Literary Analysis Essay on Harlem

Introduction

"Harlem" is a short poem that was written in the book of Montage of a Dream Deferred as one of the most preferred six poems of Lenox Avenue Mural. This poem has severally printed alone, thus it got the ability to stand alone, "dream deferred" in this poem shows how the dream of African American of freedom, success, opportunities, and equality became frustrated, it also presents raging reactions to the deferral of dreams including threatening ("or does it explode") or soft reaction ("Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?").

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In 1922 Langston Hughes established his first home at Manhattan's Harlem. He used to travel a lot though most of the time he could go back to Harlem, where he became one of the leading figures first to formulate the African American literature, and in the late 1940s, the book Montage of a Deferred was written by Hughes (Alexander et al. 203).

The poem was written to reflect moods that people had after the post-world war II, where though the war and great depression was over the dreams of African America were still being differed. Hughes wrote this poem as a result of being propelled with the life and behavior of people who are live around him at Harlem. He presented the frustrations, objectives, and hopes that the black Americans had while at New York ghetto.

Use of Metaphor

In a bid to try to explain the dream that has taken long before being fulfilled Hughes brings in a metaphor in attempting to compare a dream with several images of destruction and death and this was meant to ask what exactly happened to the "dream differed." The writer wrote about "a raisin in the sun" here he was trying to show that the dream has dried up due to the delay and people no longer have hope again. He then compared the delayed dream with an infected wound, "Like a sore" he said that if an infected wound has not been given medical attention and treated it may lead to other health-related problems and even death, this means that delayed dreams were causing a lot of harm and grief to people. He then brought up the issue of "rotten meat" that has taken long before being eaten and has turned to be dangerous for human consumption, this shows that if the dream has taken too long before being achieved, then it no longer becomes accessible.

There is a comparison of sugar or syrup, this is where the dream is being seen as sugarcoated, meaning that African Americans were on the opinion that they were better off in their current situation than in the expected future as long as they were still in the same continent with the whites which lead to even more abusive and inequalities. He also compared delayed dream with a heavy load, where he meant that if a dream has been for long-postponed, it becomes a hefty load for the dreamer to bear or carry. (Grimes et al. 308). Hughes finally compares delayed dream with an explosion, where he suggested that if a dream is delayed, then the dreamer will reach a point where he/she explodes in a burst of energy trying to fulfill the vision.

Use of Simile

The poem describes five different similes that explain what to differ a dream means. "defer" means to delay. Hence all of the comparisons show what happens to something that is left too long.

In comparison of dream differed and the dried up raisin, the writer asks "Does it dry up/like a raisin the sun?" this shows that the first and original dream becomes very sweet, though if the dream is delayed if it becomes hard and undesirables and this brings out the harmful side of delaying the dream. (Hansberry & Lorraine 157).

While comparing it with rotten meat, he asks, "Does it stink like rotten meat?" this shows that delayed dream does make its presence known and it's unpleasant to use something that hasn't been used for so long. He then make comparison with infected wound, where he asks, "Or fester like a sore and then run?" here the writer tried to bring out the fact that if something is left without being taken care of it becomes infected and causes pain, thus this shows that a delayed dream becomes terrible and hurtful.

Where he used an old piece of candy or pastry, as a comparison to the delayed dream, he asks "Or does it crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?" this is where something that started as a good thing turns out to be very unpleasing and negative, this shows that though the dream might have started as right thin, in the beginning, it had gone bad when it differed.

Finally, the author comparison defers a dream with a heavy load, where he asks, "Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load." This shows that the differed dream has brought a lot of weight to the dreamer, it has started pinning him/her down, and they grow weary.

How do these figures of speech help illustrate the world which Americans in general and African-Americans in particular inhabited?

This speech is a clear indication that the world of Americans is a world where the blacks and the whites do not read from the same page, is a world where black people face lots of rejections and racial discriminations and this shows that even after the world war II was over still there were people who were still subjected to slavery and their rights were suppressed, this poem shows that America as a country which was being faced by inequality between her citizens, most of the Americans a had given up on their dreams of a better and harmonious state, a country that the rights of everybody would have been upheld despite somebody's race and social status, though these dreams had been shuttered down since the black people were still facing all manner of problems and discriminations and they have no more hopes remaining. (Alexander, Kwame, & Beers 45)

Hughes had his home-based at Harlem, a place which was mostly inhabited by the African American witnessed how the black's dreams were being postponed. African American were in the world where they had no say all their dreams being shuttered inequality was the order of the day; they were at the verge of giving up everything because of the kind of discrimination they were facing. Hence the African American world was not pleasing world to be (Grimes et al. 33).

Works Cited

Alexander, Kwame, and G K. Beers. The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander Engages Students in Writing Workshop (and You Can Too!). , 2019. Print.

Grimes, Nikki, Cozbi A. Cabrera, R G. Christie, Pat Cummings, Jan S. Gilchrist, Ebony Glenn, Nikki Grimes, Earl B. Lewis, Frank Morrison, Christopher Myers, J B. Pinkney, Sean Qualls, James Ransome, Javaka Steptoe, Shadra Strickland, and Elizabeth Zunon. One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance. , 2017. Print.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. , 2016. Print.