And After It Explodes?

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And After it Explodes?

In 1951, Langston Hughes published a poem called "A Dream Deferred". His poem dealt with the common dilemma of a dream. This is not any dream like the ones you have when you sleep, these are life goals we all strive to achieve. Hughes contemplated the results of a dream deferred: he asked what happened when a dream was lost or postponed.

In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry's play, "A Raisin In The Sun", was released. It met with great reaction because it portrayed the pursuit of the dream. Not only was it a dream, but it was the African-American dream, which had been postponed for many, many years. It was named after a line in Hughes' "A Dream Deferred". The play explored in detail what happened when a dream was deferred and went farther than the poem's suggestions.

J.G. Smith, Lily Smith, Walter Brickett (LOC)

Walter Winans [with Mt. Sheep head trophies] (LOC...

Langston Hughes, novelist and poet, photographed b...

It saw the dream through after the explosion.

"A Dream Deferred" starts with the question, "What happens to a dream deferred". What happens when the one thing in life is what you can't get? What happens when all your hard work and effort for a goal is all in vain? In "A Raisin In The Sun", there's a black family that is full of dreams. Walter Younger has dreams of starting a liquor store with his friend Willy Harris so that he can become rich; he believes that if he becomes rich, he can make everyone happy, including himself, and fill the big footsteps of his late father. Walter's wife, Ruth, merely wants him to be happy and for their son, Travis to have a good future. Walter's sister, Beneatha Younger has dreams of being a

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doctor and learning more about her identity as an...