langston huges - dream defered
After the Civil War won the black people their freedom, it seemed as though their dreams of great opportunities were finally going to come true. However, they were met by even more obstacles, which left the blacks to wonder if their dreams had any chance of occurring, or if they should just give up. In his poem, “Harlem,” Langston Hughes used increasingly destructive imagery to present his warning of what will happen if you delay working towards your goal.
Hughes’ first two images depict withering and drying, a sense of death. His first example, a “dried raisin,” conveys that the dream deferred has shriveled into nothing and has no hope of ever happening. The dried raisin, being old, wrinkled, and lifeless, suggests that the dream deferred is forgotten, lost, and nothing but a memory. The second example, crusted syrup, being hard and dried up, again suggests that the dream deferred has no life. Also, being bittersweet, using the example of syrup implies that the dream deferred is hard and sour (undesirable) on the outside, yet sweet on the inside.
The next two images Hughes uses continue to suggest a sense of death and decay. The first, “rotten meat,” which is odorous and reeks of death, very strongly suggests that the dream deferred has lost its beauty. This image also implies that the dream is a thing of past that’s now worthless. The second image, a “running sore,” hints that the ...
In the second stanza Brooks states, “And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall, flutter or sing an aria down these rooms.” Here, Brooks is using metaphors to express that the garbage ripening in the hall can be toxic just like bad dreams. However, dreams can also be pleasant and enchanting like an aria that is sung. In this stanza, the reader can imagine what the revolting trash looks like and is able to associate it to a dream that did not get prioritized, was forgotten, and left to putrefy. Nevertheless, if it is like an aria, the dream will be able to flourish. Additionally, in line one and two, Brooks describes strong, intense smells using imagery. She states, “But could a dream send up through onion fumes, its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes.” The narrator is describing some of their daily tasks, like them having to cook. Yet, would a dream be able to conquer over social duties like having to prepare a meal? Could it send up through onion fumes? We are able to tell more closely towards the end of the
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the 1920s and 1930s, in which African-American art, music and literature flourished. It was significant in many ways, one, because of its success in destroying racist stereotypes and two, to help African-Americans convey their hard lives and the prejudice they experienced. In this era, two distinguished poets are Langston Hughes, who wrote the poem “A Dream Deferred” and Georgia Douglas Johnson who wrote “My Little Dreams”. These two poems address the delayment of justice, but explore it differently, through their dissimilar uses of imagery, tone and diction.
In John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, and the monster in Frankenstein, have multiple characteristics that are similar. They are characters from different books, so how is it possible that they can be alike? Even though they come from different stories, they are identical because of the different qualities they possess like being extremely powerful and living as the “brute existence by which humankind learns to define itself” (Gardner 73). These two characters ultimately are one in the
“Harlem” by Langston Hughes is a poem that talks about what happens when we postpones our dreams. The poem is made up of a series of similes and it ends with a metaphor. The objective of the poem is to get us to think about what happens to a dream that is put off, postponed; what happens when we create our very own shelve of dreams? The “dream” refers to a goal in life, not the dreams we have while sleeping, but our deepest desires. There are many ways to understand this poem; it varies from person to person. Some may see this poem as talking about just dreams in general. Others may see it as African-American’s dreams.
Grendel, the first monster encountered in Beowulf, is introduced as a creature who leaves terror and causes harm. However, he is not really described physically, meaning that his characteristics and appearances are of no importance in the poem rather it is his actions that are. It is learned that Grendel is
The poem opens up with a rhetorical question in the very first line, “What happens to a dream deferred?” (1). The rest of the poem goes on to propose an answer to the question. Langston Hughes makes it a point to use words with a very negative connotation, such as dry, fester, sore, stink, rotten, crust and sag. All of these words have an off-putting attitude, and by describin...
In Langston Hughes’ poem, the author gives us vivid examples of how dreams get lost in the weariness of everyday life. The author uses words like dry, fester, rot, and stink, to give us a picture of how something that was originally intended for good, could end up in defeat. Throughout the play, I was able to feel how each character seemed to have their dreams that fell apart as the story went on. I believe the central theme of the play has everything to do with the pain each character goes thru after losing control of the plans they had in mind. I will attempt to break down each character’s dream and how they each fell apart as the play went on.
...ss, representing the truth of the times. The majority of the problems influence only the one dreamer, however, the ending suggests that, when despair is everywhere, it may "explode" and cause social and political uprising. “Harlem” brings to light the anxiety between the need for Negro expression and the opposition to that need because of society’s subjugation of its black populace. His lines confront the racist and unjust attitude common in American society before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. it expresses the belief that black wishes and dreams were irrelevant should be ignored. His closing rhetorical question—“Or does [a dream deferred] explode?”—is aggressive, a testimony that the inhibition of black dreams might result in a revolution. It places the blame for this possible revolution on the domineering society that forces the deferment of the dream.
Hughes, Langston. "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)." Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River. Prentice, 2002. 534.
Langston Hughes' poem begins with a deceptively innocent question: "What happens to a dream deferred?" (Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun 1). From the opening line, the reader is left to contemplate an infinite number of possible outcomes, among them if it partially dies, if it continues to live into the next generation, if it matters what kind of dream it is, and many others. And then, suddenly, he adds to it to further focus the question and thusly to compound and raise its complexity. He asks, "Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun?" (Hansberry 2-3). Now, whereas the reader could initially answer the first question in whichever way he wished, he now finds him...
He turned his head toward me and peered at me through swollen eyes. “I begged her not to go with him,” he said quietly. “Do you hear me, I begged her!”
In the story Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is a slimy green swamp monster that has human emotions but is portrayed as a hideous beast and an outcast of the Anglo-Saxon society.
the poem “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Is an illusion that explains how a dream and the life of
"Doth he love us?" said Pearl, looking up with acute intelligence into her mother's face. "Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?"
Tragedy is an ever present part of life, whether it be illness, inability, death or anything else, it takes its toll on everyone. A very common tragedy found in literature and daily life is the loss of dreams, in Langston Hughes’s poem “A Dream Deferred” Hughes poses the question of what truly happens to a deferred dream: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up… Or fester like a sore… Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over...Or does it explode?” The outcome of lost dreams differs for each individual and their attitude. This is seen throughout America and also in The Sound And The Fury by William Faulkner and The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.