Harlem By Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred? This is the question that Langston Hughes posed in his widely-praised poem entitled “Harlem.” As a whole, Hughes’ poem begs the question of what happens to the American Dream when it is postponed. He offers many outcomes of a dream deferred as it can become irrelevant, all-consuming, bittersweet, burdensome, or even cause for the dreamer to explode. This poem has been the source of much attention and credited as the source of inspiration for Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun as she contemplates the Younger family’s American Dream of owning a house. In the Younger family’s case, they are ultimately able to attain this dream by moving into an all-white community despite the racial tensions that …show more content…
Freedom of the self and the ability to act independently plays a significant role in the lives of black men who have been oppressed as slaves for centuries. Being free and taking charge of their lives means attaining the American Dream. For Milkman, freedom is something he hopes and strives for but is never able to achieve as he is a slave to his father. Milkman expresses his deepest desire for self-sufficiency when he tells his father, “I have to get away just the same. I’m not leaving the country; I just want to be on my own. Get a job on my own, live on my own. You did it at sixteen… I’m still living at home, working for you… I’m over thirty years old” (Morrison 163). To be a man over thirty at the same position in life that he was as a teenager, still working for this father is a defeating load to carry. Milkman wants to get out and live his own life, but his father suppresses his ability to do so by making him work in the family business. Walter, on the other hand, is a slave to the larger confines of white society. White society does not allow people to be successful by their own merit but rather, success is attributed to whiteness. Walter is not able to open his business because he is stuck in a low paying job that doesn’t pay him enough to afford to start a business. Despite being confined by society, Walter does have …show more content…
These same desires continue to be met with white society’s oppression, prohibiting progress of the black American. However, in light of recent historical achievements, there are new American Dreams proved as possible for the black American. With the Obama administration, it has been demonstrated that the black American can rise against adversity and prevail in a world that continues to make every step towards change and progress that much harder because of a person’s skin color. No longer do Black Americans need to feel that their dreams will become irrelevant, all-consuming, bittersweet, burdensome, or even cause for the dreamer to explode, because now there has been a strong and forever remembered example of what is possible and how far the black American has come and how far they can