This week we started a new unit, which is related
to multiculturalism, Human Rights more specifically.
In this post we will examine a poem by James
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), North American poet known for telling stories (in
their work) of his people (black people) that reflected their current culture,
including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language
itself.
The poem that we will analyze is As I Grew Older, which refers to the
American Dream that is impossible to achieve for the black people in these
years. In this poem, Hughes reminds his long time ago dream,
which was almost forgotten. This is the American Dream, the dream of prosperity,
success, wealth, progress, growth, quality of life, health, education, etc. A
dream that is “Bright like a sun”.
According to this author, and many others, this
dream is pure mistake since the “land of opportunity” is not for everyone. This
deception is shown from a metaphorical wall which corresponds to a
barrier erected between African-American (black people) and caucasians(white
people) (“And then the wall rose”), this barrier can be compared to the
forwer Apartheid regime in South Africa, but in a less violent and less
explicit way.
The promised opportunities and all
other aspects of the dreams are retained on the opposite
side of the wall whichis reserved only for caucasians where the black people doesn’t have any opportunities or anything to dream about. The author represents the black community that feels like a “shadow”
of white people. And he represents the hope of reclaiming the dream behind the
wall (“Help me to shatter this darkness”).
From a historical
perspective we conclude that this kind of discrimination nowadays is
less common although it still exists, such as all kinds of
discrimination, as we approached in previous posts.
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