Dreaming is not easy. Worrying about whether your perfect future is worth the time, effort, and money can be especially stressful when all you want to do is sit back, relax, and watch your favorite movie or TV show all cozied up on your couch with friends and family. Most people's goal in life is to get a good job, live a good life, and be happy, but that's difficult to achieve when you're surrounded by people who aspire to have the same things. While they're not obstacles, the people working towards your collective dreams can impact you in so many ways, whether it be comparing yourselves to them or giving up completely. It's hard for sure to keep your motivation high when all you're feeling is down, and easily, you push your dream aside. (Trust me, I know. Being surrounded by so many tryhards
daily is very much demotivating.) This feeling is felt by many, and even the great poet Langston Hughes wrote about this in his 11-sentence poem,
Harlem. In it, he talks about how leaving a dream has two outcomes. One being that your motivation could be even higher, and the second is that you lose the inspiration that was once blooming and beautiful.
In a world like this, fostering a dream can be time-consuming, and more often than not, we'll push our dreams aside for something more realistic, more easy to achieve, and more simple. In that, we lose our sense of self, the thing that makes us, us. No matter what, whether you want to be a doctor and that person wants to be a doctor, the reasons behind these driven goals aren't the same. In all, these feelings are very much universal. Maybe that's why we all love lucid dreams so much. That's the only time where we're able to get what we want, where and when we want it, and without any obstacles in our way, including seemingly better peers and opponents.
I really liked your insight about how difficult our dreams and goals can be when most everyone else is striving for the same as well.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you analyzed the deeper theme, and used the similes to help convey the hidden meaning of the poem. You analyzed the word choice, and identified various key details such as "enjabment" and "emphasis". Good job Sara!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you mentioned that giving up on our dreams or replacing them with easier goals can cause us to lose our sense of self.
ReplyDeleteYou analyzed the poem well and your message is pretty inspiring too. But, there is one thing you can add. It would be better if you specifically explained which words in the poem connect to your analysis and the theme. Except that, you connect well to the poem and recognized the literary devices well.
ReplyDeleteI like how you compared "Harlem" to Lucid Dreams, addressing the similarities and differences in dreams in both - especially how both outcomes of losing a dream would be better while lucid dreaming.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you took this poem and gave it a whole new meaning. I also analyzed this poem, but focused more on African Americans feeling neglected and ignored rather than todays world pushing away their dreams to have the “ideal” life.
ReplyDeletei loved how you added in your own interpretation and the depth of your analysis of this poem.
ReplyDeleteI liked the personal humor you added in the parenthesis in the first paragraph, kind of mimicked the poem we talked about in class.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you used humor and added your own take on the poem.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how you related the poem to real world really nicely. You should be a motivational speaker!
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