16 December 2007

More dreams - Gamma Rays post #4

This is the fourth homework blog posting for Gamma Rays. The calendar says it's due Monday, but we'll extend it to before class on Tuesday, Dec. 18.

Langston Hughes, the poet who wrote "Dreams" from an earlier post, also wrote "A Dream Deferred." In both poems Hughes address the power of dreams. Likewise, Zindel's play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds deals with the impact dreams have on human beings, both for the power they have to instill hope and the emotional havoc wrought by broken dreams. Now that we've read most of Gamma Rays, read "A Dream Deferred." Which character do you think this poem speaks to the most in the play? Hughes uses several evocative similes. Choose some lines that you can connect to incidents and events from the play. Explain the connections.

A Dream Deferred*

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?

by Langston Hughes

* deferred = to put off action, to delay

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem applies to Beatrice, because her life is just like what is compared in this poem. Beatrice once had a dream to be like a normal, good, fun-loving mother who cares about her daughters. She has had many dreams about what her future could have looked like, and how successful she could have been in the real world. After a while, she explodes from all the pressure of her youngest daughter, Tillie. She cannot stand to have a daughter that is interested in science, and she can't stand to be laughed at.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem applies to Beatrice. Her dream was about going and selling vegetables from a cart with beautiful horses. A line from the poem is "Or fester like a sore" this is like Beatrice. She hold in all of her feelings then she has out bursts where she is yelling at Tille or threatening to kill the rabbit. So because Beatrice put her dream off to the side when she had her two kids. But when she finds out that Tille is living out her dream to learn about science and win the science fair she is upset because she thinks that people will laugh at her and make fun of Tille's dream.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem relates to Beatrice the most because she talks about how she used to have dreams and made a mistake by giving them up to take care of her family. I think that the last similie can be used to describe her because she is kind of like a heavy load. All she does is sit in her home, smoke cigarettes, take care of old people occasionally, and yell at her daughters. I think that she is jealous that Tillie will be in the science fair because she will be living out her dreams, but since Beatrice was never able to do so, she wants Tillie to also sag like a heavy load.

Colleen period 4

Anonymous said...

This poem applies to Beatrice. Beatrice had big hopes and dreams for her life that never happened. She had a dream to have a successful vegetable stand. The line "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load" from the poem relates to how Beatrice's dream never happened but that disappointment always lingered with her. She had to carry that burden her entire life. She was always reminded of the failure, especially when Tillie would talk about her dreams for herself.
Maria Period 6

Anonymous said...

This poem, is about Beatrice. The "dream deffered", is Beatrice's delayed dreams. When Beatrice was in her younger years, she had many wonderful dreams. She made many mistakes, and her life, "dried up like a raisin in the sun." In the middle of the play, we learn that Beatrice believes her life is over, and cannot get any better. She expresses her emotions, by verbally "assualts" Nanny. Beatrice's life, as she believes, "Sags, like a heavy load."
Sean H Per. 4

Anonymous said...

i think it refers to beatrices nightmare wich reflect on her real life about being scared about things in the world.

Anonymous said...

i think it refers to beatrices nightmare wich reflect on her real life about being scared about things in the world. things like people reilizeing shes a failure or her kids getting out of control.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem best relates to Beatrice. I think Beatrice because she had many dreams to try and achieve but she just gave up on them. Beatrice made many mistakes that affected her to succeed in her dreams. The ending of this poem also describes Beatrice because she is kind of like a heavy load because all she does is sit home and complain about her daughters.


Kendall

Anonymous said...

I think this poem relates to Beatrice because she tells her kids about how she used to be in highschool and how cool she was and now she stays how and babysits the elderly. I think this relates to how her life changed and its not as glamorous as it used to be, just like the raisin in the sun. A similie he uses is "maybe it just sags like a heavy load" might be about her daughters and how she thinks they are keeping her from completing everything she wants to do.

Jordan
period 6

Anonymous said...

I would have to say that this poem most relates to Beatrice. She really hangs on to her dream (or nightmare, as she calls it0. I think that she would go utterly mad if she fogrot about this dream, because although she does not think it is a good dream, it is a big part of her life. Maybe she thinks that if she holds on to it, she can remember her past mistakes and never make the same ones again. Some of the things said in this poem are "does it fester like a sore, "does it stink like rotten meat." This really gives a vivid picture of what happens to deferred dreams. I noticed that everything said in the poem were bad, so obviously Hughes thinks that you should hold on to dreams, as well.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem specifically speaks to Beatrice. She threatens people and isnt very nice to people. It talks about how beatrice hangs on to her dreams. And how when she finds out Tillie and her dreams of science she get mad and upset because she thinks people will laugh at her and she might get embaressed

pat per.6

Anonymous said...

