A Dream Deferred? I have heard of that before...

The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, African-American artistic and intellectual movement that spanned the 1920s to the mid-1930s. It mainly involved writers associated with Harlem, the district of Manhattan that after the Civil War became one of the major centers for urbanized blacks who had migrated to develop their own way of life. Harlem was described by Alain Locke (1925) as "not merely the largest Negro community in the world, but the first concentration in history of so many diverse elements of Negro life." This movement kindled a new identity for African-Americans and set them a new place in society where social disillusionment turned to race pride since there were no reasons for being apologetic for blackness anymore. Black people needed to understand that if they wanted to be treated as equals, they had to act and demonstrate to the White Americans that they had the same capacities and abilities, and writers knew they could make a change.

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance, whose writing was based on his own experiences as a member of the Harlem community. Through his works, he wanted to highlight the challenges that his people faced in America as victims of racism despite the fact that they were now citizens with equal rights. This contradiction made Hughes penned his famous poem “Harlem”, also called “Dream Deferred”. In it, Hughes asks what happens to a dream when it is postponed or unfulfilled. Let us take a look at it:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes 

Hughes turned an abstract thing such as a dream into something concrete by comparing it with items of our everyday lives, which gives us the feeling that dreams are an essential part of life, as important as food, for example. This poem can be applied to any dream, but due to Hughes’ social context it is obviously talking about African American’s dream. Even though slavery had been over for 60 years, they still struggled with unfairness; their dream of equality had been put off, deferred. Nevertheless, dreams are always there in our minds, haunting us and not taking action in the situation will not only bring but consequences. “…does it explode?” The fallout of a dream could be liken to an explosion, as it destroys everything around us while infecting it at the same time.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The idea of a dream deferred is transcendental and it could be related to Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby”. Jay Gatsby was the vivid image of a normal citizen whose his entire life believed in the possibility of reaching whatever he wished thanks to the opportunities that the American Dream provides to every citizen. He dreamt of being together with his old flame Daisy, so he tries to impress her by showing her how stinking rich he is now. Therefore, Gatsby actually pursuits his dream and fights to bring back the love Daisy and he shared in the past into the present.

You may say “But, he actually pursued his dream, what is the relationship there?” Well, Gatsby’s dream is out of his reach from the very beginning because Daisy would never leave his husband Tom, to whom she admitted had loved once. Gatsby’s dream was Daisy, and she also represented a means to making the American Dream come finally true. In that sense, two dreams cast away, two dreams defer, two dreams explode and kills the dreamer, because that is what dreams deferred do; they chase you until you find yourself caught up by them.

Wilfred Owen

Dreams deferred are more common than we think. Does it sound familiar the name of Wilfred Owen to you? He had a dream too. His dream was to enter University to improve his writing, but he could not, because he lacked the money to afford a residence in London. As a consequence, he started working as an assistant to a vicar to raise the money he needed. However, his dream becomes deferred when he decides to enlist in the Artists' Rifles regiment of the army and goes to the war to defend England’s dream instead. Again, this dream deferred leads to a final explosion, where Owen experiences the horror of war and ends up murdered with a dream in his heart that slipped through his fingers. 

Hughes claimed that dreams are vital to human life, and in fact they are. Dreams keep us alive and fighting in order to achieve what we desire. Everybody has a dream; a dream that had to be deferred for different reasons: economic issues, society constraints, unfortunate events, etc. A dream that came to your mind while reading these words. Still, the question is: what happened to your dream (deferred)? What happens to a dream deferred?

References

Hughes, L. (1951) Montage of a Dream Deferred. New York: Holt

Locke, A. (1925) The New Negro