Literary Analysis Essay on "Let America be America again"

Introduction

Though this poem's road to fame and appreciation was a long and winding one, "Let America Be America Again" has become one of Langston Hughes's most iconic and influential works. Its secret lies within the equilibristic combination of the narrator's immediate and straightforward manner of speaking, the universality, and urgency of the problematics and the brilliant, potent diction. In his poem, Hughes uses dual discourse, repetitions, alliteration and assonance as well as extended metaphors to make his social criticism more powerful and tangible, to explore the dual nature of the American dream of freedom and equality as an illusion and a reality, and to offer multiple perspectives upon the problem in such a way celebrating the bright diversity of the nation.

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The structure of the poem is ingeniously crafted so that it could reflect the logic of the author's complex philosophical commentary on the idea of the American dream but also effectively engage the reader into the discussion. The first part of the poem is simple, rhythmic, catchy and vibrant. The sequence of three quatrains introduces the narrator's strong, bold and optimistic voice which speaks of America's bright future. Each of the quatrains is followed by a sad and disillusioned remark by the narrator's alter ego which reminds the readers of America's past and present. This alter ego whose skeptical and disappointed voice is heard repeatedly throughout the poem is a manifestation of the author's openness to multiple perspectives. J. Westover notes: "In his poem, Hughes deploys a dual discourse in order to express the contradictory meanings of America and to enrich those meanings with a sense of the word's critical possibilities. In doing so, he constitutes multiple publics, projected readerships that correspond to real and diverse audiences over time" (Westover 2). Structuring his poem as a conversation, Hughes offers his readers freedom of choice - the value that he most closely associated with the American nation.

The first quatrain is one of the most significant parts of the poem. It introduces the keywords which will be repeated many times throughout the poem - "America," "dream," "pioneer," "home," and "free". The lines in the quatrain are short and bold, bound together by the cross rhyme and anaphoric repetition of "let" in the first three lines. The lines are enlivened by the alliterations ("pioneer on the plain" (Hughes 3), "a home where he himself is free" (Hughes 2) and assonance "Seeking a home where he himself is free" (Hughes 3)). All these devices make the poem sound like a song, the beat of a drum and a political speech. The rhythm and the rhyme create a bright, optimistic and energizing sensation which is conveyed to the reader also through the metaphors. In the first line, Hughes introduces a very deliberate repetition which has also become the title of the poem: "Let America be America again" (Hughes 3). The reader cannot but start asking what the author means by "America". The author gives his first metaphoric answer in the three lines that follow: America is a dream and a pioneer seeking a home where he can be free. These two metaphors are developed in more detail later on in the poem. The first quatrain is followed by the disappointed comment set out by the brackets: "(America never was America to me)" (Hughes 3). This very comment reveals that the author sees America as a land that has not yet realized its potential of becoming a dream. By saying "to me" the author means that he represents those social groups whose dreams have never come to be realized rather than the privileged classes that live in prosperity. Thus, the first quatrain shapes the overall semantic and stylistic landscape of the poem and defines the horizon of the reader's expectations.

The other two quatrains in the first part of the poem reinforce the first quatrain in terms of the topic, style, and metaphors. The powerful alliterations "Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed" (Hughes 3), "Let it be that great strong land of love" (Hughes 3), "kings connive" (Hughes 3), "let my land be a land where Liberty..." (Hughes 3) add a song-like, fairy-tale-like, folk sound to the poem. Also, the second and the third quatrains introduce such key concepts as liberty and equality which are crucial for the understanding of Hughes's vision of the American dream. Liberty is metaphorically defined as a ruler of America which needs no crown and thus is "crowned with no false patriotic wreath" (Hughes 3). In this way, it is opposed to kings and tyrants which connive and scheme "that any man be crushed by one above" (Hughes 3). The urgent need for equality as an integral and indispensable aspect of the American social life is verbalized through the metaphor "Equality is in the air we breathe" (Hughes 3). Comparison with the air which is vital to sustain life on Earth is utilized by Hughes to underline how important equality is for the survival of the nation.

The second part of the poem is an extended answer to the question who the narrator is and whose interests he represents. It is set apart semantically and visually through the italicized lines: "Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? / And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?" (Hughes 3) where the mumbling in the dark may symbolize Hughes's long and hard way to recognition and fame, but also his will to speak up for the black population as well as other marginalized social groups, while the stars may be a reference to the American flag and the negative attitude to any kind of social criticism deemed to be non-patriotic. Thus, the second part of the poem is devoted to answering this challenge.

