“The New Colossus,” an Italian sonnet by Emma Lazarus, describes the Statue of Liberty guiding the immigrants with her glowing hands and welcoming them into America. Lazarus, using imagery and specific diction, reveals that the Statue of Liberty represents peace and acceptance, therefore, showing America is a country of freedom that protects and accept the immigrants who are “yearning to breathe free” (11).
In the beginning of the poem, Lazarus uses comparison and specific diction to disclose that the Statue of Liberty symbolizes peace and welcoming: “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame / With conquering limbs astride from land to land;“ (1-2). The “giant of Greek fame” alludes to the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue built to celebrate the
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Using the adjectives “sea-washed” and “sunset” to describe the “gates,” Lazarus creates a serene imagery where the waves wash the gates and the golden sunlight surrounds the gates, the entrance to America, setting a warming and gracious mood. At this calming place, the statue holds a torch with “imprisoned lightning.” The “lightning” connotes danger because lightning can electrify and kill a person. However, with “imprisoned lightning,” the danger is locked in place, suggesting there is no danger. Therefore, the Statue of Liberty protects the immigrants through eliminating danger, showing America’s kindness toward these people. Likewise, the name for the statue, “Mother of Exiles,” displays compassion towards the immigrants. A mother figure is attentive and affectionate, which conveys that the statue will take care of the exiles and love the exiles, and the exiles in this poem are the immigrants who leave their ancient lands. In the next line, Lazarus describes the statue’s “beacon-hand / Glows world-wide welcome” (6-7), creating a calming imagery where everyone in the world can see the light and are welcomed to come, and the alliteration adds on to the serene mood. In addition, the overall rhyme schemes make the poem pleasant to read and maintain the positive tone. The light symbolizes guidance to freedom as it leads people into America, searching for a new life. Following this imagery, Lazarus describes the location of the statue, in the harbor between two cities, which are New York City and
Within Ellis Island by Joseph Bruchac, On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley, and Europe and America by David Ignatow there are different views of what the American Dream is and what it means to immigrants. Each author writes about their own experience of immigration and life in America, which shapes their view of the American dream. The common theme between the three poems is the variable nature of the American dream and how it has different meanings for each person coinciding with contradictions between leisure and suffering.
Literary Analysis: Exploring American Identity Introduction This essay compares “In response to executive order 9066” (poem) by Dwight Okita to “Mericans” (short story) by Sandra Cisneros. Specifically, the essay explores the central theme of American identity in the two literary works. The “Mericans” is about a little girl who has a story about the new world and the old world. In this case, the new world is America.
Immigrants have been dreaming about the promise of America for hundreds of years, but only the people who are brave enough have continued on coming to become a true American. Many different ethnicities have traveled into America to live their American dream, which is to have a job, house, a family of their own, and to have Freedom. Many people could either travel by train or boat. The poem “The New Colossus 1883” by Emma Lazarus tells a main idea of the Statue of Liberty represents freedom for many immigrants.
Each of these individual symbols are important when conveying the ultimate message of The Statue of Liberty (Source D). Furthermore it is important that these pieces continue to guide Americans
As a representative of slavery, Frederick Douglass in the speech, What To The American Slave Is Your 4th Of July?, denounces America’s disposition towards slavery, noting its emergence into a flagrantly hypocritical state. Douglass supports his denouncement by arguing that, to the African American slave, whether freed or not, the Fourth of July is merely reminiscent of the blatant injustice and cruelty they stand subject to every day. The author’s purpose is to declare that slaves are men as well, in order to slander the nation’s misconduct and unveil the great sin and shame of America: slavery. Douglass’s formal writing style addresses his audience of Americans who observe the holiday, as well as others interested in the topic of slavery and deception ー where America reigns.
This analogy asserts that freed slaves should be able to carve their own path in American history, something they had been incapable of doing while slaves. Even if this meant failure for freedmen, at least it was a failure they could choose for
Should Cities Be Allowed To Take Down Confederate Statues? What do you think about Confederate Statues? Should cities and governments be allowed to take these statues down? The city of New Orleans had this problem.
Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. Introducing his subject, Douglass reminds his audience about the dark side of America for slaves, in sharp, surprising contrasts with the apparent progressivity within the nation. He first notices “the disparity,” that “the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and deaths to me,” as an African-American former slave. It is surprising for the audience to hear that the Sun does not bring him any prosperity, that the Sun, the source of life on earth, brings him destruction.
Disappointment. Betrayal. Deceived. All these terms are common themes in the writing of several immigrants during their journey to America. After reading many personal accounts of immigrants and learning about their expeditions to America, it became evident it is not as joyous a ride as many make it seem.
To begin, he uses emotional appeal to create powerful imagery to persuade the reader that celebrating freedom is wrong when slavery still exists. He announces, “fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them” (para. 4). By creating a picture in the audience’s mind of other people’s cries of freedom deriding slaves, they begin to feel ashamed for being so cheerful while African Americans have no liberty. The readers have recognized that they are being hypocrites by supporting slavery while boasting about their freedom as a country, which leads them to begin wanting to
An abolitionist, a former slave, and Republican Statesman Frederick Douglass had given a moving speech “What to the Slave is The Fourth Of July” to an audience of white New York Abolitionists in the year 1852. In addition, Douglass’s purpose of the speech is to emphasize the meaning of the Fourth of July to slaves and how the white men have a sense of freedom while the slave has to deal with the reality of what the day means to them. In the speech, Douglass had created a harsh tone to discuss the importance of anti-slavery. Douglass begins his speech by explaining the idea of what a slave may think of the Fourth of July because he had been a slave and by expressing the way he feels about the holiday that represents freedom for the people in the United States. He calls upon the audience by asking them a question using an interrogative sentence “[...] allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?”
Through imagery, symbolism, and diction, the two passages collectively offer a pessimistic critique on opportunity in America: although the American dream can certainly reinvent one’s future, the dream cannot alter one’s past,
On the inscription, it reads as “I lift my lamp beside the golden door” in the final line. This is supposed to be a metaphorical gateway to a better life but the immigrants and refugees were instead treated to prejudice due to their race, voices and skin tone. Another excerpt from the inscription on Lady Liberty reads “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” This seems to paint an accepting country as the idea of America when in reality, when the immigrants were done being processed and allowed into America, these already hurt and exhausted people were introduced to an unaccepting country that wished to throw them aside, making it very hard for any of then to find jobs and live like an equal human to the rest of the population. The way that the “free country of America” treated the immigrants is a sharp and stinging contrast to the American Dream that this country seems to promise