Langston Hughes was an activist for the African-American community and made significant artistic contributions to the Harlem Renaissance throughout his career. In one of his most famous poems, “Harlem [Dream Deferred]”, he addresses the limitations and oppression of African Americans after the Great Depression. Many African Americans dreamed of equality, but often times that dream became neglected and pushed aside. In his poem, Hughes responds to a question about a deferred dream with a series of vivid similes, inquiring what happens to a constantly ignored dream. The poem begins by introducing the limitations of the African Americans’ hopes and dreams in the form of a question. Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred” (1). Here, the dream refers to the African Americans’ yearning for equality and freedom, and Hughes wants to examine what happens when that dream is persistently pushed aside. The spacing directly after this line conjures a sense of silence as if allowing a moment to contemplate the question. The lines following this question explore several possible outcomes, and each answer represents the ruin of a forgotten dream. …show more content…
The first question Hughes asks is, “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun” (2-3). The grape’s evolution into a raisin is a slow, gradual process. By cutting the grape directly from the vine, it is left to wither without any sustenance. The deterioration goes almost unnoticed by the average person. By calling the dream a raisin, it implies that the dream once had enormous potential like a grape. Though a raisin may taste okay, it doesn’t compare to the succulent taste of a grape. This correlates to the African American dream, suggesting that once it has been ignored for too long, the potential will be sucked dry and leave behind only an unhappy
In this poem, it is simply asking what would happen to our dreams if they were pushed to the side. Throughout the poem, it gives possible vivid solutions that we can picture. With such solutions being, “Dry up like a raisin in the sun”, “Does it stink like rotten meat?”, or even “Does it explode”. This imagery allows for the reader to gain a better perception of what their personal dreams have amounted or are currently amounting to. While readers can connect on a personal level, they can also sense the self-expression put into the poem. As Hughes wrote about the raisins it really makes you think because raisins originally start off as grapes which then lose their juice and become raisins. Well when Hughes wrote “Dry up like a raisin in the sun” it’s saying that it is even drying up more than it already is which means his dream is that much more difficult to obtain. It’s that much more difficult to obtain due to the color of his skin. This goes back to the Harlem Renaissance movement and inequality throughout America.
Hughes is asking what happens to a dream that is being put off. What do these dreams do, do they do good, do they do bad, or do they do neither good nor bad? He continues by stating this simile:"Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Using this simile he is stating that dreaming can be good or bad. A raisin is a grape that has been dehydrated by the sun. Hughes is conveying that dreams can suck the life out of a person, mentally dehydrating them. However a raisin is not necessarily bad. When the grape is dehydrated by the sun it turns the grape into a raisin, a sweet and delightful friut which can furnish ...
...k down upon. In other words, the idea of what Harlem was and what it could have been “exploded” in nearly everyone’s mind. However, as Harlem began to spiral downward, Hughes looked to pick Harlem back up. In 1951, in the midst of chaos in Harlem, Hughes published his poem “A Dream Deferred” in hopes to call people’s attention to the devastating effects Harlem was experiencing. Although issues regarding racism began to be addressed in the 1960’s, Harlem continued to fall apart. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that Harlem would begin to get back up off its feet. Patrols began increasing to deter crimes and retail stores began to gradually open up as seen with 65 East 125th Street. However, even though Harlem had begun undergoing a process of gentrification, for every step forward time had gone for the previous fifty years, it seemed as if Harlem took two steps back.
In the poem Langston Hughes points out, for example “Tomorrow, /I’ll be on the table/ when company comes. / Nobody’ll dare Say to me, / Eat in the Kitchen”. This allows the reader to understand how the author will not let racism play a role in his life. In its place, he becomes as equal with the white man and kills the evil. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance against his constant struggles with
For many years, African Americans were forced to live without a voice and many accepted the fact that they were seen as inferior to the white race. Although they were excluded from being a part of society, built up emotions constructed beautiful pieces of poetry that have become important aspects of today’s literature. Langston Hughes’, “ I Too, Sing America” and Claude Mckay’s, “The White House” will be looked at closely to determine how each poem portrays emotional discontent and conflicted emotional states.
...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.
...struggle for dignity as a black person in the early/mid twentieth century. “Democracy” is a slightly stern and direct request to take action and fight for civil rights. “Theme for English B” is a compassionate and low-key personal anecdote that reiterates the unpracticed concept that “all men are created equal”. Despite the difference in tone and subject, all four poems relate to the central theme that dignity is something that white men may take for granted, but Langston Hughes, as a black man and a writer, sees and feels dignity as fight and a struggle that he faced and that the black community as whole faces every day.
Even if these poems had the same theme of the delayment of a dream, each poet’s vision towards this dream is explored differently, where readers are able to grasp both the effects and potentials of a dream deferred, through the use of imagery. Nonetheless, both poems had fulfilled the role of many distinguished poems during the period; to communicate African-Americans’ desires to live a life of equality and free from prejudice.
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.
Thesis: The poems “Negro”, “I Too”, and “Song for a Dark Girl” by Langston Hughes was written around an era of civil inequality. A time when segregation was a customary thing and every African American persevered through civil prejudice. Using his experience, he focuses his poems on racial and economic inequality. Based on his biographical information, he uses conflict to illustrate the setting by talking about hardships only a Negro would comprehend and pride only a Negro can experience, which helps maintain his racial inequality theme.
The first answer of the initial question "What happens to a dream deferred" is another question: "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” When comparing the raisin's dried and wrinkled texture to a grape's juicy and smooth texture, it creates a...
“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.
In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the author reveals a hard-working, honest African-American family struggling to make their dreams come true. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," illustrates what could happen if those dreams never came to fruition. Together, both Hansberry and Hughes show the effects on human beings when a long-awaited dream is thwarted by economic and social hardships.
As a black man in a time period where African-Americans were considered an inferior group of people,dreams and goals would have been difficult to realize. Langston Hughes aptly expresses his frustrations in his poem, "Dream Deferred." As people read this poem, in any time period, they can relate to the simple universal message that the poet expressed. Hughes is very expressive in how he feels about dreams he has had and the fact and his frustration at not being able to pursue and/or fulfill those dreams that he is unable to pursue or fulfill those dreams.
Langston Hughes’s poem “I Dream A World” grants a voice to any person, who has been exposed to a life in racial prejudice and inequality, including the writer. That voice belongs to any black person, who has lived the poorer than poor life. This life was full of consistent violation of basic human rights, full of frustration, and overflowing with hopelessness. Upon closer examination, the situation of the poem uncovers the painstakingly raw yearning for humanity and equality.