An Interpretation Of Harlem A Poem By Langston Hughes

I think the poem is a wonderful way to describe both dreams, and race. For the speaker has mentioned about his race, and his dream was present in his mind. A few examples is, my dream “was there in front of me,” and “I am black.” To me, the speaker wanted people to know that he had other plans in mind; however, he had limitation about what he can do while he grew older. The poet was using both simile and symbol in the poem. A simile that Hughes used, “bright like a sun.” I find that Hughes was trying to describe the brightness of light to a new found dream because of how the dream was very present in the speaker's mind at the time. Another example, “into a thousand lights of sun.” The symbolism for light is the purity, and goodness. This is what the speaker wants help on breaking the shadow (the society's doubts about African Americans working good jobs, etc.).
The aspect of the poem that bothers me is when I was reading other reader's interpretations of the poem, one of the interpretation of the poem was the theme Harlem.
After further reading about Harlem, I still don't see the connection to the poem because I most see the poem being about race in general. Harlem had their ups and downs through out history, such as an issue with education in the districts, but for Harlem to be tied to theme doesn't make sense. The speaker of them poem, I find, is talking about an older African American having a dream that was never accomplished because of his race. A wall was between him and his dream, and he wanted help to achieve his dream. The connection between me and the poem would be trying to complete upgrading courses, such as Math 11 part 1 and Chemistry 11, and to get into BSN at BCIT. I had found many obstacles between me and achieving my goal, and that it's taken me awhile to get close to finishing everything by April of
2019. This would also include the university transfer credits that I would need to work towards after Math 11 part 1 and Chemistry 11. I went from being close to getting into the LPN program at VCC up until earlier this year, and I found out that the nursing board won't recognized CCA courses. That is when I found out that I can get into the BCIT's BSN program, and I won't be jumping through more hoops to get into the program with BCIT than I would with VCC's program.