Just as the last poem did, this poem invokes the characteristics of Beatrice when I read it. Beatrice’s life has been one giant disappointment. She was not liked at school, she was not able to get the jobs she wanted, she has kids that she does not particularly like and/or want, and she is tuck in a house with a job she despises. I imagine that when Beatrice envisioned her life thirty years from her present, this was not how she saw it. She wanted to be big, famous, glamorous, make a lot of money, meet wonderful people, and escape from the wretched town in which she grew up. Instead her dreams grew stagnant, congealed like a “syrupy sweet.” Her dreams, instead of being the wonderful hopes and wishes they once were, are now things that her mind uses to torment her with. Her dreams turned against her, they mock her, invading her body and “festering like a sore.” She realizes that she will never be able to follow her dreams, that she is doomed to a hell of her own making. I am sure that Beatrice sometimes wonders where she went wrong, why her life turned out like this. It is impossible to pinpoint when one took a wrong course of action, and maybe Beatrice never actually did. Maybe her life simply played out the way it was supposed to, the way fate willed it. This is a simple but concise and common tragedy, that sometimes ones dreams are never fully realized no matter how much one wants it.

Anonymous said...

The poem seems to relate most to Beatrice because she had dreams which Dried up "like a raisin in the sun." She isn't living the life she had dreamed she would live when she was younger because of her kids and especially Tillie, who she seemed to see as a "heavy load" that was dragging her down.
Josh period 4

Anonymous said...

I think this poem refers to Beatrice the most out of all the characters. In the play, she says how she wished she had finished beauty school and we find out she had been picked on in high School. Kids used to call her "Betty the Loon." There are many dreams she had as a kid, but I believe she wasn't able to accomplish them because she gave up and didn't think much of herself. With other people constantly putting her down, how would she be able to believe she could accomplish something? I don't think she has much self confidence and she does care what people think. The people that constantly doubted her only made her doubt herself.

Lindsay, Per. 4

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem mostly speaks to Beatrice. It seems to explain pretty much how her life is going. Her life has no fun and her youth is gone. The thrill of life is gone and seemed to be “dried up.” Beatrice had so much potential when she was younger. She had lofty goals and hoped to become all she could be. But when her father got sick, she deferred her dreams and tried to give herself a good life to please her father. Her future was put on hold and wanted to pursue her goals later. But she never got the chance. She got stuck in a rocky relationship and had two kids whom she wasn’t ready for. Her life was slowly beginning to get worse. Beatrice had to care for her two kids. The optimism she once had was drying up, giving her a pessimistic view on life. Beatrice began to resent those around her who caused her to be the failure she is. “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?” Those are the last three lines in the poem and it describes Beatrice well. She slouches all day long, hoping people feel sorry for her, and mopes around with nothing getting accomplished. Her dreams and her past were heavy on her shoulders and hard to bare. Finally, when Tillie and her achievements are too much for Beatrice, she explodes, not caring who she hurts. When dreams are crushed, peoples hopes and optimism tends to go with it. Everyone has different ways of dealing with it. Beatrice just doesn’t do it in a good way and makes her girls suffer by having them live in an unsuitable environment.

Jenna G, Period 6

Anonymous said...

This poem refers to Beatrice the most. She once had dreams about what she would do with her life and where she would be someday. But then she made a few bad choices and the dream that she had "sags like a heavy load." All she does now is sit around the house, lamenting about her life and trying to put down Ruth and especially Tillie. She can't stand to see her daughter accomplish her dreams just because she couldn't accomplish hers. She takes her anger and frustration out on everyone else. Perhaps if she wasn't so busy trying to make everyone else feel bad, she could have figured out a way to turn her life around and make her dreams come true. Peter per.4

Anonymous said...

I think that the poem speaks most to Beatrice. It seems that all her dreams have been deferred after she got married and had kids. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore--,” to Beatrice the dreams she once had have dried and shriveled away or festered like a sore only making her more unhappy and more aggravated. She once had dreams of growing up doing the work of her father, selling vegetables but all that disappeared when her father got sick and she was forced to marry suddenly. Her husband left her to fend for herself with her two daughters and that’s when all her troubles came. Because she had to take care of her children she most likely didn’t have time for her desired careers and ended up doing things that now she can’t stand like taking care of elder people. The other dream she has is seeing her father again which can never happen because he is dead. “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.” The sadness of never being able to see her father again becomes heavy emotional luggage over time.

Anonymous said...

I think that out of all the characters this poem mostly applies to Beatrice. She, as a child was made fun of. The kids used to call her "Betty the Loon." She had a lot of goals and dreams of what she wanted to do in her life. But it seems like something had gotten in her way. She has not been able to get to those big plasn that she has had in mind. She has probably just been put down by people so many times, that she is just going to give up. She has no motivation now, so how is she going to get back to wanting those dreams as much as she did before.
morgan period 6

Anonymous said...

