Student Question
Why did Hughes use parentheses in a line of the poem?
Quick answer:
Langston Hughes uses parentheses in "Let America Be America Again" to juxtapose the myth of America's glorious past with his personal commentary that this past is a lie. The parentheses highlight the contradiction between the idealized history and the reality for marginalized groups, like African Americans, who suffered oppression and exploitation. This literary device allows Hughes to present both the mainstream narrative and his critical perspective simultaneously.
It is a core myth of American nationhood that America has a great and glorious past that, while it may have slipped away, can be returned to with some intentionality. In the poem "Let America Be America Again", Langston Hughes acknowledges this core myth, and appeals to it, but he also uses parentheses to set off his own commentary on the idea: that this great past is a lie. As a black person, Hughes is intimately familiar with the fact that that "great" past was facilitated by the oppression of racialized groups, most specifically through the extraction of their labor. This reality means that Hughes has never been the kind of person who was capable of experiencing any greatness that did exist. The parentheses are used to hold these two ideas in space with each other even though they contradict.
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