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Harlem

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Langston Hughes’ “Harlem: A Dream Deferred”

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten mean?
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?
______________________________________________________________________________

Trevor B. Taylor

A Dream Deferred, The Heartbeat of Harlem For the residents of Harlem, until the later half of the twentieth century, “wait” is all they ever heard. Wait! Wait for the laws to change before you can fulfill your destiny. Wait, until you’re allowed to go to college. If any of the people of Harlem were a shining gem just waiting to be polished, it might not ever happen, or it would have had to of been postponed. Because the residents of Harlem had black skin, their dreams were deferred. L. Hughes shines light on the minds of Harlem past and everyone else’s, who’ve experienced a dream that never came true or hasn’t yet. He effectively uses similes, metaphors, and rhetorical questions to express how he feels about a dream being postponed.
The “dream” is a goal in life, not experienced while sleeping. an expected goal. The poem, in its’ current form leaves the dream up to the reader. But the poem was originally titled “Harlem”. Hughes since then gave this title to another one of his poems that more clearly states was happening there. That poem in black ink, clearly states that the residents of Harlem were told to “wait”, not needing to use metaphors like the original.

Wait for racism, wait for the white people to change the laws. These people had to postpone their dreams. Because they weren’t equal in the eyes of their white skinned counterparts. Racism would keep them in Harlem, just waiting. Langston Hughes’ “A Dream Deferred”, identifies the hopes and

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