This station focuses on the language use and stylistic devices in the poem. If you feel confident to answer the main task, you understand the themes and perspectives well enough to move on to another station. If you are not sure whether you have reached the correct conclusions, you can take a look at the cheat sheet to compare your answers.
Main Task: Analyse how Langston Hughes uses language to emphasise the struggles of disadvantaged people in the USA.
Analysing the entire text for stylistic devices would be too much. Focus on the following two stanzas:
I am the farmer, bondsman6 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.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered7 through the years.
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief11 today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
Step by Step:
Hint: Sometimes reading them out loud can help in understanding their effect.
Main Task: Analyse how Langston Hughes uses language to emphasise the struggles of disadvantaged people in the USA.
