Poem Analysis: Let America Be Whole Again

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Austin Rivera Block 3 10/11/12 Mrs. Singleton Let America be Whole Again In the beginning, a land was created were the underlining principal was for all people to be treated as equals. A place where one could not be judged on their religion, wealth, or power. A country where the value of a person could be weighed by the work of their back alone. And a society where the only way to change a person’s lifestyle was to take matters into their own hands and improve it themselves. But that America is long gone. Langston Hughes’s poem, “Let America be America Again”, examines the core plagues that have dissolved the original promise and purpose of America. Plagues that contain racism, wealth, and an insatiable thirst for power have caused…show more content…
When America was still an infant, the oppression and implementation of slavery was considered a thriving business. A market was created, and people’s lives were compared to consumer goods. Generations were imprinted with a natural sense of higher value when compared to their slave counterparts. For years, these slaves were at the mercy of their owners, and were seen as nothing more than live stock. But as time passed, people started to believe that slavery was unconstitutional. Debates were fought, muskets snapped, and cannons roared in order to secure the future of our country. After a war that separated the country for the first time in her short history, slavery was abolished; but laws and manuscript can only do so much. For the generations that were imprinted with this natural racism, it would take an equal amount of explanation and understanding to have any hope of a change in their mindset. Langston Hughes’s poem depicts this as the “Negro bearing slavery’s scars”, stating that no matter how much time has or will pass, the social and mental damage has already been done (20). The country was torn apart by the seams on the issue of slavery. Even today she is mending her scars, hoping to correct and destroy the mindset of a natural dominance over another
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