- Published: October 3, 2022
- Updated: October 3, 2022
- University / College: University of Virginia
- Level: Intermediate School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 12
We/Strike straight.” It continues with some of the good points: ” We sing sin. We/Thin gin.” These concepts are again concepts teenagers can relate to and enjoy. However, the poem’s volta occurs at the very end, or the last line, of the poem, and demonstrates why teenagers should not pick this path. The people envisioned in the poem are obviously living a rough life with the reference to fighting apparently in the poem, and the hard-living as well. Therefore, Brooks ends the poem with ” We die soon,” which would, hopefully, change any young person’s mind about taking this path in life.
Langston Hughes, in ” A Dream Deferred,” uses comparisons to image what happens to dreams that are not pursued. First, he wonders if it turns into something awful: a raisin in the sun festers like a sore. Stink like rotten meat.” This would imply that not pursuing one’s dreams is an ugly thing. However, something good could happen to it or come out of it. Hughes says ” crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet.” Sometimes not following one’s dream is just for the best. He ends with a powerful statement-” does it just explode” The term ” explode” is really neutral here-neither good nor bad, so it is interesting to have the poem’s volta at the end and to complete the poem with this concept. Hughes may be implying that the end result depends on the dream itself, and the results of not following the dream.