The narrator immediately proceeds to identify those whose interests he holds dear. These groups are named at once at the very beginning in the lines: "I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, / I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. / I am the red man driven from the land, / I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek... (Hughes 3). Through anaphoric repetition and syntactic parallelism, the narrator manages to show that he is speaking up for the four marginalized groups and that equality is indeed a priority for him. The interesting aspect of this poem is that here Hughes gives voice not only to the black population as he does, for example, in his famous poem "Negro Speaks of Rivers," but also to the "poor white," the indigenous people of America and the recent immigrants. All of them are united, elevated and empowered by the two metaphors introduced in the very first quatrain of the poem. The first among is the metaphor of a dream: "I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream ... / Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, / That even yet its mighty daring sings / In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned / That's made America the land it has become" (Hughes 4). The second metaphor is the image of the pioneer: "O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas / In search of what I meant to be my home" (Hughes 4). Through these powerful metaphors Hughes manages to identify himself as a poet and an activist with millions of Americans and thus he proceeds from the personal, intimate "I" to the generalizing, political, eloquent "we" in the lines "For all the dreams we've dreamed / And all the songs we've sung / And all the hopes we've held / And all the flags we've hung" (Hughes 4).

Hughes's ability to generalize and to speak not only for himself but for millions of people enables him not only to offer the reader social criticism but also to proclaim the pride and hope of those whose voice he has become which he does in the third part of the poem. In the lines "The land that's mine - the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME - Who made America" (Hughes 5), he proudly reclaims America as the country belonging to its people. The constant shift of focus from personal to collective perspective allows the author to create a synergy of the immediacy of personal point of view, the wisdom and pain of collective memory and the hope of the national dream. This unique perspective is what allows Hughes to escape the confines of the somewhat limiting term "protest" poetry. In Calvin Hernton's words, "'protest' as a label fails to include affirmation and celebration" (Hernton 2). Hughes's ability to criticize and celebrate, to see the beauty and the ugliness, to fight the illusions and to foster the dreams is what makes his vision so valuable and unique.

The whole poem is written as a dialogue and here, in the third part, it reaches its climax. The narrator openly and boldly addresses his opponents saying: "Sure, call me any ugly name you choose - / The steel of freedom does not stain. / From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, / We must take back our land again" (Hughes 5). In the given fragment, through the opposition of the two metaphors - the steel of freedom that is long-lasting and will not stain and the leeches that are short-lived creatures that can be eradicated with due effort - Hughes expresses his social optimism. Thus, the third part of the poem is devoted to the author's appeal to fight for a better future and his hope to change the lives of millions. From the abstract notion of a dream, Hughes proceeds to a very concrete and exact enumeration: "The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. / The mountains and the endless plain - / All, all the stretch of these great green states" (Hughes 5). This enumeration returns the reader from the elevated metaphoric realm of symbols and generalizations to the reality showing that the dream is real and standing united the Americans can make it finally come true.

Conclusion

In his poem "Let America be America again," Hughes uses a whole array of poetic means - dual discourse, repetitions, parallelism, alliteration and metaphor - to create a powerful universal voice and speak up for the black, the white and the red, the workers and the farmers, the indigenous people and the immigrants. This bold decision helps Hughes fight against the danger of 'a single story'. In her inspiring talk "The Danger of a Single Story," the modern novelist Chimamanda Adichie stresses the danger of falling under the spell of stereotypes: "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story" (Adichie). In Hughes's poem, many different stories come together creating a bright and powerful vision of the national history as a striving for the American dream.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda. "The Danger of a Single Story." TED. July 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2018. <https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story /transcript?language=en>.

Hernton, Calvin. "The Poetic Consciousness of Langston Hughes From Affirmation to Revolution." The Langston Hughes Review, vol. 12, no. 1, 1993, pp. 2-9. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26434530.

Hughes, Langston, et al. "Let America Be America Again." Presence Africaine, no. 59, 1966, pp. 3-5. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24348526.

Westover, Jeff. "Langston Hughes's Counterpublic Discourse." The Langston Hughes Review, vol. 24, 2010, pp. 2-19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26434683.