Let America Be America Again Citation
Let America Be America Again | Quotes
one.
Permit America be America again.
Narrator
Hughes is calling for the United States to uphold and fulfill the promise of the American dream. This line, which is used twice in the verse form and serves as its championship, explicitly states Hughes's hope for the futurity.
2.
(America never was America to me.)
Narrator
The trouble with America is first stated in the parenthetical lines of Stanzas 2, 4, and vi. Hughes, an African American, has not had the same experiences in the The states as privileged white people. Because of the color of his pare, he is denied the freedoms and opportunities promised by the founders of the country. The country he experiences has never been the dwelling house of the costless. This parenthetical aside, and the two post-obit ones, are important also because of their structure. The parentheses indicate the line is to be said in a quieter vocalisation, every bit if the speaker is trying to sneak something in. This is representative of the silencing of minority voices in the United States.
3.
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
Narrator
An outside phonation flowing into the poem in Stanza seven, depicted in italics, direct responds to the speaker's parenthetical asides, posing a question to the speaker. Later on this, Hughes drops the italics and allows the speaker to respond freely to the unknown questioner—and speak his mind with a full and confident voice.
4.
Of take hold of the gold! Of take hold of the means of satisfying need!
Narrator
Stanza 9, in which these assertions appear, is virtually "the young homo, full of forcefulness and hope" who is trying to claim his share of the American dream. This stanza is full of short, action-packed phrases that brainstorm with "of," and create a feeling of frenzied greed. This is how he views privileged white people: grabbing as much as they tin every bit fast every bit they tin can without information technology ever being enough.
5.
I am the people, apprehensive, hungry, hateful.
Narrator
The speaker doesn't merely speak for himself in this poem—he speaks for all oppressed peoples, including African Americans, Native Americans, immigrants, and poor whites. These are the people for whom the American dream does not be. They struggle to survive, while the powerful and wealthy thrive.
six.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream.
Narrator
The situational irony in the American dream is that the people who starting time envisioned it—the oppressed from other parts of the earth—have no chance of achieving it today. With the exception of Native Americans and most Africans, the ancestors of today'due south oppressed populations came to America to first new lives where equality and freedom were promised to all. They did the dorsum-breaking labor of building the nation, and their descendants keep information technology running smoothly. These are the people who should benefit from the promises of the American dream, non the moneyed elite.
7.
To build a 'homeland of the complimentary.' / The free?
Narrator
The immigrants who beginning came to the United States did so to build a place where all people could exist complimentary. But that didn't actually happen. Stanza 12—"The free?"—is a pivot point where Hughes goes from talking near the ideals upheld by America'due south founders to the reality of oppression today.
8.
Who said the costless? Not me?
Narrator
The speaker insists he would never classify the United states as being the homeland of the free. His emphatic denial indicates no minority population would ever agree with the assertion that America was founded on the principles of liberty.
9.
The millions who have cypher for our pay— / Except the dream that's almost dead today.
Narrator
Hughes pays item attending to the denial of economical freedoms. Minorities and the lower classes are forced to take low-paying jobs and struggle to survive. Prejudice and discrimination prevent them from getting amend jobs. Yet in that location remains the nagging thought that if they worked harder they would exist able to reach the always-elusive American dream. Merely such a thought is no consolation. The American dream is little more than a fantasy that will never come up truthful.
10.
The steel of freedom does not stain.
Narrator
Stanza 15 is a function of the poem where Hughes directly addresses the prejudice and racism faced by many minorities. The speaker says it doesn't matter what "ugly name[southward]" people call him—when a person is free, hateful language and actions do not brand an impact. Freedom is like a shield that protects one from subversive exterior forces.
eleven.
We must take back our land again, / America!
Narrator
The speaker constantly refers to the Usa as belonging to him or to a group of people. Hughes sees the United States as belonging to the oppressed, not the privileged. Information technology is upwardly to the one-time to take dorsum the land and turn it into what it is supposed to be: a land of liberty and opportunity.
12.
And notwithstanding I swear this oath— / America will be!
Narrator
In Stanza 16 the speaker avows his desire to make the United States a country of freedom and opportunity for all people, non only the wealthy and powerful. His promises and calls to activeness increment in intensity every bit the verse form draws to a close.
13.
Nosotros, the people, must redeem.
Narrator
This is an innuendo to the preamble of the United States Constitution. Hughes reiterates the thought that it is up to the oppressed to effect change in the Us. Hither his rallying cry assumes a more than formal, authoritative feeling—resembling phrases from the founding documents of the United States.
14.
The country, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
Narrator
Until this point, Hughes has portrayed America equally an intangible, theoretical concept. This is where it becomes concrete. Readers connect Hughes'south ideas about freedom, oppression, equality, and opportunity to physical features of the U.s.a.—which makes his argument all the more than real.
fifteen.
And make America again!
Narrator
Hughes is not proverb people need to make America nifty again. He's proverb that they need for the very first fourth dimension to brand it into the land information technology was always supposed to exist. America has never been the country at the root of the American dream, but the oppressed masses tin finally brand it that way.
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