poems 579Arguably, Hughes’s most biting criticism of
the limitations of the American dream is conveyed
through “Let America Be America Again” (1938).
In this poem, Hughes describes the American values
that have come to comprise the “dream”—freedom,
liberty, democracy, and equality—all the while inter-
jecting that the dream never actually existed for
poor Americans, peoples of color, and “undesirable”
immigrants. During enslavement, African Ameri-
cans were excluded from participating in the Ameri-
can dream (also a theme in the 1931 poem “The
Negro Mother”). Forced into a cycle of poverty after
emancipation, which included the sharecropping
system and a rigid caste system that prevented any-
one who was not a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant
from advancing, African Americans became the for-
gotten pioneers whose American dream amounted
to nothing more than a nightmare.
Despite the pessimism that runs throughout
most of the poem (after all, it was published at
the height of the Great Depression when the
United States was experiencing record homeless-
ness, unemployment, and general civil unrest, all of
it described), Hughes is optimistic for a brighter
future: “O, let America be America again—The
land that never has been yet—And yet must be—the
land where every man is free.” Hughes echoes the
same sentiments in “I, Too, Sing America” (1925),
in which he describes two Americas, one for afflu-
ent whites, the other for their “darker brothers” who,
as maids and butlers, are sent to “eat in the kitchen
when company comes.” However, Hughes predicts
that one day the tables will turn, and those who
are at the bottom of society today, will grow strong
and rise to the top (in “Cultural Exchange” [1967]
Hughes even dreams of a day when Martin Luther
King, Jr., is governor of Georgia).
Hughes also addresses the limitations of the
American dream in “Harlem” (1951). This poem,
which is framed around “dreams deferred,” discusses
what happens when dreams are delayed or post-
poned. According to Hughes, there are two options:
They either die from within—or they explode.
Many African Americans of his generation were
forced to surrender their dreams, and were left with
nothing but “crusted” and “sugared-over” syrupy
sweet memories of what might have been. In “Har-
lem,” Hughes maintains that African Americans can
no longer afford to allow their dreams to “sag like
a heavy load,” or else their dreams will eventually
“explode.” Although this poem was written before
the Civil Rights movement became an organized
social force, it is clear that Hughes believes that
African Americans are on the cusp of a revolution.
Hughes uses the same metaphor—this time of a
dream exploding through prison walls—in his poem
“Oppression” (1947). In “Sea Calm” (1932), Hughes
metaphorically states that the dreams of African
Americans will one day be realized, and that all they
were experiencing was the “calm before the storm”:
“it is not good for water to be so still that way.”
“Theme for English B” (1951), which was writ-
ten the same year as “Harlem,” also grapples with the
nature of the American dream. “Theme for En glish
B” is structured around a writing assignment given
to a 22-year-old African-American college student
by his white composition instructor. During the
writing process, the student realizes that he is the
only black student in his all-white class (which is
probably at Columbia University, given its proximity
to Harlem): at school, he is a token representative of
his minority race, but at home in Harlem, he is in
the majority. He realizes that because of his race, his
page will not remain “white” but will be “colored” by
his experiences and identity as an African American.
His composition allows him to come to terms with
the reality that, in the United States, there are mul-
tiple definitions of “American” and the “American
dream.” Despite the tension between blacks and
whites—“Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be
a part of me . . . Nor do I often want to be a part
of you”—according to Hughes, they should learn
to live together in harmony: “You are white—yet a
part of me, as I am a part of you.” Hughes’s message
is that as “Americans,” people of all races can learn
from each other and draw unity from shared experi-
ences. This, in his opinion, is the true meaning of the
American dream.
Tanfer Emin TuncFreedom in the poetry of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes’s poetry provides a theoretical
space in which minorities, the marginalized, and
the disenfranchised can negotiate freedom despite