Dream Deferred: Timeless Relevance. Poem and Photograph Review Essay

Poem: “Harlem” by Hughes Langston

The timeless relevance of showcasing social inequality struggles through voices and faces of the Afro-Americans in the United States draws the parallel between the historical and contemporary context. “Harlem” or “Dream Deferred” by Hughes (1994) and the photograph of the reflecting pool by Leffler (1963) deploy verbal and visual techniques to document the eternal topics of rising against the oppressive system. Ultimately, through symbols and foreshadowing, these works of art capture the transcendent moments when the marginalized people dared to reconsider what having a dream entailed.

The narrative’s recurrent motif of ‘deferred dreams’ examines the human cost of continued injustice. Hughes (1994) wrote “Harlem” as part of a longer work exploring Harlem residents’ culture, experiences, and racial consciousness. Although the poem uses several analogies to describe what can happen to an aspiration that is constantly put off, the main symbol of the poem is the dream itself. “What happens to a dream deferred?” – the piece asks (Hughes, 1994, p. 426). The work’s title, ‘Harlem,’ places the poem in this historically black and immigrant neighborhood of New York City, the ‘dream’ representing Harlem people’s hopes: of a better life, of opportunity, and equality.

The historical context of “Harlem” is intertwined with its literary context and is vital for understanding the poem as it includes the history of Harlem itself. During the Great Migration of the early XXth century, over six million African Americans moved from the rural South to the cities of North, Midwest, and West (Collins, 2021). Harlem became known as the ghetto neighborhood, its residents trapped in a cycle of poverty, which Hughes (1994) speaks of in his poetry. These conditions led to the Harlem Riots, sparked by violence against African Americans; the last riot commenced after a white policeman shot a black soldier (Collins, 2021). This historical context can readily be transferred to the present day with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, a recent civil rights effort in the long struggle for black equality and social justice (Alfred, 2021). Thus, the premise of history repeating itself echoes the sentiment of the narrative even today.

The dream of racial equality that briefly glimmered in the post-Civil War era has been incessantly delayed and deferred. This postponement and the demand for justice and equality led to the civil rights movement formation (Alfred, 2021). Hughes’s (1994) work foretells this initiative’s energy and strength with the dream “exploding” and demanding consideration (p. 426). Simultaneously, the poem reflects the disappointment of being held back by racist policies. However, the narrative clarifies that the “dream deferred” because of injustice does not simply disappear; it grows and inflames until it bursts (Hughes, 1994, p. 426). Inevitably, the poem conveys, there will be a societal reckoning once dreamers claim what is rightfully theirs. Similar power dynamics of growing public outrage suppressed by systemic discrimination are widely discussed at present.

In the poem, a dream simultaneously signifies a unified strive for equality and individual dreams of oppressed people, allowing different audiences to find themselves in the narrative. The poem could concern the collective dream’s postponement, the collective, judging by the title, being the Harlem community. Simultaneously, the narrative can refer to the deferral of hopes and dreams of individuals in this community. The persistence of discriminatory policies meant that individual yearnings of black Americans could not be achieved without accomplishing a larger, collective vision of equality and civil rights. Through the poem’s presence of both individual and collective experience, “Harlem” reflects and comments on this reality, which is relevant today.

The poem employs find linguistic details to empower its message. For instance, the term ‘defer’ brings a more bureaucratic, dry language and contrasts with the rest of the writing. The work suggests that deferring the dream may weaken it, making it “dry up” or “fester like a sore;” or even “stink like rotten meat” (Hughes, 1994, p. 426). These images show what happens to racial and social equity vision when it is not realized because of injustice. Furthermore, the term ‘fester’ is commonly used for an infected wound: already painful and getting worse due to lack of proper care, like the trauma of the Afro-American experience. However, a different outcome is then suggested by the question, “Or does it explode?” This image of an explosion may refer to the Harlem riots. Crucially, the latter question shifts from dream decomposition to ‘exploding’ and perpetuating action. This last question implies that society then and now must reckon with the dream.

