Analysis Of Lenox Avenue Mural By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes uses a unique style, language, and diction to portray his point about dreams. “Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?”(2-3) This symbolizes a hardening, from a grape to a raisin. If a dream is destroyed it hardens the heart. It becomes useless just the like the dried up raisin. Hughes also suggests that maybe unrealized dreams are a "heavy load" which symbolizes a burden, something to heavy to bear, something that weighs a person down always. This poem is like the American Dream, if you do not pursue your dream right away it may slip away from you and eventually it will be gone. The American Dream can be fulfilled through hard word work and passion, it will not come easy. Everyone has the opportunity to grasp the chance to become successful through dreams and goals. Langston Hughes realized the importance of dreams and having those dreams torn apart. His poem, "Dream Deferred", uses strong images to create a picture of a negative and destructive outcome for a dreamer left unable to dream. “Nothing can stop a man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude”, Thomas Jefferson.

Between 1955 and 1968 was The United states largest Civil Rights movement. The Civil rights movement was improving because of the non-violent acts led by Martin Luther King Jr. The process of equality was improving very slowly but did not meet the expectations of a Muslim man named Malcolm X. His tactics were violent and his followers discriminated the whites by calling them “devils.” He wanted to see direct results so he was the main leader in charge of the Black Panther Party which was a self defense group that physically fought for rights of African Americans. Malcolm X was a man of great strengths, he influenced other people to fight for their rights, by having a powerful way with words. Malcolm x’s violent protests were less effective than non-violent protests because history has shown that Martin

Langston Hughes’ poetry frequently cites the “American Dream” from the perspective of those who were disenfranchised in American, such as the Native Americans, African Americans, poor farmers, and oppressed immigrants. The American Dream was defined by James Truslow Adams as, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (Langston Hughes). Hughes’ poetry portrays the glories of equality, liberty, and the “American Dream” as the disenfranchised were trapped beneath oppression, poverty, and prejudice. Whose dreams are smothered and buried in a life characterized by the anguish of survival.

The poetry of Langston Hughes, the poet laureate of Harlem, is an effective commentary on the condition of blacks in America during the 20th Century. Hughes places particular emphasis on Harlem, a black area in New York that became a destination of many hopeful blacks in the first half of the 1900ís. In much of Hughes' poetry, a theme that runs throughout is that of a "dream deferred." The recurrence of a"dream deferred" in several Hughes poems paints a clear picture of the disappointment and dismay that blacks in America faced in Harlem. Furthermore, as each poem develops, so does the feeling behind a"dream deferred," growing more serious and even angry with each new stanza.<br><br>To understand Hughes' idea of the"dream deferred," one

Malcolm was motivated to accomplish and fight through the struggle for black equality in the USA. We can witness the dramatic changes in Malcolm X’s philosophy, as, whilst he was a part of the Nation of Islam, he discouraged anyone who was converted to Black Nationalism to enter a church whereby white nationalism would be advocated. However, the innovative Malcolm put aside his philosophy for the importance of black unity, defined by the Black Nationalism’s politics. Malcolm X stated, ‘join any kind of organization- civic, religious, fraternal, political...lifting the black man up and making him master of his community.’[vii] This shows one step forward in accomplishing a solution to the problem of black unity.

In our journey through life, we all have certain expectations of how we would like our lives to be. All of us strive to reach a certain level of self-actulization and acceptance. It could thus be said that all of us live a dream. Some of these individual dreams inevitably become the collective dream of many people. In "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)", Langston Hughes makes use of symbolism as well as powerful sensory imagery to show us the emotions that he and his people go through in their quest for freedom and equality. By using questions he builds the poem towards an exciting climax.

