Langston Hughes Observation Of Harlem

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Harlem: One man’s observations

My whole life, Harlem has been synonymous with the idea of the African-American ghetto. I’ve never been there, never been to New York for that matter, but if I close my eyes I can see its dirty, grimy streets. I can hear the loud music and the sound of the voices mixing and mingling as I imagine myself walking down those city sidewalks. The picture in my head of this iconic section of New York’s Manhattan is one that has been shaped by television and movies. This is not the Harlem I see when I read the works of Langston Hughes. His Harlem is the Harlem of the early 20th century, and it is a stretch of the mean streets that is as full of life and love as it is the destroyer of hopes and dreams. The Harlem
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As if often the case with sections of town that become “poorer” or turn into “ghettos,” in Harlem, dreams fall by the wayside. With “Harlem,” (Also known as “Dreams Deferred”) he asks us the very poignant questions of what happens when we fail to see our dreams come to fruition. His lines “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (2-3) bring to mind the photos we have all seen of the older Black gentleman, wrinkled by life, sitting aimlessly on a stoop. Perhaps “Uncle” (as many of the former slaves were called in old age) has a bottle in a paper sack, a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he sits there and ponders what might have been. His dreams are gone, they have “festered like a sore” (4) as time has passed him by, and all he has left are the memories of the ideas he never followed through on. You can feel the weight of this, as is sags in the air between you. Hughes opens and closes this piece with a question. At the end, he asks us “or does it explode?” (11) As I read these lines, leading up to this question, I can see the Harlem of forgotten dreams. The boarded up storefronts, the “Going out of business” signs, and I can feel the anger. Explode is a powerful word, and it draws up powerful feelings. Rage, despair, fear as you oscillate between the different images…show more content…
Very easily, I imagine. Your vision is often colored by the events of your day. You wake up in the arms of the girl you love, walk out into the street and all around you see the beauty that reminds you of the one you woke up with. Then you walk into the editors office, certain he will love the masterpiece you poured all your hope into and he shakes your hand and gives you a hearty “Try again buster. Maybe next time you will get it right.” Your dreams are dashed and all you can feel is anger and pain. A dark cloud follows you as you walk back home. One writer, with two very different visions of the place called

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