Analysis Of The Poem Harlem By Langston Hughes

What is a dream? One might say it is a thought or feeling that people experience when they are asleep. Though this is true, a dream is also a wish someone hopes to accomplish. The real question is what happens if dreams are not pursued? In the poem, Harlem by Langston Hughes, the speaker is indirectly discussing what occurs when a dream is ignored. First off, when analyzing the title of the poem, the reader can make a quick connection as to what the poem is about. Many people are familiar with Harlem the place in New York where African-American culture became very popular between World War I and the 1930s. Harlem then and today is heavily populated with African Americans and it is easy to associate the poem with the black community. The first line of the poem opens with,"What happens to a dream deferred?" This line sets the stage for the poem by putting the reader on the spot.The reader can assume this dream being deferred is equality for all races. This assumption is based on the title as well as the time period Langston Hughes wrote the poem. Langston Hughes wrote Harlem in the early 1950s, a time before the civil rights movement, when African Americans were segregated and not treated equally.
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The first is the literal way. When we think of raisins in the sun we think of a raisin starting out as a grape and losing its juice. The raisin is not as succulent as the grape and when in the sun it becomes parched. This can be associated with the feelings of the African-Americans. With the inequality, the black community felt as if their rights were being sucked out of them causing them to feel hopeless and demotivated. The second way to think of this line is in a literary way. The play, "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry captured the deferred dreams of a black family living in Chicago during the