The creamy, ooey, gooey dulce de leche pictured is meant to signify the, "syrupy sweet", described in Hughes' Harlem. Some people dream about dulce de leche, others think it is too sweet. If you dream about it, then you probably have to postpone your dream because it is not likely that you have dulce de leche sitting on your nightstand in the middle of the night waiting for you to wake up and eat it. It is one of those things that probably does not dry up like caramel or toffee, but it might form a crust. It might remind one of the sun because of its tan, caramel color or a sore because of its tendency to ooze slowly, but smoothly. I would hate to think of dulce de leche stinking like rotten meat, but I suppose it is possible. It may sag like a heavy load and you can definitely get it to explode like they do with many desserts in The Food Network's Ace of Cakes. The primary reason that I chose this image to represent Harlem is because of the line, "like a syrupy sweet?" The first thing that comes to mind when I think of syrup is something thick and caramel-like.
The dulce de leche is a metaphor for, "a dream deferred." It is something that will not change with time, but may be out of reach at the moment if one is out of town or on a diet. The dream does not get lost, but set back. It is hard to forget the deep tan color and the thick gooeyness of dulce de leche. It will not dry up, but may change color in the sun, thus altering its characteristics like a raisin to make it applicable for a different use in a different period of time. Dulce de leche is probably not one of the things you think about when you have an oozing sore unless it helps to alleviate the pain, but it can be similar to the fluids that ooze out of the sore. As the fluids run out, a dream may lose its impact, its primary intent or the strength of the idea behind the dream as time goes on. The smell of dulce de leche is the opposite of the smell of rotten meat, but the smells both leave constant reminders of the dream that is being put off. I do not think that dulce de leche can crust and sugar over, but its texture can change when cooked just as the emotions left by the dream can change over time. It is a syrupy sweet hopefully similar to the deferred dream. Dulce de leche tends to be fairly heavy and it makes things sag, but it is a sweet positive burden like the impending dream. Explosive dulce de leche would leave a mess, which sounds more like a nightmare than a dream.
Wow. I have never thought about comparing the Harlem poem to a dulce de leche. I do agree with your point that not everyone is successful in chasing their dreams. That sometimes, the dream you have is just deferred. Some people dreams may be deferred and eventually they will reach their aspiration but some people dreams gets deferred to the point where the dreams is unattainable. Not everyone is lucky enough to just have their dreams deferred for just a moment.
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This is amazing. I love the comparison between the dulce de leche and the poem "Harlem". When i first started reading it I couldnt help but to laugh, but it really does make a great deal of sense. Sure some parts don't fit perfectly, like the part about the rotten meat, but no two things are ever going to be the same unless, of course, they are the same things. I also agree that there dreams were just deferred, but i can not help but think that the dream has been put to the side for so long that it has just been forgotten, maybe even marked off on the list as impossible. Although, if the dream that the african american community had was to be treated equally, then this poem could not have been read in our class at such a perfect time. Our first african american president just tok office yesterday, showing that they finally gotten to the dream of being treated as equals.
ReplyDeleteGood choice im comparing dulce de leche with the poem "Harlem." This is a good image that a reader can picture when reading the poem. I liked how you tied it in with dreams and how it will not change with time but can go with out reach. You gave vivid explanations of why you chose dulce de leche and how it changes similar with dreams, therefore, you convinced me as a reader to see dreams the same way as a desert.
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ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about a “dream may lose its impact” and the smell of dulce de leche, how you perceive it as being opposite of the smell of rotten meat. I didn’t realize that the smells “both leave constant reminders of the dream that is being put off”, at first I didn’t know what to take for the comparison with a dream differed. And your aspect of using dulece de leche as a metaphor is interesting choice to correlate the two with. I thought that when the poem talks about a dream deferred it was more of how dreams are forgotten, and lost. How dreams, in a sense, can be written down on paper and then crumbled and thrown away into garbage cans.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting and very creative that you use an image of Dulce de Leche to compare with the poem Harlem. In your analysis, you did a really good job at relating every image in the poem with Dulce de Leche. In my opinion, I personally do not think of Dulce de Leche when I read this poem; however, as I continued to read your analysis, I began to see the physical properties of syrup seem to relate to the poem. For example, I like your idea that pus that runs out from the sore is the similar to the consistency of Dulce de Leche. You have a really interesting logic between two objects that seem totally unrelated. In the poem, every image that used are negative, like sore, dried raisin, rotten meat, except for “Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupu sweet?”, and generally when people think of Dulce de Leche, they think of positive emotions and enjoyable moments, which does not seems to fit quite well with the poem. However, you achieve to provide analysis to shows that having the dream deferred is the same as crust forming on Dulce de Leche .
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