Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"
Ebook29 pages19 minutes

A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"

By Gale and Cengage

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 19, 2016
ISBN9781535824491
A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"

Read more from Gale

Related to A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"

Related ebooks

Teaching Methods & Materials For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem"

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    A Study Guide for Langston Hughes's "Harlem" - Gale

    7

    Harlem

    Langston Hughes

    1951

    Introduction

    The brief poem Harlem introduces themes that run throughout Langston Hughes’s volume Montage of a Dream Deferred and throughout his career as a poet. This volume, published in 1951, focuses on the conditions of a people whose dreams have been limited, put off, or lost in post-World War II Harlem. Hughes claimed that ninety percent of his work attempted to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America. As a result of this focus, Hughes was dubbed the poet laureate of Harlem. The poem Harlem questions the social consequences of so many deferred dreams, hinting at the resentment and racial strife that eventually erupted with the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and continues today. Asking what happens to a dream deferred? the poem sketches a series of images of decay and waste, representing the dream (or the dreamer’s) fate. While many of the potential consequences affect only the individual dreamer, the ending of the poem suggests that, when despair is epidemic, it may explode and cause broad social and political

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1