The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.
In such environment, black families endured a multitude of difficulties while trying to achieve their dreams and goals. As the epigraph, “Harlem” successfully gave life to the conflicts of the Youngers’ dreams by turning them into festering sores, rotten meat, and
Have you ever had a dream that wasn’t or was accomplished? Well many people always don’t accomplish their dreams. Lorraine Hansberry, based a play on Langston Hughes’s poem called “Dream Deferred”. Langston Hughes was a black American writer. He was from Joplin, Missouri.
In fact, the dream might just “expire” altogether. This poem conveys all of the devastating disasters that could happen when a dream is deferred. “Harlem” uses the literary device, tone, to articulate the negatives on unfilling a dream. The powerful poem implies that horribles things happen when one does not attain their dream in the line” Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” This quote exposes that if a dream is forgotten it will rue.
Introduction: Daily life in Harlem was exciting, for example, Harlem Renaissance created art, music, and writings. They are overcoming racism and poverty, that influence others. Body: First of all Langston Hughes is a famous writer, he wrote poetry, plays, and short stories about his life in Harlem. (pg 234)
The poem that I chose was Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes I chose this poem because it’s a very confusing and very difficult to understand but if you treat it like a puzzle and take the small parts and put them together and understand what they mean you put the whole picture together. The theme of Dream Deferred was the limitations that African Americans had at the time to come and have the so-called “American Dream”. A simile in the text would be “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”The author uses this to help his theme by stating that the raisin will become smaller and smaller but it won't disappear. Another part of the poem that contributes is“fester like a sore and the run” this means rejected dream almost physically painful and gets infected and becomes a gross reminder. Finally, the last piece of evidence I could find is “or does it explode” this means that everything is gone and the dream is blown to bits”.
He is expressing that dreams are full of mistakes and misconceptions and that humans need to focus on reality and their surroundings, because reality is more fabulous. A biblical allusion is used when he alludes the way God lives to human life in “God himself culminates in the
It gives the audience a more inflamed emotion as the resentment towards the deferring dreams continues. Just as an untreated sore will not heal, rather become more infected; a deferred dream will not diminish, it intensifies. As a wound worsens, it will eventually start to smell. Hughes compares this to rotten meat. This image forms the idea that postponed dreams will bring out the worst in people.
and didn’t none of it happen” (48). In lines 7 and 8 of “Harlem,” this comes in the form of Mama’s dream of getting a new house crusting over like syrupy sweet as the dream gets harder to achieve due to financial issues. Her lasting dreams of a better life come to the theme of deferred dreams as it was partly unachieved. By showing Mama’s aspirations for a better life, it shows how African Americans were determined to fight for equality despite the denied access to equal opportunities and the challenges of racism they had to face. When a dreamer has chased their dream and held onto hope for too long, it results in the dream becoming unaccomplished because it is too late.
Harlem (dream deferred) published in 1951 is a jazz style poem describing a neighbourhood (Harlem) and the African-American society in it. The powerful poem became respected as a most common poem taught in American schools. A deferred dream remains a delayed dream. A dream deferred however, smartly switched by Hughes, allows a more questionable approach to the question and title. Written in the time of the Renaissance, the poem portrays the stereotype of a black man.
What does it mean to be an American? Some people associate being an American or living the American lifestyle with being married, having children and living in a nice house that includes a white picket fence. In other words, a simple, content, settlement of living. Another mindset that people have of being American is being successful in this country, making a lot of money, and having many luxuries. The American lifestyle is the representation of living a better life, but in some situations, people still faced the struggles of being an American.
Or does it explode, Langston Hughes was trying to say that if you have a dream don’t give it up, without a dream you are nothing but, a person without a purpose in life. This poem relates to the Harlem Renaissance because it’s literature from that time period and it’s about how young people need to hold on to their dreams.
The poem “Harlem” seems like a simple poem that talks about a dream that fades away. The poem is more symbolic than it seems though. The three sentences that have a huge impact on this poem’s symbolism are spread out through the poem. A reader needs to keep in mind that the speaker is talking about a dream in these sentences. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
In the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, several similes are used to portray the reality of dreams. Hughes employs effective metaphors, inviting us to visualize a dream and what may happen to it after it passes from conscious thought. Could a dream dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or even fester like a sore? (Hughes, 1951, p. 631).
Everyone has dreams, but the thing is most people never accomplish them. Some people put off their dreams to the side because something more important than their dreams comes forth. They believe that is better to put their dreams to the side or give up on them and allow their dreams to fade in their minds. In “What happens to a dream deferred?” by Langston Hughes, the poet uses the title, tone, diction, and selection of detail, to express how people are affected by deferred dreams.
