Life is full of dreams. Even more so of dreams that have wilted away with the breath of time. Some dreams one may look upon with regret, some with bittersweet feelings, and some with a sense of “what if.” Moreover, some dreams fester in one’s mind, ever painful, but can heal when given the right treatment. Looking back on the few years that I have lived, many of my aspirations in life correspond with the similes in Langston Hughes’ “Harlem.” The breviloquent but inspirational open-form poem addresses what becomes of aspirations that are postponed or lost. The brief, mind provoking questions posed throughout the poetry allows me to reflect on the effects of delaying or abandoning my dreams. A dream which has sugared over, a bittersweet childhood …show more content…
My love for helping others, physical activity, and the mechanics and interworking of the human body have exploded into the dream that I hope will stay afire with the spark of determination. I look to obtaining my Doctorate in Physical Therapy with a resolute fire; a sense of excitement and determined anticipation. For once in my life, I feel confident about a dream. This dream has to do with a conscious goal, hope, and aim for the future. This dream, although once differed, has exploded into reality. Although many may speculate that this final line of the poem condones negative implications, my delving deeper into the meaning brings a spark of excitement that will never be extinguished. These dreams, though few out of many, correspond with Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” and have shaped me into the person I am today. Hughes' expressed a feeling of intense disdain of deferring dreams, but I see deferred dreams as a sign of growth. Furthermore, as a growing flower has to push aside the soil of the earth to emerge into the world, so must we push aside dreams to rise into the light of the goals we are destined to achieve. Once determined, then hopeful, now a painful reminder of what could have been, the deferred dreams of my past have helped to form the dream that has exploded into
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.
A New Kind of Dreaming is a novel written by Anthony Eaton, about a teenage boy, Jamie Riley, being referred to rural Western Australia where, he meets new friends, enemies and also discovers a shocking secret about the towns head police officer. The pressure to find out the secret puts Jamie in a great deal of trouble, from being frightened by the police, blamed for a fire and vandalism offences and even going missing in the desert. The characters have authority or are defenceless.
...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.
As a writer, a poet and a prominent activist of the civil rights movement, Langston Hughes was a man that was not only inspired by the world around him but used such inspiration to motivate others. Being that he was also one of the most influential writers during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes held poetry demonstrations as a way to inspire and strived to be the voice of his people and the force to help the dreams of many to move forward. The idea of whether or not to pursue a dream is addressed in one of his poems where he asks “What happens to a dream deferred?” (Langston Hughes, Dreams Deferred). The style of writing in this poem takes the use of questions as a way to have the reader really ponder about a dream that is not pursued. In a sense, Hughes is trying to paint the picture that the dreams that people do not fight for eventually fade away. He uses this as a tactic to hopefully inspire others that dreams are worth fighting for and without them, what would we live for? The underlying tie that connected all of Hughes’s work together was achieved through his devotion to the realization of a certain dream deferr...
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Is the question posed by the infamous Poet, activists, novelist, and playwright Langston Hughes in his 1951 poem by the name of Harlem or Dream deferred. In the poem, Hughes straightforwardly flings us a question, in which at first seem pretty simple in meaning but as you continue to read the concept becomes more and more complex and profound. The telling reader to pursue after their dream or the dream will soon disappear, an inspirational theme in which Hughes display in several of his works. Harlem uses clear-cut use of literary elements such as Metaphor, Speakers, Imagery, and Rhythm to describe just how 1950’s Harlem community perceived and valued their dream through the eye of Hughes. His approach was very straight forward and infuses in the concept in the most rudimentary way yet there’s nothing plain about the poem.
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.
With great dreams comes great sacrifices and the ultimate sacrifice is putting that dream on hold. There are many situations that get in the way that force individuals to step away from their dreams and take care of their personal issues. Everyone has the aspiration to fulfill their dreams, but sometimes dreams are set aside for various reason, and some people never return to continue fulfillment. In the poem Harlem, Hughes writes, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes). One of the many sacrifices when in search of the American Dream or any dream in general is the potential of it being put off. Like Langston Hughes says, the dream may dry up like a raisin in the sun, but in actuality the dream is never lost, the remnants are still there. It is simply set aside so when the time is right to continue on with the dream the individual can pick up where they left off. As the dream sits on hold it loses its importance, or it dries up. Putting off a dream is one of the biggest sacrifices someone could make no matter the circumstance. People are sacrificing what their lives could have potentially been. Hughes talks about all of the feelings that come with putting off a dream and describes what could potentially happen to a differed dream. Ultimately, the poem is about the sacrifice of giving up this American Dream and choosing a different
What is a dream deferred? Is it something children imagine and lose as they grow up. Do dreams ever die, as we find out, the world is it what it seems. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Harlem by Langston Hughes talk about dreams deferred. It shows a African American family struggling to make their dreams a reality. Although Walter, Ruth, Mama, and Beneatha live in the same house, their dreams are all different from each other.
The American Dream. What is it exactly? Well, it is the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. However, can everyone really achieve it? Yes, anyone can achieve the American Dream with enough hard work and dedication to pursue a good life. In order to maintain the American Dream there are some important ways to achieve it. Such as: a strong work ethic, a good education, and being determined.
A common theme shared by "Dreams" and "A Dream Deferred" is that you should keep on working to fulfill your dreams because if you don't, you will never achieve them and your life will be miserable. Hughes uses imagery and figures of speech to showcase and develop this theme throughout the two poems. In "Dreams," Hughes writes,"Hold..." This decisive use if a metaphor illustrates how life would be much more difficult and sad if we gave up on our dreams. In "A Dream Deferred," Hughes writes,"Does...?"
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” This quote from Walt Disney addressing the concept of achieving dreams is very accurate, and can be seen throughout literature today and in the past. Dreams can give people power or take away hope, and influence how people live their lives based upon whether they have the determination to attack their dreams or not; as seen through characters like the speaker in Harlem by Langston Hughes and Lena and Walter Younger in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun.
Langston Hughes aptly expresses his frustrations in his poem, "Dream Deferred. " As people read this poem, at any time, 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. In his poem, Hughes asks the reader to think by posing the question,?What happens to a dream deferred?(1). This first line opens up a whole world of thought.
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.
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.
The speaker dreams about what may happen to a deferred dream. This poem is one of Hughes most famous works. Hughes titled this poem Harlem after a New York neighborhood that was the center of the Harlem renaissance. Many African American families saw Harlem as a bright and uplifting place to be, away from the discrimination they faced in other parts of the country unforutently Harlem’s fame faded away at the beginning of the great depression in the early 1930’s.