Theme Of Dreams In Harlem By Langston Hughes

In the poem “Harlem”, Hughes expresses the overall position of African Americans during the 1900's. America, which is known as the “land of opportunity”, where dreams are suppose to come true; was not the case for African Americans during that time. Even though they we’re obviously "free," poverty, racism and other social injustices still existed; making it difficult and also impossible to actually reach those dreams—therefore, their dreams had been "deferred". In this poem Hughes really expresses the frustration of African Americans at that time, and allows me to relate buy giving me reactions of having my opportunities in life possibly robbed from me. The poem raises various questions to me like what happens to our dreams if we put them on hold? Do we give up? Do we become angry? Do we become complacent? To me, the last line is very powerful, because it indicates the fact that people can only be held down so long before they revolt, rebel or even

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

Langston Hughes was the most famous poet from Harlem, writing during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Hughes wanted to show the lives of the black community through his poems and the things they faced in America at that time like racism. He would compare the ways African American experience was different from the white Americans. At the time he was writing, slavery was over for sixty years already, but blacks were still treated unequally everyday. African Americans had a dream that was being held back from them, called a deferred dream. What is a dream deferred? Langston Hughes relates his sequence of poems, “Lenox Avenue Mural,” to this question. It is said that, “The “dream deferred” is the dream of African Americans: a dream of freedom, equality,

In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and “turned black” (Jemie 63). This idea provides Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. As the poem goes on, Hughes depicts the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. According to Onwuchekwa Jemie, this may be an allusion to the American Dream and its empty promises (Jemie 64).

"Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?" (2-3). suggest that a postponed dream will eventually be forgotten or fizzled out. The image of a raisin stimulates the reader's sight and taste senses. The dream is like a sweet grape which is fresh and new. If you set that grape aside (in hopes of coming back to it later) it most likely will be bitter, dried out, kaput, and

My response to Langston Hughes ' in Theme for English B is we have a variety of interests that are relatable to both of us. We encountered and conquered the greatest battles in our lives. We confronted segregation and rejection in view of the color of our skin and identity. After reading his poem, I was reminded of how I experienced discrimination and rejection throughout public school and I was labeled an outsider. I was discriminated and rejected not only just the color of my skin, it’s because of my disability. Langston Hughes’ Theme for English B made me feel the same way at public school. I wonder, precisely who am I? Where do I fit on this Earth? Indeed, these are a couple of questions that Hughes struggles with, aside from the world in which he was posing these questions. I was lost, but now I found my identity and build great character. My identity, which includes my race, disability, and my values are either accepted or not in this broken world. These three things affect how I read Langston Hughes’ poem because I was faced with deep ambivalence toward the prevailing society, but now I feel that I’m open and positive about society and my place in it.

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

Langston Hughes, a gentleman of color who was a leader to the African American community is a poet, who according to an editor of “Harlem Renaissance” portrayed the truth rather than a sugar-coated version of how life was in Harlem, the hub of the black community. Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” describes how colored people live in poverty, in the poem “Dream Variations” Hughes’ dream was symbolized by nature, and in the short story “Slave on the Block,” racism and life of a domestic slave are shown from his point of view. The time when these pieces of work were created was an era when black artistry was opening the eyes of white America to how poorly Afro Americans were treated; this movement was called the Harlem Renaissance, as said in “Harlem Renaissance”. In this movement, Hughes was a force of nature that pursued equality among all races, yet still maintaining integrity and pride. White America was not a welcoming place for people of melanin, white people were not sentimental or generous with them so people say it was more described as, “The cold, uncaring atmosphere of the United States were for blacks discrimination, racism, and often brutal treatment were a feature of everyday life” (“Dream”). Not only did Hughes have to endure the pain of this treatment but so did all colored people.

At this point the poem begins to talk about the lighter, but still negative effects of not completing a dream. The speaker implies that if the dream does not begin to rot it could “crust and sugar over- / Like a syrupy sweet.” This line compares not accomplishing a dream or goal to a sugary substance. If either of these is exposed for too long it would begin to form a rigid and stale crust along the surface. This hard crust would make the substance more difficult to use and could make the dream more difficult to achieve. A dream that is hard and separated is much harder to achieve, and this could lead to feelings of depression. These feelings would make the dream appear more complex and create a bigger struggle for the person to obtain their goals. The other image this

It gives us an example of the resentment that is growing. People are getting more inflamed emotionally, just like the wound gets worse if not treated. It draws a clear parallel between people's emotions and the images of the sore. Just as an untreated sore will not heal, but get more infected, a deferred dream will not go away, but become more intense. A wound that gets worse will eventually start to smell bad. Hughes compares this to rotten meat. "Does it stink like rotten meat?" This image creates the idea that unrealized dreams will bring out the worst in men. It also means that for some the realization of their dreams will become less attractive.

An Explication of Langton Hughes “Harlem (Dream Deferred)” Dreams are amazing things, and we can talk about them as long as we could remember them, but are dreams nothing but dreams if there never pursued? In "Harlem," the speaker discusses the darker side of an idea. Some people work hard to accomplish their dreams while others put their dreams on hold due to various circumstances in their lives. He wonders what happens when that dream or idea are ignored or "deferred." The result is not too pretty.

The poem “Harlem” by the famous Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, possesses many different types of figurative language, as well as an emotional reflective tone. In the poem, Hughes questions what becomes of a dream that is put away or delayed, and now wants to know what becomes of the dream is taken over by outside forces? He contemplates that these forgotten dreams could dry, fester, stink, crust, or explode. It is not a very lengthy poem, but it is truly an emotional one with a powerful question longing to be answered. In “Harlem”, Hughes illustrates how “dreams deferred” both punctures and frustrates the American spirit.

In this poem, Langston Hughes basically addresses the limitation African Americans face in the pursual of their version of the American Dream. The 1900’s was an American Era prime with racial segregation discrimination, and subordination. African Americans still kept their status as “slaves” in the eyes of White supremacists and there was a rise in violent attacks upon them, by radical groups such as the KKK, that thought that the entire race shouldn’t exist.. During that period of time, there were many peaceful protests and activists who championed for equality of African Americans, expressing this right through both political actions as well as artistic actions, such as poems. This specific poem outlines the idea that African americans will have their American Dreams oppressed because of the environment they live

Many writers during the Harlem Renaissance have used their writing to speak with a unified voice. But there were many African American writers and critics from the Harlem Renaissance that were very brutal and strict on the way that Langston Hughes depicted black life in the time era that viewed as unnecessarily exposing the “dirt” in their lives. Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” illustrates an image of human response to an unresolved dream. In “Harlem” Langston Hughes uses diction and stanza form to demonstrate how “dreams deferred” can discourage and antagonize the human

In the poem “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, he uses a simile “Does it dry up - like a raisin in the sun?" (Line 2-3) Using this simile, he is expressing that dreaming can be good or bad. A raisin is a grape that has been dried out by the sun. Hughes is making known that dreams can suck the life out of a person, mentally drying them out. However, a raisin is not automatically bad. When the grape is dried out by the sun it turns the grape into a raisin, a sweet and delightful fruit which can furnish life when eaten. A dream can be just like a raisin. A person may feed off the idea of the dream in order to strive and strive to achieve the dream.