Hughes Poem

Hughes describes America as being divided by the rich, who the American dream is very much alive for, and the poor, who have unjustly been excluded. Even more so, to make matters worse, the poor aren’t just exempt from the luxuries wealth brings, but are treated inhumane on the equivalence of dirt. He believes America is a made home for the rich, and a resting for those invisibly labeled by the ‘servant tag.’

The doctrine of freedom that the pioneers once preached is dead to him, or perhaps, never existed in the first place. Freedom can only bear its name if all are free, not just the select few who have the power and means to purchase it. Hughes wants equal opportunities –or not even that, just a fair chance to succeed. The elite constantly are bearing their weight on the thousands who have to support it; yet those holding them in their high pedestal cannot even experience as taste of relief that they have resting.

The tone of this poem is very sarcastic, and as it continues, the mocking nature of it grows stronger and more evident, allowing the disdain to form in to pleading where the writer sounds almost desperate and angry for salvation. Hughes is criticizing the trickery used in raising America to being what it is; they promise the birth of your dream, which seems to be everyone’s in this ‘liberated land’: all of my hard work will account to ease, success, happiness. As in The Great Gatsby, Mr. Gatz brought life to part of his dream, but wasn’t able to complete it. When he aspired to making it whole, he died failing. All of this meaning that the dream is an impossible goal to reach, due to it already lying six feet under.

As for me, I am pretty dead about the American dream. I mean, believe it or not, America has other problems to address; concerning the way it is ruled, all of its corrupt conduct, the disappearing middle class, the school system, the thousands of broken homes, the decline in economy, et. cetera. One thing we must understand is that our constitution is manmade, and absolutely won’t be perfect. The problem lies where we don’t want to address the loop holes and empty fillings our Bill of Rights -and so on, till the point where our great system has inevitably failed. Furthermore, we are moving away from the constitution completely, which most Americans are unfortunately, unaware of. Things change; it’s just a matter of controlling it.