“Harlem (Dream Deferred)”
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Deferred=
Does it dry up
postponed,
Like a raisin in the sun?
delayed, ignored
Or fester like a sore-for a certain time
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Fester= to make
Or crust and sugar over-inflamed
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
“Harlem (Dream Deferred)”
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
1
2
3
4
5
6
Deferred=
Does it dry up
postponed,
Like a raisin in the sun?
delayed, ignored
Or fester like a sore-for a certain time
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Fester= to make
Or crust and sugar over-inflamed
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Your Group’s Task
1. Visual representing your
line from the poem
2. Imagery (language that
appeals to the senses)
What senses does your line
appeal to: sight, sound, taste,
touch, smell?
4. Theme
(Hughes’ message?)
3. Mood
(How does the imagery evoke
certain feelings for the reader
and what feelings?)
Does it disappear like a shadow in the night?
1.
2. Imagery:
This line appeals to the
sense of sight
(“shadow”)
4. Theme
(Hughes’ message?)
A dream deferred can be
easily lost
3. Mood
“shadow disappearing”
It evokes a hopeless, gloomy
feeling in the reader.
Themes
A “Dream Deferred”…
• Can be lost quickly/Can vanish as easily as
they come
• Can become a burden
• Can fade away
• Can make you feel stress, regret
Agenda 11/14/12
• Raisin Background (Civil Rights Movement)
• Hand out Packets
• Begin Reading Act 1, Scene 1
•
•
•
•
•
Walter
Ruth
Travis
Beneatha
Mama
Introduction to Lorraine Hansberry’s
A Raisin in the Sun
The story
• Written in 1957 and produced
in 1959.
• The play depicts the dreams
and struggles of one black
family living in a small
apartment on the south side
of Chicago during the 1950s.
Civil Rights Movement…
(~1955-1968)
Racism and Segregation
Black School in Virginia
First Rock Elementary School for black
children -- the main building shown on
the right was used for grades 1,4-5. Had
pupil capacity of 120; When more room
was needed, the small frame building
on the left was built. It was covered
with roofing paper, had no windows, no
steam/water heat and no indoor
plumbing.
White School in Virginia
Darlington Heights Elementary
School for white children. Pupil
capacity was 200; used for grades
1-7; But, an addition to the
structure was built in 1937, to
accommodate more students. The
school had steam and hot water
heat and indoor plumbing.
Brown vs. Board of Education
• 1954 Supreme Court decision that reversed Plessy
(separate but equal) by stating that separate schools are by
nature unequal.
• Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate
speed"
Sept. 8, 1954
Fort Myer
Elementary School
in Fort Myer, Va.
…However, the desegregation of schools didn’t begin to take effect
until 1957.
…AND the case’s decision did not abolish segregation in other public
areas, such as restaurants and restrooms.
...Which still left room for more
discrimination.
African Americans faced
discrimination in housing:
White people living in certain
neighborhoods all agreed not
to sell their homes to African
Americans.
President Johnson signs the Civil
Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting
discrimination in the sale, rental,
and financing of housing.
Hansberry’s fight against discrimination:
• Hansberry’s writing was
inspired by her own
personal experiences.
• In 1940, her family was
involved in a legal battle
against racially segregated
housing laws in the
Washington Park
Subdivision of the South
Side of Chicago during
Hansberry’s childhood.
Chicago Tenement
Tenement= a run
down and often
overcrowded
apartment house,
especially in a poor
section of a large city.
• The layout of these apartments was all legal. Landlords were
allowed to create any different apartments out of one big
apartment. In addition from making many small compact
"apartments" out of one large apartment, landlords also
charged a large amount of money for them.
• A white person would actually pay much less for a large
apartment, while African Americans had to pay almost double
the amount for a small room. African Americans had no other
choice but to live in these places because no other places
were available for them. Whites made it illegal for African
Americans move into their specific area, it was called
redlining...
Redlining...
• The practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as
banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even
supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined,
areas.
• The term "redlining" describes the practice of marking a red line
on a map to delineate the area where banks would not invest
• During the peak of redlining, the areas most frequently
discriminated against were black inner city neighborhoods. For
example, in Atlanta, through at least the 1980s, this practice
meant that banks would often lend to lower-income whites but
not to middle- or upper-income blacks.
Banks created maps to show which neighborhoods they
would not give home loans to
Institutional Racism…
• …describes societal patterns that have the net effect
of imposing oppressive or otherwise negative
conditions against identifiable groups on the basis of
race or ethnicity.
• In the United States, institutional racism results from the
social caste system that was sustained by, slavery and
racial segregation.