Justin Chow Tsun Ho
English 123
Unit 1 Reflection Essay
How are the African Americans “Dreams” being represented in Langston Hughes’s “Dream
Variations”, “I, Too, Sing America”
Readings of unit 1 have introduced the Harlem Renaissance with essays, fictions, and
poetries. Different desires were embedded in variety of writings. Essays regarding to art pieces
and jazz music indicated that the race of Africa was packed with culture and antiquity. Fictions
like Fern expressed the struggle of women trying to survive in the society. Poetries in this unit
are what strike me most among all the readings. I would like to focus my essay on how are the
African Americans “Dreams” being represented in the Harlem Renaissance.
Some of the poems from Hughes published by Survey Graphic were related to the
“African Dream”. The desire of liberty was strongly embedded in the songs and poetries written
in that period of time. Also, Hughes was asking his fellow black people to hold on their dreams
within these poems. I will analysis the dreams he wrote in his poetry at the time period in depth
by breaking them into different categories.
In Langston Hughes poem, one of the dominant ideas is the desire of liberty. Dream
Variation and Song have been using daytime versus night as a factor to differentiate the people
with color. “While night comes gently, dark like me.” (DV) “Don’t be afraid of light. You are the
child of the night.”(Song) These lines in the poems showed that the black people still had a
sense of inferior during the Harlem period. The two poems I mentioned above are also a strong
example of how much they were longing for freedom. In the poem of Song the author was
asking his peers to hold on and with for the gate of liberty to open. Dream variation also had
similar theme that one man was seeking for relief at all times. “To fling my arms wide in the
face of the sun.”(DV) was a representative quote for the message of this poem. The author
wished to live in a society without color persecution and racial discrimination. He wanted to
have rights of freedom during the daytime where equality and human rights exists.
An additional poem that showed the thirst of freedom was the Earth Song. The author
was wishing for a peaceful environment living with the beauty of nature. “I’ve been waiting so
long for this earth song” (An Earth Song) indicated that the dream of freedom has been one of
the main roots of the African Dream during that period. As I mentioned above, the desire of
liberty was one of the main elements presented the in the image of “Dream” during Harlem
Renaissance.
Another half of Hughes poems were packed with positive motivations. This was the
second theme of the “Dream”. I think the author was trying to inspire the young Negros to fight
for their fortune as well as having a better life. The reason I came up with this thought was
because I have also been reading The New Negro written by Alain Locke. I learned that the
educated people challenged the stereotypes of inferiority. They tried to inspire the younger
generation to gain better self-respect, expression, and identity during the Harlem.
“We have tomorrow bright before us like a flame…Broad arch above the road we came.
We march” (Poem) is a great example of positive motivation embedded in some of the poems
written by Hughes. It told everyone not to give up as they have been struggling for a long time.
The only way to get their dreams come true is to keep moving. “Open wide your arms to life.
Whirl in the wind of pain and strife. Face the wall with the dark close gate. Beat with bare,
Brown fists. And wait.”(Song) was asking the younger generation to hang in there. It told them
to have hope in their heart and wait for the success of the equality revolution to come. It was
not going to be easy but the dream will come true if they hold on and march. “We are not
afraid of the night. Nor days of gloom. Nor days of darkness, being walkers with the sun and
morning.” (Poem) strengthen the mental of their race. It encouraged them to walk out to the
society without fear and lack of confidence. These inspirational quotes for young Negros could
definitely get them motivated and fight for their fortune. This motivation was the second
element of the “Dream”.
The third element of the African Dream during the Harlem was the sense of learning the
history of the ancestries from their origin. They were starting to get homesick due to the
influence of the poems and artworks during the period. I found two poems that were
supportive to this section.
The first one was Tropics in New York written by Claude McKay. The Tropics in New York
was about an African people living in the busy city of New York. He was homesick. The author
used different types of fruit to bring up the memories of him living in his homeland before
migrating to the US. The author also mentioned the beautiful view of the dewy dawns and blue
skies. He wished to go back home so he could live with his heritage. He was overwhelmed by
the fast paced life style in New York. The origin of his had more freedom, equality and joy. I
could tell he really missed and wanted to move back to his homeland by how he appreciated
the little things around his home such as fruit way more than his recent life. This poem had
showed the young Negro a big picture of their homeland. It also displayed its beauty which led
to their curiosity about learning the history of their ancestors.
The second poem that showed the desire of homeland and brought out the awareness
of the younger generation to learn more about their ancestors was The Heritage written by
Countee Cullen. He was confused about his identity and feeling loss about his own race’s
history. By living in the United States, he was not able to retrieve a lot of information from his
ancestors as his mentioned three centuries of slavery has whipped the rights of his race to
develop its history. All he could do was to read books and images from dream to learn about his
homeland. He's never been there, that was the reason why he's questioning what Africa means
to him and his life. There was a different religion or image of God from Africa to White in his
mindset, and America has no ancestral meaning to him. He was lost about what kind of African
he was. He wanted to find out the answer. This poem had made the readers thought about
their real identity and seeks for the answer. It was the last element of the image of “Dream”
during Harlem Renaissance. It was to learn about its race’s history and the desire to travel back
to homeland.
To sum up, the image of “Dream” in the Harlem Renaissance can be broken down into
three main themes: Desire of liberty, Motivation for revolution, and drive to learn about history
of own race. The poems are inspirational to the younger generations and have contributed to
the race emancipation.