Essay - Dreams, Though Abstract in Nature And, Often, in Content, Seem...

Dreams, though abstract in nature and, often, ***** content, seem to have very concrete and applicable roles for their possessors. Whether serving as a driving ********** behind the *****chievement of one's goals or simply conjuring vague and forgotten traces of ***** subconscious, a dream's idealized purpose is hazy at best. But it is this condition that lends dreams their tremendous versatility. Particularly, ***** may have the capacity, due to their occasionally revelatory nature, to spur active manifestation. Namely, Langston Hughes' "Deferred Dreams," Rita Dove's "Daystar" and Nikki Giovanni's "Dreams" collectively illustrate the role ***** dreams as vehicles through which to achieve empowerment. There is evidence in all three of the aforementioned pieces ***** suggest *****, ***** modes such ***** self-honesty, resistance to racism and persistence in ***** face of external negativity, dreams ***** be unparalleled ***** their effectiveness as tools to self-empowerment.

Such empowerment may be difficult to perceive immediately when addressing the works in question. Particularly, ***** is true of the Hughes and Dove pieces, in which any sense of aspiration is obscured by a connot*****tion of hopelessness. And while ********** is certainly the presence ***** a defi*****nt confidence in Giovanni's piece, it is somewhat shrouded by her own concession ***** real*****y. When she dryly observes that "I learned black people aren't supposed to dream," Giovanni forces herself into an ironic *****-off with the misconceptions of her younger days. Fundamentally, the three ***** find unity in *****ir insistence upon honesty as a method to *****tter underst*****ing the real circumstances presented to their origina*****rs. Just ***** Dove forges a woman powerful enough to recognize, perhaps against her ***** preference, the futility and social subjugation of her situation, so does Hughes illustrate a reluctant underst*****ing ***** to deny one's *****s will ultimately render him purposeless and unfulfilled. It is only, ***** underlying message would *****, through acceptance of these realities that a change may be executed.

By way of cultural context, the poems in question also spark an in*****ent relationship *****tween the realization of dreams and a res*****t*****nce ***** socially implemented racism. Their very creation, and the championed ideology therein, concerned ***** the social functionality of African Americans in a white dominated society, is an act of defi*****ce. ***** Rita Dove writes, "And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice? Why, building a p*****lace," she takes this defiance one step further. Regarding the ***** of poverty and marital dissatisfaction as potential *****products of white oppression, ***** employs her dream, both in principle ***** actual aes*****tic, to the end ***** evading social norms bolstered by racism. Likewise, Giovanni and Hughes, simply through their authenticity as sources for accurate insight into black art, echo a sentiment of racial liberation ***** *****.

There is also a subst*****ntial element ***** resistance in the *****' collective tendency to strive beyond the innumerable roadblocks designed to derail dreams. Specifically, the obstacle of resounding negative pressure from external ***** is likely to prey on the dreams of those not steadfast ***** ***** give chase.