Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Theme and Harlem

So you have to write a paper that will come out of you, so that it will be true.  But the truth for one person might be different than another person, especially if the races between the people are different.  Your perspective changes when you are the minority in your class room.  People might expect things from you that you refuse to live up to.  But when you are 22, your identity might still be forming.  Hughes likes to eat, sleep, drink and be in love and he would also like a pipe for Christmas or records.  But just because he is colored, dos not put him in the position not to like something just because he is black.  Because the paper must come out of him, will the paper also be black, or will it be white, so that it can connect with the teacher, who is also white?  Maybe the teacher does not want to be a part of a black man in college.  But they learn from each other and one is more free then the other.

What happens when a dream is not fulfilled?  Not a dream likes “I’m going to conquer the sea
 or anything like that.  But a concert dream?  Can it be easily forgotten or does it become a weight.  It can’t just pop off like a hair.  It can be like sugar, dried up meat, or rotten meat or does it explode? Either way it is going to leave a mark.

Harlem and Theme for English B deal with different subject matter.  “Theme” has to deal with what is considered truth between the races.. While someone could say that since both races can go to school together their truths about school should be the same since they are equal now.  But that might not be true.  If both went for tutoring, would both receive equal treatment from the teacher?  Since both students live in different environments, how does each one perceive there environment?  Can we all really perceive what another man perceives as truth and do we want to, especially if that other person’s truth might limit us.   Harlem deals with dreams and what happens when we can’t live up to them.  We all dream of something, whether it is a family or a certain job, when we can’t gain that dream, it will affect us, especially when we get older.  Oh we can say that we are fine settling for our number two job or dream, but it weighs on us.  Thoughts sometimes goes through our head such as “what could I have done differently “ or “ if it wasn’t for (blank) then I would have my dream.  It could become like dead weight or cause us to lash out and self-destruction.  Actually some people might prefer self-destruction over not have their dream or drag someone else down with them if they are after the same dream.  All the ways that Hughes describes the dream deferred is physical, from drying up to stinking like rotten meat.  These are all things that are difficult to hide, so is he trying to say that you can’t side the effects of a deferred dream and indirectly a broken person?

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