As I Grew Older

What Does The Poem As I Grew Older By

?Langston Hughes Mean

The literal meaning of this poem is that because he is black, Langston Hughes is unable to achieve his
dreams.
As a child, he was unaware of the cruelty of the world and in his innocent optimism dared to dream of
achieving great things.
As time went by and he got older, he realized that because of prejudice, racism and discrimination, his
opportunities were limited and he was thus blocked from being able to achieve his dreams.
He uses figurative language to describe this tragic, literal reality. A simile, the comparison of two things by
using as or like, is used to describe his childhood dreams as being 'bright like a sun'.
Using a metaphor, the comparison of two things without the use of as or like, he then goes on to describe
prejudice, racism, discrimination and all the other obstacles thrown into his path by the world as a 'wall'.
This 'wall', as he goes on, kept rising 'until it touched the sky'. To put it another way, the world, the wall,
.blocked out the vision of his dreams, the sun, thus making it more or less impossible to achieve them

The resulting despair is described as, or compared to, shadow as he goes on to say that in his
'. defeat, 'I lie down in the shadow
All of these figurative symbols, the sun, the wall, the light and the darkness, are carried
throughout the poem to the end, when he despairingly orders his hands to push through the
.wall to enable him to achieve his dreams
Only when he declares 'I am black' and exclaims 'My dark hands', does he use literal
. language. This blunt truthfulness makes it particularly startling
The fact that the single reason for these obstacles is his black skin makes it even more
.hurtful

As I Grew Older By Langston Hughes - Poem

Analysis
As I Grew Older, by Langston Hughes carries a theme that no matter what stands in
the way of someones dream you can always find your dream and fight for it.
Throughout the poem, Hughes refers to different symbols to show the barriers between
blacks and whites in society.
In the first stanza of this poem, Hughes writes that his dream was: in front of me,
bright like a sunMy dream. Hughess dream is the dream of a non-racist society in
America and the freedom for anyone to do what they choose and be treated equally. At
the same time, Hughess dream can also be treated as Hughess future. Hughess
dream first appeared to be bright like the sun because when youre a child, you arent
aware of whats actually happening around you. Children dont know the true reasons
for why their community is the way that it is and Hughess didnt understand either.
Hughess dream was bright because he wasnt old enough to realize that there would be
things in his way keeping him from his dream. Also, its important to note that Hughess
says My dream to show possession of the idea he holds. This is later related to other
possessions Hughess describes in his poem. Another reason why Hughess writes my
dream is because Hughess dream was different from a white man at the time.

Facing discrimination throughout hislife, Hughess continues to describe racism when

Hughess writes And then a wall rose, rose slowly, slowly, between me and my
dream. The wall Hughess refers to is the wall of discrimination. This wall slowly
blocked his dream. Hughess describes the blockage as slow to show the many small
.efforts people used to keep America segregated
In the third stanza, Hughess writes that the wall rose until it touched the sky--. The
wall. Shadow. I am black. Ilie down in the shadow. There are many things going on in
this stanza that illustrates Hughess place in society at that time and the extent of
racism. The reader should notice that Hughess first writes that the wall rose upto
touch the sky in a single line but he then breaks up the words in the following lines to
act as if the action was taking place with the words. First Hughess describes what is
moving up and he writes on a single line, TheWall. Then Hughess continues to
describe what happens when the wall is in place and thats Shadow. In the third
single line Hughess confirms (if not already known), I am black. This simple
description is then followed by a single line with, I lie down in the shadow. The Wall
that Hughess describes is a symbol of the white people who were racist. This wall
casts a shadow over Hughes and this shadow represents the restrictions and laws
. that were made in discrimination against black people

Once the shadow is created, Hughess writes: I am black, which is literally the current state
of his shadowed atmosphere but more so the fact that Hughess is African American. Then he
tells the reader that hes lying down in the shadow. This shadow is describing the lower
conditions that African Americans had to live with in the midst of segregated America.
Hughess ends this stanza by saying No longer the light of my dream before me, Above me.
Since his dream is no longer above him, the dream is beneath him. This can be interpreted as
saying that the dream of freedom and equality is unrealistic or its saying that the dream has
been temporarily disabled because of the wall created by white people. In order to break free
of his restrictions, Hughes describes his dark hands that will be able to break throughthe
wall, and find his dream. The dark hands Hughes describes is his culture and his own
people. Hughes believes that with perseverance African Americans can break through the wall
created by white people and find their dreams.

In the last stanza, Hughes says that these hands can: help me shatter this
darkness, to smash this night, to break this shadow into a thousand lights of
the sun, into a thousand whirling dreams of sun! Shatter adds more
emphasis to Hughes description of how African Americans will prevail through
civil rights and by breaking the shadow into a thousand lights of the sun the
blacks are breaking the restrictions cast by white people and making society
equal as a whole. The darkness is the shadow that was created by the wall
that grew taller and taller. Hughes is able to break the darkness and let light
. in through the wall
He uses imagery to describe his own ability to overcome prejudice in his
society. Langston Hughes ends his poem by describing the dreams to
becoming: of sun! to show that his dream may still be too far to reach but
when reached will shine brighter than all of the dreams ever to come true.
The light from the sun is seen by Hughes again and its as if he and his
.dreams were reunited

Summary
The narrator of the poem begins by letting the reader know that he is looking back on his childhood
dreams about which he had almost forgotten. As a child, his dreams were bright like a sun.
Then the poem takes a dark turn: a wall arose to deter the dreams from completion. The wall rose
slowly and almost imperceptibly climbed so high that it went all the way to the sky. The poet uses
the metaphor of the wall to represent racism and prejudice that shatter dreams for the child.
As he moved through his life, the narrator felt unable to go out into the sun that once held his
dreams. He moves now in the shadows of life. He can no longer see the bright dreams that he had
.as a nave child. The wall of oppression has become taller and thicker. It surrounds him

The speaker looks at his hands and with great emotion he builds his case: his
dark hands must break through the metaphoric wall. He must find his dream
again. Asking for the help of the reader, the narrator wants to shatter the
wall of darkness. The child must be let out of the shadowy night and be able
to walk and dream in the bright sunlight without the wall of racism, bias, and
fanaticism. He will live in a world of many dreams and much sunlight!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Being born with a certain color of skin or ethnic background should not
prevent a person from achieving his dreams even in a white-dominated
society. Therefore, the poem begins with a little hope, sinks behind the wall,
. and rises again with a strong move toward hope and strength

Think

Do
Again

Achieve
your
dream

Do

Idia

I wish that yiu

like it ;)

By:
Asala
Subeh