An Analysis Of 'America' By Tony Hoagland

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Joshua Bostick
English 1302
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The poem “America” by Tony Hoagland reflects on how peoples’ minds are clouded by small-scale items, money, and the unimportance of those items. Metaphors and imagery are utilized to emphasize the unimportance of materialistic items in America. How America is being flooded with unnecessary goods. The poem uses examples of people to create an example and connection to the overall meaning.
Principal themes in the poem consist of consumerism, capitalism, and most importantly greed. The poem described the journey of the poet as he went--goes through an implied spiritual transformation starting with getting annoyed with one of his students wanting to yell at him “how full of shit” he is, after that he recalled his dream, after dowsing off, he recalled something else a poem by Karl Marx a major communist. “I was listening to cries of the past when I should have been listening to the cries of the future,” after the fact, he came to an understanding with the student while imagining the mediforeical nightmare. Grouping themes together there are dreams, nightmares, waking life, dream life, sleeping, and clarity exactly, and being aware that the person is dreaming. When Hoagland references people drowning in the river, it could be compared to people working across seas in different countries, manufacturing goods for the average American while the workers live in harsh environments, but no one thinks of that when running around in new Nike shoes. The “you” in the pleasure boat is American people or America frankly, or even the ideals of consumerism were the normal person needs a new IPhone ever year when it is released. In the poets dream when he talks about stabbing his father and “Ben Fra...

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...nsumerism. The metaphor of “rivers of bright merchandise” gives an image of modern day consumerism because they reader can think of a river of just stuff that is not essential to life, this can also be interpreted as a nightmare. The metaphor continues by placing people below suffering beneath the deep piles (waters) of merchandise that drowns today’s culture. Those people are the once who only think about what they want, but not on what they needed. Then there are people that are floating along or “staying afloat” and do not be consumed by materialistic items.
After a close analysis of “America” by Tony Hoagland, the poem warns and points out the problems with our consumerism. Hoagland uses metaphors and imagery to describe the actions of American, while throwing in counteracting themes. And uses thoughts and dreams to bring in metaphors that complex the poem.

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