Raisin in the Sun Essay: A Dream Deferred -- Raisin Sun essays

Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun  Ã‚     Ã‚   "What happens to a dream deferred?" (l. 1) Langston Hughes asks in his 1959 poem "Dream Deferred." He suggests that it might "dry up like a raisin in the sun" (ll. 2-3) or "stink like rotten meat" (l. 6); however, at the end of the poem, Hughes offers another alternative by asking, "Or does it explode?" (l. 11). This is the view Lorraine Hansberry supports in her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. The drama opens with Walter reading, "Set off another bomb yesterday" (1831), from the front page of the morning newspaper; however, he is unaware that bombs will soon detonate inside his own house. These bombs are explosions of emotion caused by frustration among members of Walter's family who are unable to realize their dreams. Although they all have a common dream of having a better life, they must compete with each other for the insurance money from the untimely death of Walter's father. Walter wants to get rich quickly by investing the money in a liquor store, but his sister, Bene atha, would rather use it to finish medical school. Mama and Walter's wife, Ruth, both want to leave their worn house in the ghetto for a nicer one where Walter's son, Travis, can have his own bedroom and a yard in which to play. The dreams of these characters, however, are deferred for so long that frustration grows inside them and eventually bursts out. Each day Walter has to continue working as a servant, his internal frustration and anger build, and he eventually releases his anger against Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama. "Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?" (1838) he demands of Beneatha. "If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people&emdash;then go be a nurse like other women&emdash;or just ... ... all-white neighborhood. The opposition of Mr. Lindner (who offers a substantial amount of money to buy the house from them) unites the family in their mutual goal, and Walter finally comes "into his manhood" (1896): he declines Lindner's money and declares, "we have decided to move into our house because my father&emdash;my father&emdash;he earned it for us brick by brick" (1894). When cooperation replaces competition, the family can finally realize its dreams. Works Cited Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 1829-96. Hughes, Langston. "Dream Deferred." Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 1138.      

Analyzing Poetry Essay

Ezra Pound’s poetry is striking in its break from the blank verse which occupied the page during the transcendental period. Taking points from Whitman’s free verse style, Pound gives the reader a subjective look at poetry. The poem A Virginal gives the reader both phantoms and tangible feelings of which the narrator is powerless to control (much as the war made countrymen feel a powerlessness in the death of their comrades). This is supported with lines such as â€Å"And left me cloaked as with a gauze of aether† (Pound line 5). It is this symbolic castration that war represents which plays a significant role in Pound’s poem. Pound’s poem War Verse Pound gives a rather ambivalent opinion of World War I. The point of the poem is that he wants poets to give soldiers their time; he was speaking about poets winning awards for their poems about the war, of which they had seen no action. The beginning lines of War Verse are, â€Å"O two-penny poets, be still! – For you have nine years out of every ten To go gunning for glory – with pop guns; Be still, give the soldiers their turns† (Pound lines 1-2). In either poem this idea of not being able to do anything about the war and the deaths that were the outcome of that war, are the impetus to Pound’s feelings. The form of either poem are similar, and the subject matter of course is strikingly the same. In T. S. Eliot’s view of the past as expounded upon in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent have to do with following tradition. Eliot criticizes poets and critics for only following a tradition that is merely one generation removed from the present and says that we ought to follow the maturity of the poet, not the expanse of his work, not the work done with less vigor as we are apt to do. In his essay Eliot says we must understand what it is when we speak of tradition; which means that we cannot ignore any of the work, that a poet must strive uphold tradition in knowing the full expanse of literature (not just the previous generation’s triumphs) as Eliot states, the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order. (Eliot paragraph 3) For T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock can be said to be the addressing of age, life, and one’s personal fight with the passing of days. The many allusions throughout the poem may be attributed to various issues concerning one’s growing old. In line two, for example, Eliot makes the comparison of the evening to an unconscious patient on an operating table. The consequence of this comparison is that the reader begins to see the evening as not the end of a day, but rather the end of someone’s life – old age. With this allusion used in Eliot’s poem the reader is allowed to explore their own understanding of how their life has been in comparison to the illustrations used by Eliot. Thus, the reader becomes a part of the poem; an active listener in the story/poem told by Eliot. The personification of the time of day at the beginning of the poem, then leads the reader to view the rest of the poem in a manner conducive to that comparison – with all of the metaphors dealing with life. This comparison is further pressed in line 23, with â€Å"And indeed there will be time†. This solidifies the metaphor of time, and a person’s dealings with it. Eliot seemed to enjoy writing in the metaphysical aspects and indeed this is strongly reflected in Prufrock, while Eliot balances this writing with concrete imagery. Though Eliot insists â€Å"there will be time†, he follows this line with a list of many things that one does throughout his or her life. This expansive list would fill a lifetime, and therefore refute the idea of endless time that line 23 infers. Eliot liked to write in contradictions since humanity was full of contention points and paradoxes. The hesitations and frivolous actions of life listed in this poem are not an affirmation of the ability to achieve these goals, or waste this time, but instead it is a warning that time passes, without respect to the desire or intent of a person. Eliot makes mention of this by indicating that his hair is thinning, something that he does not desire to occur, yet does – outside his control. This again is the metaphysical aspect of Eliot’s writing which could perhaps have been inspired by Donne’s work, yet Eliot’s writing style seems to be more realistic than Donne’s and Eliot writes with a sort of paying attention to the fringes of humanity and exploring darker concepts of the human mind; such as death and time in this poem. Works Cited The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. II, ed. Lauter, et al (Vols. C, D, a

