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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Food figures prominently in “Harlem.” Each time this motif appears, it takes dual forms—positive and negative.
The first image is “a raisin in the sun” (Line 3). Grapes are a longtime cultural symbol signifying, among other things—joy, abundance, fertility and promise. In “Harlem” the grapes wither on the vine, burned first into raisins and then into inedible dust. Deferment counteracts what could have been a bountiful harvest, denying people the immediate fruits of their labor and the promise of future enjoyment.
The next food image is the “stink" of "rotten meat” (Line 6). Fresh meat is a staple source of protein—a building block of life. Rotten meat reeks and can poison. Once again, time has worked against something healthy, spoiling it—no one has bothered to preserve or refrigerate the meat to ensure it retains its nutritive properties. The stink of rotten meat symbolizes a warning about the dangers of decaying dreams.
The final image is the "crust and sugar" that has emerged from a “syrupy sweet” (Lines 7-8), rendering it unpleasant and unpalatable. A dream can sweeten lives and offers something more than mere survival. Candy can go bad, too, losing integrity.
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
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Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
Theme for English B
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Langston Hughes
African American Literature
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Black History Month Reads
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Books on Justice & Injustice
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Books on U.S. History
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Civil Rights & Jim Crow
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Equality
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Harlem Renaissance
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Nation & Nationalism
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School Book List Titles
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Short Poems
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The Future
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