the poet excludes himself from the common past of the American people. The paper therefore shows how "Let America Be America Again" opens up the historical past of the country, showcasing its failings and errors.

From the Paper:

"One of the greatest poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes introduces an essential reality of the American history in his work, Let America be America Again. The poem ironically discusses the American Dream and its intrinsic falseness. Hughes thus portrays the American history as a failure to respect the propositions and principles it had set for itself in the beginning. The failure of the American Dream is denounced by the series of persecutions pervading the American history. Hughes thus enumerates all the victims of the treacherous dream: the Native Indians who were savagely dispossessed of their land by the settlers, the African Americans who were enslaved, the poor white people who became the victims of capitalism. As an African American, Hughes feels he is one of those whose democratic ideals have been dreadfully cheated by the American history."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dawahare, Anthony. "Langston Hughes' Radical Poetry and the 'End of Race'". MELUS, Vol. 23(3), 1998.
• Harding, Vincent. Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement. New York: Orbis, 1990.
• Hughes, Langston. "Let America Be America Again". The Academy of the American Poets. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609, Mar. 23, 2008
• Presley, James. "On 'Let America Be America Again.'" Modern American Poetry. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/america.htm Mar. 23, 2008.

More papers on "Let America Be America Again" and Failings:

• Poem Review # 113609 : "Let America Be America Again" and Symbolism"
• Poem Review # 93960 : "Let America be America Again"

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