Go Ahead and Party After Learning to Conjugate Fêter

The verb  fà ªter  is just one word for to celebrate, to party, or to feast in French. Another option is  cà ©là ©brer  and while that may be easier to remember,  fà ªter  is easier to conjugate, so you have some choices about which to use. If you like the simpler conjugations, lets take a look at how its done with  fà ªter. Conjugating the French Verb  Fà ªter Fà ªter  follows a very common verb conjugation pattern. If youve worked with other  regular -ER verbs, then this lesson should be pretty straightforward. Even if this is your first verb of this style, you can take what you learn here and apply it to words like  donner  (to give),  fermer  (to close), and countless others. Before any verb conjugation, we have to identify the verb stem. For  fà ªter, this is  fà ªt-. It is to this stem that we attach a variety of infinitive endings. The challenge in French is that theres a new ending for every subject pronoun within each of the present, future, and imperfect past tenses. That means you have more words to learn, but you will get the hang of it. For example, in order to say I am celebrating, use je fà ªte or to say we will party, use nous fà ªterons. Practicing these in context makes them easier to remember. Subject Present Future Imperfect je fte fterai ftais tu ftes fteras ftais il fte ftera ftait nous ftons fterons ftions vous ftez fterez ftiez ils ftent fteront ftaient The Present Participle of  Fà ªter To use the  present participle  of  fà ªter  as a verb, adjective, noun, or gerund, add -ant  to the verb stem. This results in the present participle of  fà ªtant. The Past Participle and Passà © Composà © The  past participle  of  fà ªter  is  fà ªtà ©. This is used to form the past tense known as the  passà © composà ©. You will also need to conjugate the  auxiliary verb  avoir  to fit the subject pronoun. As an example, I partied is jai fà ªtà ª and we celebrated is nous avons fà ªtà ª. More Simple  Fà ªter  Conjugations to Learn When the act of celebrating is not guaranteed, you will find a  use for the subjunctive verb mood. In a similar fashion, the conditional verb form implies that the celebrating is dependent on something else. The passà © simple is often reserved for formal writing. While you may not use it often, knowing both it and the imperfect subjunctive form  will improve your French reading skills. Subject Subjunctive Conditional Pass Simple Imperfect Subjunctive je fte fterais ftai ftasse tu ftes fterais ftas ftasses il fte fterait fta ftt nous ftions fterions ftmes ftassions vous ftiez fteriez fttes ftassiez ils ftent fteraient ftrent ftassent The imperative verb form is particularly useful for  fà ªter  because its often used in exclamations and short statements. When using it, feel free to drop formality and skip the subject pronoun: tu fà ªte becomes fà ªte. Imperative (tu) fte (nous) ftons (vous) ftez