Harlem BY LANGSTON HUGHES What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? |
The American Dream is one of the biggest running themes in the play. Troy Maxson's character is a man who has had quite a few dreams in his life and has never really accomplished any of it. He was a player in the Negro Leagues with the talent of becoming a professional baseball payer in the Major Leagues but, there were forces against his control that derailed him from his dream, like segregation or racism. Also, as a black man in a white dominated society, Troy has hardly a chance of gaining even an inkling of the "American Dream" because he works as a garbage collector.
Just as referred to in the poem by Langston Hughes, does his dream "dry up like a raisin in the sun?" No, Troy holds on to his dream and the bitterness he feels in turn at not being able to live it and in turn that bitterness "fester like a sore and then run,'' into interfering with his son Cory's dreams. Troy also has a complex that the world owes him something just because he did not get the life he wanted. |