Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Langston Hughes- Positive or Negative?

"Let America be America Again" by Langston Hughes seems to have very common thought to what all of us Americans are really thinking. She did list a lot of our suffering in the individual, and made it very clear as to why us Americans would have doubt in ourselves. I don't think this part relates too well with the American Character and belief system though. This part of the poem is very Average Joe, its what were all thinking and complaining about. We all say things like "I hate how unethical this country made us". But she doesnt mention that its not the piece of land were standing on that made us this way. Its the opportunities of the easy route that the rights of this country gave us. We all say we hate how unethical we are, and yet sueing and falsely accusing and censoring people seem to be a normal thing.
However, at the end of the poem, she says she wants America to be the America that it never was, the America were all fond of, and instead of doing what the average person does, she swears to help change it. Apathy and fear are the roots of ultimate evil, and in the end she expresses none. I think the earnest need to help people out of the wrongs they are facing is a universal thing, but very much part of the American Character and Belief System. I think this poem was the thing we were all thinking but not saying.