Photograph: March on Washington by Warren Leffler

The process of standing up for the dream is well documented, an example being the photographs from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. One photograph shows a crowd of Americans surrounding the Reflecting Pool and continuing toward the Washington Monument (Leffler, 1963). Protesters gathered in the square to once again express their collective dream, hoping for equality for all. A year after, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, prohibiting public discrimination, ensuring schools’ integration, and making employment discrimination based on race illegal (Alfred, 2021). Performative and transgressive, Leffler’s picture (1963) displays over 250,000 citizens gathered around the reflective pool to stand up for African Americans’ civil and economic rights. However, subsequent decades of struggle have yet to follow the captured image.

For many Washington residents, the photographed gathering ended less than cheerfully. Speeches came and went while Washington’s intolerance and racial prejudice persisted. The history repeated fifty years later, with a black teenager shot by a white man after being mistaken for a burglary suspect and a court ruling against the perpetrator’s conviction (Alfred, 2021). This ruling catalyzed the #BlackLivesMatter movement, similar to Harlem protests and the Washington March. Today, the BLM movement still has plenty to address – showing that both artworks conveyed themes as relevant as ever.

One of the fundamental differences between the historical context a poem and photography convey is the medium’s very nature. Reading the narrative of photography in search of understanding history is tricky. One could argue that news photographs function only as receptacles that allow viewers to bring certain discursive systems onto the images. However, the statement about photographer neutrality can be lifted to expose the politics hidden in Leffler’s (1963) image. Photographs themselves convey the presence of the photographer and the subjects. Thus, seeing the photograph only as a superficial introduction takes it out of time and place. It disconnects the photograph from the living history of the movement, shifting the sense of presence into the theoretical discourse. Indeed, every time a photograph is taken, it directly absorbs and transfers the historical context surrounding it.

Therefore, it is vital to consider both people in the photograph and its setting and composition to fully understand the photographer’s message. The Washington Monument, which is featured in the background of Leffler’s (1963) photograph, reminds viewers of George Washington’s fight to establish democracy, freedom, and a peaceful transfer of power in the nation. The Monument, seen between people’s heads, symbolizes the equality and peace that the protesters hoped to achieve on the documented day. On the reflecting pool’s other side, behind the crowd and the photographer, lies a much darker period of American history. Lincoln Memorial’s reflection can not be seen, but it is an invisible reminder of the struggle and the abolition of slavery and the Union preservation. The reflective pool itself is a middle ground, a place for introspection and contemplation. The protesters in the photograph are turned with their back to the memorial, leaving this era behind and moving towards the Washington Monument in a march for their freedom.

The difference between reading and seeing is not simply a change in interpretive metaphor. Rather, literary analysis like that of the “Harlem” poem tends to view the content as full of linguistic signs, whereas the approach to images relies on different knowledge. Photography becomes eternally heartfelt, indulging a human fascination with history as a cycle, a vague but effective mode of interpretation that transcends the story of protests, civil rights movements, and injustice. The crowd slogans seem to reverberate through time, supporting in one continuous roar the cheers of the various masses gathered in Washington in 1963, in 2013, and 2020.

Conclusion

To conclude, the eternal refrain of social injustice speaks through poetry and photography to this day. Hughes’s poem ponders the consequences of the Afro-American deferred collective dream, referencing the political, social, and racial circumstances of ubiquitous systemic oppression. This poem hints at the possibility of a protest’s explosion, foreseeing not only the civil rights movement in the XXth century but predicting the same turn of history as witnessed now. Leffler’s photograph of the crowd by the reflecting pool during the March on Washington continues the theme of the African American struggle and movement toward a better future. This photograph portrays human nature by picturing a unique yet commonly repeated moment in history.

References

Alfred, M. V. (2021). Race and the politics of exclusion: The socio‐historical contexts of black brutality and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2021(170), 9–19. Web.

Collins, W. J. (2021). The great migration of black Americans from the US south: A guide and interpretation. Explorations in Economic History, 80, 101382. Web.

Hughes, L. (1994). Harlem. In A. Rampersad & D. E. Roessel (Eds.), The collected poems of Langston Hughes (1st ed, p. 426). New York: Knopf – Distributed by Random House.

Leffler, W. K. (1963). March on Washington—reflecting pool [Photograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection. Wiki.