Dream Variations By Langston Hughes (2023)

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Langston Hughes is known as one of the most influential African American poets. He has a large collection of works that still influence African American society today. Hughes contributed towards the Harlem Renaissance, which produced a surge of African American works in the 1920s. In addition, Langston Hughes is also known as one of the most inspiring African American civil rights activists and advocated for African American unity and solidarity. One of his most famous works is “Negro,” which is a poem that highlights African American identity through the personification of African American heritage. The narrator is the personified figure that connects African Americans by explaining historical allusions that contributed to African American heritage and culture. This personified narrator enhances the theme of unified heritage among African Americans in the poem “Negro” with the use of structure, historical parallels, and historical context.

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The allusions used various aspects of America in order to tell the story of the hardships that African Americans had faced. African Americans lack of basic rights during this time period in a place where everyone is considered, “free” is frustrating and created anger. African Americans should be considered as an equal citizen, they seemed to have found a home in a place where hopes and a better future was not there. Hughes wanted to convey that America should be free for all, and stand by its motto instead, of restricted for

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At some point in our lives, most of us have judged a book by its cover. In other words, we have held prejudice against each other based on our outward appearances, but rarely considered what lies beneath the surface. In Langston Hughes’ 1959 poem “Theme for English B”, a professor assigns a speaker, a young African-American male college student, a one-page composition in which the student can write about a topic of their choosing. The speaker chooses to write about how, despite being African-American in a mostly white class, he is simply human just like everyone else. The craft of “Theme for English B”, including the sound, rhythm, tone, form, and figurative language of the poem, demonstrate the writer’s message that despite our differences,

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Langston Hughes was a very famous poet but also a dreamer during the 1920s when discrimination and racism were main problems in the society. He was a civil right activist who proposed the idea of equal opportunities between all races by writing poems, books, and playwrights; many of his famous literatures affected Americans in many crucial ways. Hughes’s main idea against the society was equality however he discovered that it is difficult to change people’s “norms” and stereotypes. Therefore, his humorous and serious type of writing effectively appealed to many audiences which eventually played a big role of achieving racial equality and equal opportunities.

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Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem: Dream Deferred” and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men share a similar theme. Certain circumstances cause dreams to be impossible to achieve, and all people endure this in different ways.

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Langston Hughes uses images of oppression to reveal a deeper truth about the way minorities have been treated in America. He uses his poems to bring into question some of Walt Whitman’s poems that indirectly state that all things are great, that all persons are one people in America, which Hughes claims is false because of all the racist views and oppression that people face from the people America. This oppression is then used to keep the minorities from

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Society was very unjust to not only African American people but to their cultures. One theme evident in most of Hughes poems is rhythmic beats and instruments. In The Cat and the Saxophone there is a certain beat that relates to Jazz culture. Hughes gained his inspiration from this culture which was suppressed at times. As Vogel explains “Hughes tried his best showing African American culture by adding Journal ideas to his poems” (“Closing time: Langston Hughes and the queer poetics of Harlem nightlife.”). The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture. However through the power of Hughes poetic justice he opened eyes to what could be if equality is reached in

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Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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Hughes makes metaphorical strides to an issue that still exists and is debated today; Despite radical progression racial equality still exists in modern society. Lloyd Brown, a white journalist states, “The assertion that ‘liberty and justice… for all’ is a concept ‘written down for white folks,” (2). Lloyd spent extensive time reviewing African Americans literature, from the civil war through the civil rights movement. This idea of an exclusionary unequal society is a featured theme in Dream Variation through the use the day to night metaphor. Line seventeen, “Night Come Tenderly/ is Hughes beckoning for civil rights. Dream Variation embodies the poet's views on equality and the American Dream.

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The 1950s was a gilded age; although it was a time of cultural changes and entertainment for most people, it was a harsh life for minorities. At this time, African Americans and Women were the most discriminated minorities. Anne Sexton, a female poet from the 1950s, and Langston Hughes, an African American poet, were both minorities that communicated the thoughts of the minorities to which they were categorized to. Anne Sexton and Langston Hughes proposed the issues that their minority had with their social status.

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In his poem, A Dream Deferred, also known as Harlem, Hughes uses a single metaphor to clinch the end of the poem together. "Or does it explode?" This simple metaphor really evokes emotion and thoughts in every reader. His metaphor puts a final image to the struggle of oppression during the Civil Rights Movement and what happens to a black man or woman when a dream is deferred.

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In the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, several similes are used to portray the reality of dreams. Hughes employs effective metaphors, inviting us to visualize a dream and what may happen to it after it passes from conscious thought. Could a dream dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or even fester like a sore? (Hughes, 1951, p. 631). When you and I look at these similes, the meaning we derive from them may greatly differ from the intended meanings provided by the author. Dreams are wonderful, mysterious, imaginative, basically your own little world you can escape to paradise whenever you close your eyes. Dreams aren’t always perfect, every now and then you will run into the flame storm of nightmares. Which can either make you “dry up like a raisin

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My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of the earth. (Abraham Lincoln) In the poem "Let America Be America Again," Langston Hughes paints an affecting and diverse stanza, displaying peaceful passages to angry outbursts. His resonance seems confessional, as he is speaking about his own exposure and communicating for all the unheard Americans. Hughes addresses how America considers to be, has shifted to them to think, and could pursue to be again.

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Poems can be analyzed in various ways ranging from their complexity to the emotions they convey to readers. The poems, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay will be analyzed based on their similarities and differences to name a few. The poems may describe different events; however the overall connection between the two can be identified by readers with deeper reading. Comparisons between the poems may easier to analyze and identify compared to the contrasts based on the reader’s perception. Overall, the concept and much more will reveal how the poems are connected and special in their own way.

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make their dreams come true in the slums of Chicago. Langston Hughes’ poem, "A Dream Deferred,"