I Hear America Singing Analysis

Specifically, the poem addresses American’s pride in work. In the poem, the poet demonstrates the various voices of working Americans who toil hard at their jobs (Whitman, 1991). Text 2, Children in the meadows and wetlands is written by Suzan Shown Herjo. The poem is adopted from a Legal Review financed by the Native American Rights Fund. The poem was written during a time when it was argued that all Natives living in America were to be fully-assimilated into the dominant community of the United States. In the other hand, Text 3 refers to history by presenting the sufferings endured by the Vietnam war veterans. The artist goes ahead to illustrate how the veterans were treated with a lot of hostility when they returned home.

In addition to this, these two texts are similar in how they present the aspect of lack of kindness towards fellow human beings. Herjo (1992) indicates that the teachers depicted in Text 2 did not show mercy to the Native American children. Since the policy of assimilating the children was presented by the government and the teachers had no viable alternative, they should have assimilated the children into the dominant US society in a friendly manner. In the midst of these challenges, the children found it hard to concentrate in school. Worse off, the teachers did not attempt to provide necessary education requirements and settings for the children. All these evils happened to the children simply because they were Native Americans but not white Americans.

This is a clear indication that through the text, Suzan Herjo aimed at exhibiting the challenge of racial discrimination in the American society. Therefore, by writing the poem, Children in the meadows and wetlands, Suzan was effective in showing the education challenges and racism issues experienced by the Native American children. The main reason for the Vietnam war was a political cause. Bruce Springsteen presents the song to demonstrate the adverse implications of war. For instance, he notes that he had a brother who was killed during the Vietnam war (Springsteen, 1984). In this context, the song acts as a lamentation for the working-class individuals who were killed during the war. In addition, it shows how the society was not ready to appreciate the Vietnam war veterans who risked their lives to fight in Vietnam.