Langston Hughes' "Harlem"
Marc Wolsky (Oct 23, 2012 3:04 PM)
I lived in the
place in New York City known as Harlem from 1995 – 2002, which I know happens
to be the Harlem in the title of Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem”. During those
seven years, I knew this part of the city real well. I choose to regard this poem
through the critical approach of Reader-Response Criticism, as I think my
experiences resonate so well with the form and content of Hughes poem.
Ironically, with the opening line: “What happens to a dream deferred?” (Hughes
1) I immediately identified with the content and theme this poet was relating;
living in Harlem or that type of living arrangement and having to put your
dreams on hold. If you were living there at the time this poem was written,
1951, or when I was living there, the condition of poverty and the seemingly
impossibility of getting ahead is pervasive in the Harlem area of the city.
This kind of neighborhood was often referred to as the “hood”, a euphemistic
reference to a criminal wearing a hood and the end of the word neighborhood. This
is an important point because often the mindset of persons residing in a Harlem
type neighborhood, whether they are criminal or “street” regardless of whether
they were born into a crime family or were just poor, is that they always want
to get out of the old neighborhood into a new way to live. In the second
through tenth lines, Hughes is describing through imagery and symbolism the
deplorable conditions of the ghetto. With his imagery of: “…fester like a sore-
/ And then run?” (Hughes 4-5), “…crust and sugar over-“, (Hughes 7) I was
living through my experience of Harlem and my wish to get out of the
neighborhood. But the poverty of Harlem can also be its charm, as the down
trodden can be influenced to live better and achieve the “dream deferred”
(Hughes 1) at some point in the future. The symbol of the working class ghetto
life, a truck being loaded in: “Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load” (Hughes
9-10) suggests the grittiness of the work ethic of the ghetto; and not to
forget where you came from, suggesting you can profit from the experience of
struggling to get out of a poor area.
In the end of the
poem, when Hughes asks about the dream deferred: “Or does it explode?” (line
11) I believe he is referring to the ghetto ethic of exploding on the scene of
your dream achieved.
Work Cited
“Harlem.” ENGL 200: Composition and Literature. New York:
McGraw- Hill, 2011: 250. Web. 23
October 2012.
