Essay Sample on Freedom for All: Claiming Power and Overcoming Obstacles

Introduction

Everyone desires to live in a world where they are free, a place where they can exercise power and enjoy living like a human being that has their personal space. However, this does not happen to everyone. Many people do not have the chance to exercise freedom and power. There are many reasons and aspects that keep people tied up. While some of the issues might be easy to overcome, some might not be an issue to get over. However, one important thing is that people should have the courage to come out and look for freedom. In the collection, two poets seek to bring out the aspect of freedom and how the people were able to achieve it.

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In the poem "Mother to Son," the author seems to speak deeply about the challenges that come in the question of access to power. She says that life has not been a "crystal stair." She mentions the problem that comes with experience that includes "splinters," "board torn up," and "places with no carpeted floor" (Hughes 1921). These expressions seem to suggest that the life she has lived is not just an easy life that you can get over. Things are not only crystal clear where you can pick anything you desire and move ahead with it. It requires one to be resilient. The Poet seems to present the idea that there is not much freedom in the world. Things are always hard.

One of the approaches that the Poet seems to support on getting freedom is to fight hard and never give up. The idea here is that freedom only comes to the people that are willing to endure the tough terrain until they get to the end. For the Poet, she never sat down because the going got tough. She believed that it is essential to keep moving on until she got to the place where there is freedom. The main point that seems to come out, in this case, is that freedom is hard to come by. However, a person who has the resilience can still be able to achieve freedom.

In the poem "I Too," the Poet seems to speak of the challenges that they have experienced living without any freedom. One thing that he mentions is that there are people that curtailed him from expressing his power. He states "they made me eat in the Kitchen" this is to mean that there were people that were more powerful than he was and they had to force him to do things that would not have done. However, the Poet seems to highlight the idea that it is only the individuals that never feel like giving up that can overcome such challenges. He states that "I'll be at the table." In this case, the Poet is confident that while today, the people might have all the power to force him to stay in the kitchen, they will not have it always (Hughes 1921). There is a day that will come, and he will be able to challenge them at the "table." The message, in this case, is that one should have the bravery and the resilience to believe that at one point, they can achieve and enjoy their freedoms.

In the poem, the cube, the Poet advocate the idea that people should fight for freedom. Looking in the histories of the African Americans, the issue of racism has often meant that they are seen as laser race (Hughes 1931). With the idea that they are of a laser being than the Whites, the African American had to endure suffering while living on the fringes of the society. However, one thing that seems to stand out is that they were convinced that there is a way that the society should recognize them. They believed that they have a right to live a life just like any other people in American society. It is this conviction that led them to fight to have equality. The grandparents of the African Americans did not decide to take a back seat and wait for freedom to come to them. It was a deliberate decision that they made about getting freedom. The desire is not the only thing that one needs to get freedom. Once there is a desire, the next thing is to get out there and try to earn that freedom.

Therefore, these poets seem to argue that the only approach towards getting freedom is through a robust way. The robust way that they seem to advocate in this case might involve fighting and at times dying. Just as the Poet in the "I Too" had the belief that they can also sit on the table with the others, which is the drive that an individual should have. While this conviction can be the driving force, one should know that there is not an easy way out. The Poet in the poem "Mother to Son" seems to strongly advocate that there is nothing as getting freedom easy (Hughes 1921). To her, she had to give it all even when there were many hurdles that were erected on the way. One should strive to step over the several huddles until they finally get out from the other side where there is Friday.

Freedom does not just come on a silver platter. Looking down through the lens of history, no place in the world has ever achieved independence without a struggle. While some have opted to use diplomacy as a way to make it, in most cases, it forces people to take up arms before they can achieve the power to negotiate as equals. The two poets thus seek to support the view that freedom does not come through any other means apart from one that is violent. When they state that the road does not have a "carpet floor" or that "nobody I'll dare say to me," it seems quite evident that this is not about negotiation but a fight. Freedom comes to the brave (Hughes 1923).

Dunbar also seems to speak about the issue of freedom. In the poem "Sympathy, he talks about the caged bird. The speaker seems to feel the situation that the bird is in. The bird has the desire to have some freedom to fly to its patch. It also desires to feel the sun rising, setting, and the springing of the grass, but the lack of liberty curtails all these things. While the persona here is the bird, the Poet could be well speaking of the caged people. Just as the case of the African Americans in the country that tend to live in captivity, with no room to express and experience their full potential. The Poet seems to argue that he understands the challenge that the people are going through. It would seem that the Poet contends that the lack of freedom is quite devastating.

However, the Poet seems to support the idea that for one to get the freedom, they must struggle for it. For the bird has to beat its wings against the mental poles. It has to get its wing hurt and its belly sour. The metal poles that seem to hold the bird back are the authorities and the people that seem to wilt power over the African Americans. The author is trying to symbolical imply that for one to get the freedom, they have to use extreme measures that might include violence. In the process, there are chances that one would get hurt. However, if one must get freedom, then there is no way out. There is a need to endure the pain put finally get the privilege. Therefore the Poet seems to support the idea that the only path to freedom is through a struggle that at times might involve suffering and violence.

Conclusion

In reading these poems from the two poets, one can be able to have an experience of how hard it is to achieve freedom. Besides, they seem to speak of the many people that end up living a life where other people seemingly control them. In any case, that one has power over the other; they would often try to use the ability to limit one's freedom. However, with resilience, it is possible to overcome these challenges and experience freedom. The Poet necessitates that the way towards liberty is never an easy one. It would involve struggles that might eventually lead people to get hurt and even bruised. However, the focus should be on the end goal, which is freedom.

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. The collected poems of Langston Hughes. Vintage, 2020.