Along with the structures, the speakers’ perspectives expose the different realities that exist for different groups of people. Hughes’s protagonist further emphasizes the need to recognize the lack of true democracy in society that Whitman claims exists. Unlike Hughes’s active protagonist, Whitman’s speaker passively listens to the songs of America; instead of creating his own unique song, he simply writes the ones he hears. While there is some description of the singers, no information exists about the speaker himself, detaching him from the rest of the population. He merely observes the people around him instead of actively participating in his community. Additionally, while the speaker claims to write down “varied carols,” he really gives