Congratulations Mr. President

If Langston Hughes could witness Barack Obama as President of the United States, he would be a proud man.  Not just the goal of accomplishing a presidency would be jaw dropping, but knowing that a black man worked so hard towards such a huge accomplishment would have him turning over in his grave.  In the United States, men are selected regularly to be in charge of the country, but this is the first time a black man has been elected to run this country.

Hughes could not stand the thought of “A Dream Deferred,” believing that every man and woman, especially African American should aim towards the goals set.  He did not believe in excuses or the putting off of something that one desired.  No matter the color of your skin, Hughes believed in equal opportunity and expected everyone to take action.  Barack Obama being elected as the first African American President of the United States definitely would be something that illustrated that a dream should not be deferred.  It may have seemed unrealistic to Obama to be in the place he is now, but not putting his dreams off for later, he followed through with what he set out to be.

If Hughes’s were alive today, I would hope that he had enough courage to take some credit for this great accomplishment.  Obama following his dreams and taking on his greatest goal, but something he never expected to be, shows just how much a dream can be.  Obama refused to let his dream “dry up like a raisin in the sun” and that is how he managed to get where he is today.  Hughes could rejoice over his poem and the role model he allowed himself to be to everyone just like him.

Harlem, What happens to a dream deferred?

Langston Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred,” yet we never find the answer.  Hughes gives the reader more questions, and more suggestions with no definite answer.  What is the dream that he is speaking of, and what happens when it is deferred?

A dream is something that is desired, possible a goal.  Hughes does not tell the reader what the dream is that he’s speaking of, he lets the reader think about the dreams that they may have or have once had.  However, what Hughes does is demonstrate how important a dream can be and how shattering it can be when it is not fulfilled. 

Harlem was written in 1951, several years after the Harlem Renaissance.  This was a time after the prosperity for black people looked promising; this was now a time of despair, a time when the desires of blacks seemed unimportant.  Hughes had experienced a time of hope and now he was living in a time of what seemed utter hopelessness.  What does happen to a dream deferred?

When a dream is left to chance, or put on hold, “does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”  Hughes is showing how racism can place dreams on hold when a society has no tolerance for the other.  A dried raisin has no promise; it is useless and never again appealing. 

When a dream is not developed, does it “fester like a sore, and then run?”  A sore is painful, yet when it runs; it could be a sign of infection, something that may never heal.  Infection can also spread from one source to another until others around you are infected and their dreams now become deferred.

When a dream is not given into, “does it stink like rotten meat?”  Rotten meat becomes useless, like an unfilled dream.  Once, both were useful, yet once neither is used, both become worthless.  Dreams can die and if that happens, they can take on the same stench of rotten meat. 

Maybe a delayed dream “crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?”  A once delectable sweet that has not been used can ferment and harden until it is no longer desired.  As a dream that has been left to chance for to long can lose its desire and be overcome with hardened feelings. 

Or “maybe it just sags like a heavy load.”  A heavy load weighs you down; it makes your road hard to walk.  A heavy load will cause you to give up on your dreams because the obstacles outweigh the dreams.  Or maybe the deferred dream will “explode,” making you hardened to life and unhappy with what you have seen and experienced.

Langston Hughes does not answer the question as to what happens to a dream deferred, however he shares enough possibilities to make the reader understand the importance of realizing their dreams through the struggles placed on them.  During his time, this poem had a great impact on realizing your dreams because society with its racism placed roadblocks on the path to ones dreams.

            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 meat? 
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes and The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance evolved in the early 1920’s and lasted through the 1940’s.  The renaissance was a time when black writers debated the place that African Americans held in American life and their role in society.  Some believed that all of their blackness should be shared, while others believed that race should not be a factor and their writing should be analyzed in mainstream white society without saying that it was written by a Negro.  “The Renaissance was very much a northern urban movement, associated with modernism.” (Matterson) 

Some black writers were looking for their place in mainstream society, wanting not to be recognized by their race but for their accomplishments.  These writers wanted to be seen as writers, not black writers.  This notion was contradictory to the ideas of many others that believed in promoting their blackness. 

Langston Hughes did not believe that black people should conform to white society but embrace their ethnicity, and Hughes expressed this in his writing.  Hughes wrote about blackness as it was, not as it may have been envisioned by white society.  Hughes used a black vernacular and black music to express his position.  Hughes wrote an essay in 1926, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” in which he criticized the writer that would run away from his race in order to fit into white society.  Hughes pointed out all of the reasons why he felt his race must accept who they are and let society know who they were also. 

Langston Hughes breathed new life into the Harlem Renaissance, accepting and supporting who he was and bringing a new face to Harlem.  Hughes wanted other black writers to be proud of their race and to not run from it but embrace it.  Hughes was a key player in the Harlem Renaissance.

Works cited

Berry, Faith. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. New York: Citadel Press, 1992.

Matterson, Stephen. American Literature: The Essential Gloassary. London: Arnold, 2003.

PBS. n.d. 4 April 2011 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/harlemrenaissance.html.

Langston Hughes, The Heart of Harlem

Langston Hughes, born James Mercer Langston Hughes was a poet, columnist, novelist, and playwright.  He is best known for his writing during the Harlem Renaissance.  He was born in Joplin, Missouri to parents of mixed racial heritage.  His parents split at an early age and he spent most of his youth with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas until her death.  Hughes was very disturbed at not being able to live with neither his mother nor father in his youth, and this caused him to become a very insecure adult. 

Hughes began writing while in high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and he won awards for his writing.  He wrote for the school newspaper and began writing short stories, plays, and poetry, and he had his works published in the Central High Monthly.  With the guidance of his high school English teachers, his writing began to develop into the exemplary work that Hughes would provide to his worldwide audience. 

After graduating from high school, Hughes attempted living with his father after getting his father to agree to pay for his college.  Hughes remained with his father for a little over a year but eventually left because of the racism he endured while living with his father.   

After earning a B.A. degree from Lincoln University in 1929, he moved to Harlem, where he lived out his life.  Langston Hughes was called the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race,” in his late years.  He worked diligently to give a face to his race.  Hughes died on May 22, 1967 after surgery related to prostate cancer. 

Hughes’ writing depicted the common person of the Harlem Renaissance.  He promoted racial consciousness and nationalism among African culture.  Celebrated works included, “The Negro Speaks Rivers,” “Not Without Laughter,” and “The Ways of White Folks,” just to name a few. 

Works Cited

Berry, Faith. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. New York: Citadel Press, 1992. p. 1

Leach, Laurie F. Langston Hughes: A Biography. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2004.  Internet resource.  pp. 2-4

Litwack, Leon. Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century. Urbana, Ill., Univ. of Illinois Press, 1991.   pp. 106-111