Desired Hope Essay -- Literary Analysis, Walt Whitman

The American dream is a dream that everyone hopes to one day achieve. It is what keeps the country going and develops hard workers of many. Langston Hughes’s â€Å"I, Too† and Walt Whitman’s â€Å"I Hear America Singing† is the epitome of that dream, the poems both demonstrate a certain air of aspiration for the future of America and both of the speakers want change for the better. The poem’s speakers are both men and are of the working class. Even though their jobs may not be desirable and in Hughes’s â€Å"I, Too† the speaker may be working against his will, he is still working and they are both adhering with them for that feeling of hope. After all, the working class strata are the people with the strongest appetite for that dream because the reason they are working is to eventually fulfill that American dream. In Walt Whitman’s â€Å"I Hear America Singing† the speaker is the more content of the two poems. His tone does not sound sad nor like he is not pleased with what he encounters. Even if he doesn’t like what his life consists of, Whitman writes, â€Å"The day what belongs to the day––at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,† (Kennedy 1096). At the end of the day whether he had a good or bad day he gets to let loose with the other hard-working men and all his hard work ultimately paid off because of this time he gets to enjoy to himself. So rather than dreading his life he is fine with what he has to do for work and looks forward to what is yet to come. This might be that this man is satisfied with his life because he really is not being held against his will to work. He has the choice to do what he wants. When one is held against his or her will it usually strips away someone of any sureness. In Langston Hughes’s â€Å"I, Too† the spe... ...es, But I laugh† (Kennedy 976). The two poems are very ambitious. They both have a sense of if they are working hard, then one day all this hard work will pay off. Although their jobs may seem similar one, being Walt Whitman’s speaker has it easier, than Langston Hughes’s speaker; because this speaker is a slave. Although Whitman’s speaker has it easier to possibly obtain that dream, he has hope, but sounds far less confident in what the future can bring him. Their lives seem as if there is nothing to do, but work, and have hope for the future. Their hope is primarily surrounded because their lives do not consist of much because they are of the working class. When one is a part of the working class there is not much financial freedom to fulfill desired experiences. It displays the impression of the harder a person has it in life the more hope that person has.