Harlem Langston Hughes

In the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes, Hughes is asking what happens when a dream is deferred. He wonders if it dries up, meaning it has negative consequences, or if it gets sweet and sticky, like a positive consequence. He also wonders if it explodes, or is dangerous. This short poem questions the consequences of what happens when a dream is deferred. In the short story Thank You, Ma’am, for a young boy attempts to steal a woman’s pocketbook. Instead of beating him, the woman Luella Bates Washington Jones tells the boy she was once like him and instructs him to next time ask instead of steal from others. This short story challenges the normal response, and tells the reader to be more kind, and caring towards others in a tough situation when

He lived there until his parents divorced when he was a young child. He went off to live with his grandmother until he was 13, when Hughes then moved in with his mother and her husband in Lincoln, Illinois before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. After he graduated high school he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University In New York (staff, Langston Hughes). Even though he didn’t want o, his father forced him to get a bachelor’s degree in engineering (Crowther, Linnea). When he published his first book, he got tough backlash including a newspaper calling his book “LANGSTON HUGHES BOOK OF POEMS TRASH” Even though he faced harsh criticism, he continued to faithfully record the nuances of black life and its frustrations (staff, Langston Hughes). He continued to write many works, until May 22, 1967, when he died due to complications after surgery for prostate cancer when he was 65 (Crowther,

For example, Hughes’ work is more about the struggles of black life when it was more of an issue then Maya Angelou’s (Staff, Langston Hughes). He questioned things most people set aside, like in Harlem, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes, Langston). However, Maya Angelou tells stories in her poems, making them more interesting like in A Plagued Journey, “... My mouth agape rejects the solid air and lungs hold. The invader takes direction…” (Angelou, Maya). Langston Hughes should not replace Maya Angelou in the 7th-grade course of study because Maya Angelou provided a more interesting and meaningful