Several authors such as Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen confronted this situation of the incomplete American dream with literature that proposed the irony of its society. ... His poems expressed the impatience of African Americans to become treated equally. ... There was also an African American author by the name of Langston Hughes. He became very famous for his poem "I Too", which also spoke of the same inconsistencies. ... Hughes even threatened the white system by promising change someday. ...

• Word Count: 548
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Besides Toomer, some of the important writers of the time can be listed as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay. Claude MacKay's "America" is a poem about the African Americans" life and the bitterness of that life resulting from the prejudice and hatred of whites" against them. ... What attracted my attention is MacKay's general tendency of the pattern of rhyming as "abab cdcd efef gg" in both of these poems. ... So naturally, I didn't care much for the Waldorf-Astoria.)" said Langston Hughes in "The Big Sea: An Autobiography by Langston Hughe...

• Word Count: 750
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This event relates to Langston Hughes poem, "What happens to a dream deferred?" I think this event relates more closely to this certain poem because Walter's dream of making an investment was shattered as was the family's dream of getting their house. Langston Hughes says, "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... I think this dream is best described by Dunbar's poem, "We Wear the Mask". ... A piece I found from the poem useful was when Dunbar says. ...

• Word Count: 903
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Seamus Heaney's poem, Mid-Term Break, is a great example of how society's expectations can impact identity because the poem is about a young man who is away at school to obtain an education and establish his identity when he is called back home to deal with the death of his younger brother. From reading the poem, it's clear that the narrator left his family to pursue an identity of his own, and the first line of the poem suggests that he isn't happy about having to return home out of obligation as the oldest child. ... Another poem that touches on identity and social expect...

• Word Count: 2322
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate