Emma Lazarus’s Poem The New Colossus and the American Dream

Emma Lazarus’s Poem “The New Colossus” and the American Dream
Name
HIS 162: United States History II
Institution
Date
Emma Lazarus’s Poem “the New Colossus” is linked to the Statue of liberty and reflects the idea that the U.S. is a heaven for immigrants and those oppressed. Even as Lazarus was from a wealthy family, her Jewish ancestry may have inspired work at a time Jews were being oppressed and persecuted in Russia. The second line is “With conquering limbs astride from land to land” and indicates persecution, but now the Statue of Liberty then was a source of hope and the humanitarian values of the American people and is contrasted with the Colossus. I agree with Lazarus’s claim that and a place where people of all faiths, races, ethnicities, and classes have equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
Lakota Indian leader and warrior Crazy experienced immigration of settlers in and around the Lakota territory and there were concerns that there would be conflicts. In 1851 a treaty council was convened to ensure that whites would be allowed to move along the Oregon Trail through the Lakota territory without interference mainly in Nebraska and Wyoming (Marshall, 2005). The U.S. government offcails responded swiftly when the whites needed help, but were slow to honor the agreements signed with the Lakota and the American Indian people. The Lakota realized that white settlers would take what they considered free land, but the government considered them pioneers and supported immigration. Whites were the main immigrants and were encouraged to move into new areas, and by virtue of their numbers and better weapons they were more powerful than the Lakota
According to Marshall (2005), the white settlers were intent on owning the Black Hills that they tried pressuring the old leaders to part with the land, but Crazy Horse understood that the risk of conflicts was high and wanted to avoid this. Nonetheless, more settlers made into Lakota territory, and America is a welcoming place for immigrants of different faiths, race and religious backgrounds. Lazarus reinterpreted her understanding of the Statute of Liberty, which had originally been a gift from France to the U.S after the end of slavery and beckoned liberty and democracy.
“Give me your tired, your poor” is one of the most famous in Lazarus’s poem and has even been used to support immigration reform that does not push away refugees. One of the major challenges to achieving the American Dream is discrimination, which makes it difficult for people to pursue opportunities. Even with the recent nativist rhetoric on limiting immigration regardless of whether people are refugees highlights that there are sections of the society that are unwelcoming and especially to non Whites. Nonetheless, this does to stop people from seeking opportunities regardless of their origins
Lazarus focus on the immigrant poor in her poem turned the statue into a symbol of immigration rather than independence. Freedom and achieving the American Dream are closely intertwined, but hhistoryy also shows that American Indian attachment to land affected how they related with whites. For instance, Crazy Horse ...