In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blues and found America. Then, the Europeans immigrated to America to start colonies. Many Americans often forget that the United States is a country built by immigrants. However, our views on immigration have changed over the past hundred years. Immigrants were treated fairly before but are now seen as poor, weak, and desperate for work. The poem “America” by Claude McKay and the song “Immigrants” from the Hamilton Mixtape both display the difficult times of living in America and how the immigrants choose to stay despite these difficulties. In the poem “America”, Claude McKay describes his love and appreciation for his new country despite the difficulties he faces. For example, McKay includes…show more content… This song depicts the experiences and hardship immigrants go through while living in America. A line in the song reads “Baby boy, it’s hard times when you ain’t sent for”. The phrase “hard times” could also refer to “jail time” because illegal immigrants are often sent back to their country or arrested for entering the country in an illegal way. Although illegal immigrants are treated poorly in America, they still continue to come because they believe that they will find a better future no matter how bad they are treated. For example, the song reads “You claim I’m stealing jobs though. Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo.” In this phrase, immigrants are blamed for stealing jobs but the jobs they are taking are jobs that many Americans do not want to do such as construction, factories, and clothes-making. Another example is shown in the line “With they pitchforks, rich chores. Done by people that get ignored.” The immigrants are willing to work, no matter how bad they are paid or treated. Some rhetorical devices included in this song are personification, allusion, and repetition. In the song, the immigrants came to America to “get a lap dance from Lady Freedom”. This is an example of personification because the song is describing the Statue of Liberty as Lady Freedom. The song uses allusion in the line “Peter Piper claimed he picked them, he just underpaid Pablo”. “Peter Piper” is…show more content… Both compositions describe not only the unwelcoming of immigrants in America but also their love. They use negative phrases such as “sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth” and “baby boy, it’s hard times when you ain’t sent for” to help the reader sense negativity. The poems are also similar because both talk about being treated unfairly. The poem “America” talks about racism and prejudice while the song “Immigrants” describes the hardship immigrants have to go through. The two poems also talk about being unwelcomed to the country but are still willing to move there to attain a better