The short but inspirational poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes addresses what happens to aspirations that are postponed or lost. The brief, mind provoking questions posed throughout the poem allow the readers to reflect--on the effects of delaying our dreams. In addition, the questions give indications about Hughes' views on deferred dreams.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes the word “deferred” as to, “Put off (an action or event) to a later time; postpone.” (Murray, Bradley, Craigie, Onions 1). This is a good word to describe what can happen to the dreams of African Americans in Ameica. In “Harlem”, Hughes describes how African American’s dreams are often forced to take a backseat. This happens because African Americans are put at a disadvantage in this country and often need to work twice as hard to do the same as others who aren’t oppressed. Speaking of dreams being deferred, in the line “Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load” (Mays 1043, lines 9-10, Mays), Hughes describes the way that African Americans can feel hopeless because they are forced to put their dreams aside. Their dreams can even die because of the disadvantages they must overcome. In lines 1 and 2, Hughes writes, “Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?” (Mays 1043, line 1-2). Dreams dying is a very real thing and can happen to African Americans. The oppression they face in this so-called “home of the free” can cause their dreams to never be realized. The last line in the poem is very striking; “Or does it just explode?” (1043, line 11, Mays) In

In order to understand Hughes' idea of the "dream deferred," one must have a working knowledge of the history of Harlem. It was first intended to be the home of an upper class white community, many fancy brownstones attracted wealthy whites. Between 1906 and 1910, when whites were forcing blacks out of their own homes and neighborhoods in uptown Manhattan, the blacks began to move into Harlem to create their communities again. Due to absurd racial fears, the whites in the area began to move out. Between 1910 and the early 1940's, more blacks began flooding into the area for a safe harbor from all over the world, fleeing from the racial intolerance of the South and the economic problems of the Caribbean and Latin America. At this point, Harlem became an entirely black area where comfort was created for all of them. Although it seemed to be

Dreams are hopes that people hope to accomplish in their lifetime. When trying to achieve these goals, people are willing to do anything. But, what happens when a dream is deferred? A dream pushed aside can disappoint a person in the deepest way. It is likely to spread throughout their thoughts and becomes a burden. In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes, through literary devices, introduce a strong theme through a short amount of language Hughes is asking what happens to a dream that is being put off.

According to Jean Wagner in Black Poets of the United States, the dream that Hughes writes of represents the democratic ideal of liberty and equality; the history of the dream is actually the history of the founding and building of America. The dream of black people has always been closely blended with the American dream, which is not yet a reality for all (Anstendig &amp; Hicks 239).

During the time period of this poem being published, America was still segregated and African Americans were still fighting to be seen as equal. Hughes starts off the poem with a question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” which questions what happens when you put off your dreams (172). Although the speaker does not refer to what they dream of in the poem, is clear that they are talking about what a dream feels like when you are limited in life. This poem helps show how limited African Americans were when trying to achieve their dreams and that the oppressed environment that they lived in. The dreams that they hoped to one day achieve were never going to be able to be reached because of how they were perceived in society. However, African Americans tried to achieve their dreams and find their place in the society that they lived in, but some still managed to find their dreams to “fester like a sore,” (172). Hughes writes this poem to help depict the visions, ambitions, and frustrations that African Americans felt when trying to make their place in the world. In this poem, a play is taken from one of the lines in the poem that refers to an African American family’s dreams drying up, “like a raisin in the sun,” (172). During these times of struggle, African Americans began to continue to be

One of Hughes most famous poems, “Harlem(Dream Deferred)” had a great impact by posing lots of questioning. According to critic Tom Hanson, this poem is just that simple because it gives a bunch of undesirable answers to the same question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Hanson also says how this poem refers almost completely to an unsolved problem (Hanson, Harlem). The poem gives four rather unpleasant interrogatives and one declarative answer followed by the sixth possibility, “Or does it explode?” which is supposed to be a question to make a reader really think. There are several ways to interpret the meaning of the final line, and the most sensible explanation is, the African American community is “deferring dreams” and in doing so their dreams explode in terms of the chance to act is gone. Some may say Hughes presented an unattractive view

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Deferred" is basically about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. Hughes probably intended for the poem to focus on the dreams of African-American in particular. However, it is just as easy to read the poem as being about dreams in general and what happens when people postpone making them come true. What I got from the poem was that the longer you put your dreams on hold, the more the dreams will change and the less likely they will come true.