Langston Hughes Literary Devices

Sally Phan
March 18, 2017
3208
Phan - Part One Research Paper

In the poem “Dreams,” Langston Hughes argues that in order to confront an injustice such as racism people must continue dreaming to gain strength to fight for the greater good. Hughes uses the literary device metaphor to help reveal the theme by showing the reader how life without dreams is weak and depressing. According to the text, "Life is a broken-winged bird / that cannot fly (Hughes 3-4)." This puts into perspective that if dreams aren't existing, life isn't strong enough to be put into action. This connects to how racism can be fought because through dreaming, our ability is expanded this allowed the black community to accomplish more than what society expected. “Dreams” inspires individuals and provides the mindset that in order to get somewhere great, putting great strength in front is needed. African Americans have to continue dreaming and have a powerful voice to society to get passed racism.

In the poem “Caged Bird,” Maya Angelou argues that in order to
The theme is shown through repetition by stating the importance of dreaming over and over. This illustrates how the author defines the importance of dreaming and how it has a role to fight racism.. According to the text, “Hold fast to dreams, For when dreams go life is a barren field frozen with snow (Hughes 4/8)”. The line implies that the reader should not give up dreaming because then life is empty and frigid. This relates to theme because it shows that life is better when we are dreaming because it allows us to strive for our goals which is stated later in the poem through metaphors. This relates to how African Americans can fight injustices like racism because it shows that if hold onto our dreams, we would be strong enough to fight against