Write an essay analyzing how the attitudes toward dreams in "Harlem" and "Kitchenette Building" differ.


Langston Hughes's "Harlem" frankly expresses the speaker's direct frustration towards dreams that are deferred as opposed to Gwendolyn Brook's "Kitchenette Building" where the speaker's attitude is not as instigating, but more accepting. The two speakers contrasts in an active vs. passive sense. Harlem defines deferred dreams as things that "dry up" or "fester like a sore." For the speaker, dreams that are postponed will end up losing its strength and vitality. The speaker in Kitchenette Building describes dreams as "grayed in, gray" and "not strong, Like rent, feeding a wife, satisfying a man." To the speaker, the importance of dreams begin to fade as other aspects of life reveal itself as more of a priority.

"Harlem" begins by challenging dreams that are deferred by questioning "what happens." This identifies dreams as something that painfully seems unattainable. The idea of dreams is actively confronted with questioning. This is contrasted with "Kitchenette Building" which begins by accepting the fact that "we are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan." The speaker sees her situation as one that she did not voluntarily choose. She is confined to "dry hours" and "the involuntary plan," things that embody the everyday obligations in order to make a living. The speaker's struggle to make ends meet squander or weakens any dreams that she has.

In "Kitchenette Building", the speaker's feelings to how dreams affect her daily life is clear in the next transition of words as the speaker in "Kitchenette Building" compares her aspirations to that of the faint scent of "onion fumes" This suggests that her dreams of anything beyond herself and her daily life is weak, having to "fight with potatoes." The potatoes are what symbolizes her struggle to make a living, because basic necessities include food. The speaker accepts the fading of her dreams because she is more preoccupied with working. On the other hand, the speaker in Harlem portrays weakening dreams as, paradoxically, something strong. He describes weakening dreams as things that could elicit strong actions in that it could "fester like a sore - and then run" or "stink like rotten meat." The personification suggests that there is strength in dreams, even if it is deferred. The imagery also conveys strength because festered sores, the stink of rotten meet, and things that are "syrupy sweet" are all strong effects the senses.

The final lines in Kitchenette Building passively accepts the hastily dismissed idea of dreams. The speaker does not do much to dwell on the opportunity to dream, but when she does it is "not well! not for a minute!" Her preoccupation with getting the basic necessities such as "lukewarm water" which is is revealed as something of more significance to her than dreams because she "hope to get in it". This illustrates that her attitude towards deferred dreams is dismissive and passive which differs from Harlem's: active and burdensome like a "heavy load" that "sags." This allows the reader to infer that deferred dreams have such a large impact on the speaker's well-being that it can potentially explode.