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The Collapse of the American Dream

A key theme in Hughes’s poem relates to the collapse of the American dream. It is precisely this theme of collapse that motivates the speaker to speak and attempt to rouse the reader to action. The speaker powerfully introduces the theme of collapse in the sonnet that opens the poem. There, they counterpose an idyllic vision of a free and equal America against an America where unfreedom and inequality reign. As the speaker pithily puts it in line 5: “(America never was America to me.)” The speaker continues to foreground the collapse of the American dream in the poem’s long middle section (lines 17–61). Here, the speaker launches a full-on attack against the idealistic vision of America, which has failed most Americans. They initially develop this critique by adopting the perspectives of various underprivileged and marginalized communities. As an example of this technique, consider lines 31–35:

     I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
     I am the worker sold to the machine.
     I am the Negro, servant to you all.
     I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
     Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Whether underprivileged due to class, race, or both, numerous communities of Americans remain hungry and poor “despite the dream.” The speaker clinches this critique at the end of the middle section, where they count themself among “The millions who have nothing for our pay— / Except the dream that’s almost dead today” (lines 60–61).

The Importance of Solidarity among the Oppressed

Given that the original dream of America has collapsed for most Americans, the speaker insists on the importance of developing a sense of solidarity among the oppressed. The speaker suggests as much in the poem’s middle section, where they adopt various points of view from among the oppressed races and classes. As an example, consider lines 19–24:

     I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
     I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
     I am the red man driven from the land,
     I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
     And finding only the same old stupid plan
     Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

The repeated use of “I am” here allows the speaker to speak from numerous points of view, all of which have suffered under “the same old stupid plan” that has corrupted the American dream. The speaker’s point is that, regardless of race or country of origin, most Americans have a shared experience of unfreedom and inequality. In the poem’s final section (lines 62–86), the speaker uses this notion of shared experience to invoke a sense of solidarity among the oppressed. Immediately after a stanza that repeatedly references “the millions” of Americans who have suffered, the speaker calls on these millions to see themselves as part of a broader collective (lines 66–69):

     Who made America,
     Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
     Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
     Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Only through solidarity can the oppressed have a chance at redeeming the dream of America.

Redemption Requires Collective Action

Closely linked to the theme of class solidarity is the theme of collective action. The speaker spends a lot of time developing a perspective that includes many voices from among America’s oppressed and underprivileged. This “polyvocal” perspective emphasizes how, despite differences in racial and ethnic background, working-class Americans are bound together in their shared experience of oppression. The speaker takes care to illustrate this shared experience as a way to invoke a sense of solidarity. But solidarity only has a meaningful function if it serves as a spur to action. For the speaker, class solidarity is the key element that’s needed to take back the land, redistribute wealth, and thereby redeem the original dream of America. And indeed, the poem culminates with just such a vision of redemption (lines 80–86):

     Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
     The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
     We, the people, must redeem
     The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
     The mountains and the endless plain—
     All, all the stretch of these great green states—
     And make America again!

Here, the speaker makes a rousing call for the common people to come together for the sake of reclaiming and redeeming the land. The speaker doesn’t disclose by what means the people will “make America again,” though it seems likely that this goal can only be achieved through revolution. But regardless, the speaker insists on the need for collective action.

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