Poème "Deferred" de Langston Hughes.

This poem « Deferred » is situated in the section called « Montage of a Dream Deferred » which is well-known for its jazz poetry style which focuses on descriptions of Harlem. The original edition had 91 individually titled poems, which were intended to be read as a single long poem. In this collection, the "Dream deferred" can be considered as the collective dream of the African Americans. While white Americans were riding a wave of post-World War II prosperity towards the fulfillment of their vision of the American dream, most blacks were waiting for their opportunity to join in the success of the country. And that is why the title of this particular poem is « deferred » which means « put off to a later time. ».

So the question of american dream of achieving a total freedom is important. But what is strange is that this poem does not concern this collective desire to emancipate but on the contrary it correponds to an individual series of dreams of daily life of one particular african american. So the issue is : To what extent this poem which is a list of personal desires can be seen as a turning point in the section « Montage of a Dream Deferred » insofar as it delivers a strong message ?

I. A LIFE OF DREAMS AND PERSONAL WISHES : all seems to be just a big summary of his own life with an autobiographical side.

A. The omnipresence of « I » and me :

This year, maybe, do you think I can graduate ?

« I » = a personal case, not a collective situation, we are facing a young student who wonders if he can graduate this year despite his years late.

« I » x25

B. AUTOBIOGRAPHY: HE IS GROWING FROM CHILD TO OLD MAN throughout the poem but also EVOLVING FROM HYPOTHESIS TO SUCCESS

First : he is a young man, a young student → first sentence + I'm already two years late + explanation : Dropped out six months when I was seven, a year when I was eleven. He is not like everybody because he had difficulty in achieving his graduation. Maybe he had to flee a lot when he lived in the South where racism was much higher. We have an insight into his childhood, when he was 7, and when he was 11. It's a way to cut his past into different parts and to understand the proceedings of his life, lots of chronological markers can be read.

At the beginning of the second stanza, the reader understands that this poem is really evolving in an autobiographical way because the narrator is growing. He begins with « Maybe now » that is to say, after the graduation, after he has grown, he has another dream. He wants an « enamel stove » which is something to cook.

One more time, there are chronological markers to see the evolution towards an adult's life with a wife, kids that are already aduls because married. « CITATION »

He sums up his own life very quickly. He had difficulty in finding a satisfactory place and now, because they are alone, there are just a couple, they want to go and achieve their new dreams.

Then, the third stanza implements another dream but we can note that the hypothesis introduced with the word « maybe » has disappeard, and on the contrary, there is the pronoun « me » at the beginnning of the sentence which emphasizes the strenght of the will here. So the commitment of the narrator is strong and he is determined to succeed, he does not put « maybe now » any more. It also underscores the fact that he is alone in his own dream because the emphasis is put on « me ».

C. ENUMERATION: The poem is characterized by its use of the montage, a cinematic technique of quickly cutting from one scene to another in order to juxtapose disparate images.

We have the perfect example of this technique in the middle of the poem where the rythm speeds up, like a jam session, the reader is involved in a fast circle of desires : there are simple little longings enumerated and not necessarily requirements :

- suits

- bottle of gin

- furniture paid

- understanding wife

- civil service

- television set

- decent radio

This poem is like a big puzzle. He expresses all he wants in life, from the adolescence to his old days. He talks about a « montage » like an enumeration of things that are placed one after the other. It is to show how a dream can be deferred.

We understand thanks to the technique of the montage which is also the title of this section « Montage of a dream deferred », that to all appearences, this poem just corresponds to a list of wishes made by one man throughout his life.

TRANSITION : It's interesting to understand how simplictic and reductive this list of dreams is, compared to the dream of all african american at this time. We were expecting to read a poem about this collective dream of achieving freedom and equality. But, if we dig more deeper, maybe these dreams represent symbols for every african american and so, despite everything, the poem could deliver a collective message.

II. A collective message despite everything ?

A. APOSTROPHES

The « you » : This year, maybe, do you think I can graduate ? → hypothesis, he adresses the reader with a « you » that refers to us or maybe to white people.

+ apostrophe at the end : Buddy have you heard ?

→ Buddy p.227 = a friend of his

B. SYMBOLS :

- Education :

Graduation is a symbol of education, it's a milestone in a student's life but it remains a question and the fact it is a question prooves how unusual it is to achieve knowledge for an african american. + Theme for English B p. 247

« But maybe this year I can graduate » This stanza appears like a close one with the repetition of « I can graduate » which encircles the stanza which can be read as a single one that is to say his first dream as a young student : he just wants to be graduate, it is parts of his deferred dream. And his final answer begins with « but » which makes the reader understands that he can overcome obstacles to graduate.

He also dreams of learning a new language which is a symbol of open-mindedness. He wants to go ahead and be open to the world outside. And here, we can see the evolution of the poem again. Because in the first stanzas he added « maybe » to his words. Now it has disappeard and he succeeds in learning french. He has chosen a good and flexible work in order to go to night schools to learn this language. We have a proof of his success because he wrote « s'il vous plait » to show that dreams can be fulfilled with commitment.

- Love, family :

Introduction of love : falling in love for the first time, the subjetc of the love at first sight. Love can be seen as an universal symbol, a way to save people from sadness and loneliness, a way to overcome obstacles of racism and exclusion with an alter ego, someone you can fight with → CITATION « I want a wife »

→ Juke Box Love song. p.227

Same idea : Family → What ? So soon ! p.233

- Unfairness : this unfairness is easily recognized, for many of the characters given voice in Montage of a Dream Deferred. + children's rhymes p 223 : unfairness

difficult