Pre-reading activity for A Raisin in the Sun

1. Montage on a Dream Deferred
Langston Hughes

2. The poem and the play
• A portion of this poem is the preface
to the play.
• What is the purpose of the preface?
• Answer: a statement preliminary or
introductory to an article, book, or
speech, telling its subject, purpose,
and plan

3. I, too sing America,
• I, too, sing America.
• I am the darker brother.
• They send me to eat in the kitchen
• When company comes,
• But I laugh,
• And grow strong.
• Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table
• When company comes.
• Nobody’ll dare
• Say to me
• “Eat in the kitchen,”
• Then.
•
• Besides,
• They’ll see how beautiful I
• am
• And be ashamed --
• I, too am America.

4. Harlem
• “Harlem”
•
• What happens to a dream deferred?
• Does it dry up
• Like a raisin in the sun?
• Or fester like a sore—
• And then run?
• Does it stink like rotten meat?
• Or crust and sugar over –
• like a syrupy sweet?
• Maybe it just sags
• like a heavy load.
• Or does it explode?

5. Discussion
• Why do you think Hansberry chose this
poem as her preface?
• What do the following words mean: defer,
fester, Montage?
• Answers:
• “deferred” – put off to a future time;
postpone; delay
• “fester” – to form pus; ulcerate; to grow
embittered; to decay
• “Montage” – the art of making a composite
picture by bringing together into a single
composition a number of different pictures
so that they are blended to form a whole
while remaining distinct

6. Harlem
• “Harlem”
•
• What happens to a dream deferred?
• Does it dry up
• Like a raisin in the sun?
• Or fester like a sore—
• And then run?
• Does it stink like rotten meat?
• Or crust and sugar over –
• like a syrupy sweet?
• Maybe it just sags
• like a heavy load.
• Or does it explode?

7. Discussion Continued
• What central question does the poem
ask?
• Rather than present the audience
with the answer to the poem’s central
question, Hughes develops the poem
using a series of questions. Analyze
the similes and metaphors.

8. Harlem
• “Harlem”
•
• What happens to a dream deferred?
• Does it dry up
• Like a raisin in the sun?
• Or fester like a sore—
• And then run?
• Does it stink like rotten meat?
• Or crust and sugar over –
• like a syrupy sweet?
• Maybe it just sags
• like a heavy load.
• Or does it explode?

9. Final Discussion
• Although the poem is phrased as a
list of questions, Hughes is making a
statement.
• What is Hughes’ message about
dreams deferred?
• How do “dreams deferred” relate to
the American Dream?