1. Unit One: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

2. What factors impact whether or not we can achieve our dreams?
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What factors impact whether or not we can achieve our dreams?
What shapes your identify?
Is the American dream attainable?

3. Annotate “Harlem”
Consider the title of the poem
Locate poetic devices: (examples: imagery and simile)
Who is the speaker?
Determine meaning: theme, tone, mood
Consider the structure of the poem

4. Background on Langston Hughes
-Lived between the years of
-One of the leading African American poets of the Harlem Renaissance
-Writings center on poor and working-class African Americans
-Keeps his poetic language direct
-Was one of the first African Americans to earn a living solely on writing

5. Wrote “Harlem” in 1951
One of the most powerful images in black Literature
Consider—why is it a raisin and not a grape?
What words in the poem evoke an emotion?
What color is the poem?

6. Consider this allusion…
Proverbs 13:12 states, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”

7. What IS the answer to the question?
What happens to a dream deferred?