harlem renaissance project

Limitations

like many of Hughes' poems, Harlem, explores the limitations black people face when attempting to achieve the american dream. In the mid 20th century, America was still racially segregated. African Americans, especially in the southern states, were still tormented by the effects of slavery. This accompanied by white superiority, that is still an underlying force in america, made for very few opportunities for black men and women to succeed.

Starting With a Question

the first line of Harlem asks the reader,

"what happens to a dream deffered?"

while the question seems innocent enough, it is far more loaded than you may innitially think. by calling the dream in question a "dream deffered" rather than a deffered dream, you can immediately tell that the poem is somewhat off center and not quite what is to be expected of most literature. by beggining the poem with a question, the reader is put on the spot and drawn in to the poem.

Underbelly

Hughes hints at an underbelly to the world of dreams. When dreams are ignored, our speaker argues, the consequences can be dire. In lines 9-10, Hughes uses incredibly desctiptive imagery as he wonders whether deferred dreams, "sag like a heavy load." This phrase uses words that feel dirty and gross and could make us think of hard work and exhaustion. It also makes us think of someone who has to carry such a load all by themselves without anybody's help, something that doesn't seem fair but does seem all to characteristicfor the treatment of black people at the time. Because of the time in which this poem was written (the birth of the Civil Rights Movement), we know that black people faced many challenges and innequalities every day.

Heritage

Our speaker likens his soul to the rivers he has known in his lifetime. However, we know our speaker is not truly speaking of himself but of his community and his ancestors. In this way, our speaker comes to represent a larger group of individuals, and the rivers become a metaphor for the history, spirit, and wisdom of Africans and African-Americans. Through this metaphor, our speaker documents a history and a heritage.

Around the World

The setting of any piece of literature can be one of the most important parts, and when our speaker speaks of "rivers" we see some of the world’s biggest rivers wrapping around the globe. Our speaker gets specific, and we travel to the Euphrates River, to the rainforests of central western Africa where the Congo River flows, to Egypt where the Nile River is crowded with boats bearing granite and limestone to build the pyramids. Lastly, we find ourselves on the Mississippi River. We catch a glimpse of Abe Lincoln on a flatboat in the middle of this muddy river. But these rivers all play a deeper role than being the setting of our poem, they are the history and the heritage of the african american community.

Light and Dark

When analyzed piece by piece, one may notice how our speaker pays careful attention to the balance and interplay of darkness and light throughout the poem. He describes the "muddy" Mississippi turn "golden" as the sun sets and as night looms large. He talks of "dusky rivers" and of nights sleeping near the Congo River. In this way, our speaker highlights the conversation of race that takes place in the poem as well as the interplay of confinement and freedom that weaves in and out of the history he tells.