Writing Overload

4. How do the characters' relationships impact their ability to fulfill their dreams and reach their goals? When do the characters support one another and when do they obstruct one another? When friends and family members become barriers to achieving goals, why do you think this happens?  The play 'Sweat' focuses on the changing lives of factory workers in Reading, Pennsylvania, between 2000 and 2008. The characters in the play are Cynthia, Tracey, Jessie, Cynthia's son Chris, Tracey's son Jason, Stan, and Oscar. Cynthia is described as a middle-aged African-American woman who is determined to not only do well for herself but to also see her son Chris do well.  However, Cynthia's best friend Tracy is described as a middle-aged white woman who loves to hang out at the bar with her friends and cannot stand the way Reading has been changing over the years. Cynthia was so tired of waiting for an opportunity, that she was thinking of applying to a higher position. Wh...

  The poem 'Harlem is about the possible negative outcomes that could occur when a person's dream doesn't work out.   The poem is about the frustration and hardships experienced by African Americans during the early 20th century. The anticipatory tone in this poem reveals the theme of deferred dreams and the resulting sadness that arises from unfulfilled wishes. In the first line of the poem, Langston Hughes refers to dreams as "deferred". From this, we know that the poem is about something that is delayed or postponed. When he uses similes like "festers like a sore" and "sags like a heavy load", he thinks of dreams being burdensome, and not something that makes a person happy. The imagery of the "raisin in the sun" also reveals the theme of unfulfilled dreams. It implies that when dreams are left unattended, they wither and shrink like a raisin, losing their growth potential. His constant use of words like deferred also shows his dis...