The American Dream In Langston Hughes's Harlem

In the 1950’s black people were still suffering from oppression at the hands of white men. Many literary artists wrote about this oppression, despite the violence that might have come their way. “Harlem” is one of these literary works were written in 1951 by Langston Hughes, an American poet, novelist, and social activist. Throughout his life, Hughes published numerous works, most of which portrayed the life of black people, and his work had a major influence on the artistic styles of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes’ main point in “Harlem” is that African Americans’ dreams are being deferred because of all the racism in the country (Jordan). Which means that a white person would have been able to live the American dream, of achieving success …show more content…
In the late 1800’s after the civil war the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment was passed giving black people many similar rights to white people. Even though they gained some rights, there were still lynches and murders throughout America (Sustar). After the Great Depression and World War II many Americans were happy the war was over and everything was good. Although, black people’s dreams were still being deferred. They still weren’t treated the same as everybody else and didn’t have the same exact rights. That is what Harlem is talking about. Harlem’s dream deferred is the dream of equal rights for black people. The poem states some possible effects of what will happen when a dream is deferred, saying that bad things happen to a person when he can’t fully pursue his dreams. This deferred dream is what black people were constantly having to go through. They didn’t have as good of an education as white people; they were segregated from all white people, and they were told they can not amount to anything everywhere they went (Sustar). So they couldn’t have the same aspirations as white people because they did not have the same resources to help them pursue the …show more content…
Despite all the racism at that time, Hughes was able to successfully start his writing career by writing about black culture. In his works, he tried to write to inspire the black community to express themselves through mediums such as writing, music, and other artistic ways. In fact, Hughes was a major influence in shaping the artistic culture of the Harlem Renaissance, which gave a rise to many black writers, because he wrote poems about poverty and inequality. Because of his background, he wanted to let black people know that even in the midst of the racism they can still dream and accomplish whatever they wanted to. Hughes probably died a happy man knowing that he gave hope to many people in dire need of