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“Dream Deferred” was written by Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. My knowledge of the time period has affected my reading of the poem in several ways. First, I believe when he is speaking of dreams, he doesn’t speak of dreams you have at night, but of the dreams of things that you hope to accomplish in your life. Second, I believe that these dreams are set aside involuntarily. As much of the art created during the Harlem Renaissance was about the horrible oppression of the African Americans and their attempts to be self-determining, I believe that the dreams in this poem have been deferred indefinitely by the forces of racism and society. I read this poem as a list of possibilities of what may happen when you are forced to set aside your dreams--the passions that drive you and make you who you are. When I first read this poem in high school it caught my attention because I felt so pressured by society and the people I knew to do the things they thought I should do. I felt that my central self was being pushed aside. Some days it felt old and withered, like a grape that had been left in the sun so long it was a wrinkled raison. Other days it felt like I was walking around pretending to be normal while all the while I was buried under this heavy load or rocks. As all those feelings built up, I was sure they were going to explode. Instead of only affecting me, the fact that I was avoiding nurturing my dreams was affecting all of those around me.

11 Sentences--Edit & you will get 15 or so sentences.