This poem speaks about Beatrice. It relates to her because she had dreams of her own but they didn't become fufilled so they "fester like a sore" in her mind. The nanny connects to the poem by being a "heavy load" on Beatrice's shoulder. Incidents in the play relate to this book by having a dream not become reality like Beatrice had done to herself. The marigolds also connect to the line " Does it stink " because Beatrice doesn't like those flowers for that reason. This poem speaks mostly about Beatrice though because of her attitude towards her children's dreams and how she wants to essentially destroy them. She doesn't seem to want her kids to be happy or smart or successful.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem speaks to Beatrice. When the poem said “Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode,” I thought of Beatrice and her dreams of being a great dancer. Beatrice was a great dancer and had dreams of becoming the best, but then she made the mistake of marrying the wrong man and her dreams crumbled when she had children. Now, when she sees Tillie and her passion for science, she is angered because Tillie has the chance to become great but she doesn’t any more. She is angry because she once had that same passion, but for dance and can’t fulfill her dreams any more. When the poem talks about exploding, I thought of when Beatrice got mad at Tillie because she has a chance to become very successful and Beatrice doesn’t. Beatrice’s resentment for not becoming a great dancer was like a dream being a heavy load.

Megan Period 6

Anonymous said...

This poem speaks clearly of Beatrice. It explains that what happened to Beatrice is that her dreams are crumbled inside her. She has so many other things to take care of that her dreams get pushed aside. They build up inside her and she takes her anger out on other people. This poem is using phrases like "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load." to show how the dreams weigh down on her because she would rather be somewhere else. When the poet says "Or fester like a sore-" It could mean that the more she dwells on these dreams the worse the tention gets.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem relates to Beatrice the most. She had dreams that did “dry up
like a raisin in the sun?” when her father died and she could not sell vegetables and she was unable to fulfill her dream that she had as a young girl. So this one dream wrecked her whole life because in high and even after when her kids are in high school people called and still call her “Betty the Loon.” Tillie and Ruth are her “crushed sugar that are sweet syrup” and they have put a heavy load on her and she probably want to be like one of them but she cannot so it drains her down and makes her angry or maybe jealous of them.
Andrew Per. 4

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem definetly applies to Beatrice the most. I t basically is explaining what happens when you don't follow your dreams and what happens to your dreams. What happens to a dream deferred*?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?. This line from the poem is a phrase that can relate to th esituation in the play where Beatrices explains how she is the definition of a half life who has not comtinued or followed through with any o fher dreams and thats she is like a raisin in the sun.

-Mike P. P-4

Anonymous said...

i think that this poem realtes to beatrice beacuse he thinks that she has no dream and she doesnt know what to do any more so he doesnt know if she is going to have any dreams or not.

kyle per 6

Anonymous said...

This poem definitely relates to Beatrice the most. She didn't go for the dreams she had and was living a miserable life. Now that she cannot go back and fix any situation, it makes her dream deferred. At the end, it's sad how she says that she hates the world. The world did not accpet her. So, she decided to let her dream go. When Langston Hughes mentions, "Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode?", it described Beatrice's situation the best. Perhaps, she is still dreaming about having a better life for herself. At the end, she gets rid of all the stuff she had. All the things she desired came out of her. She kicked Nanny out of the house and killed the rabbit. Now, she is thinking about opening a restaurant. This proves that her drema is in her head like a big load, troubling her all the time. And she has decided to fight it even though she feels weak.

Anonymous said...

This poem by Langston Hughes is a good poem to describe Beatrice. All of her dreams are in her head, dreams like opening a teashop, and being famous. But her dreams are deferred, or held off and delayed. This poem is appropriate for Beatrice because it discusses what happens to a dream deferred. “Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?” For Beatrice yes, it dried up quickly because she was never able to follow her dreams so they lingered with her, burdening her. “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.” This describes her dreams; they sagged down because she could not chase them and fulfill them. And even further, the last line, “Or does it explode?” describes yet another thing that happens to Beatrice’s dreams. She delayed them so much that they just exploded with no hope of ever returning.
Mike R, Per. 6

Anonymous said...

This poem best relates to Beatrice because she had dreams and none of them worked out. The line "maybe it just sags like a heavy load" i think best decribes beatrices situation, because she had all the dreams and now they all are sagging on her because she doesn't forget them because if something is your dream you never forget it. She cant stop thinking about her dreams that didnt come that she turned into this miserable person that takes her own problems out on everyone else. At the end beatrice explodes and goes to pursuite her dream of opening a tea shop.

Anonymous said...

This poem seems to relate to Beatrice the most. She was a depressing character. Her dreams had become �dyed up like a raison in the sun� she had all of these life goals that fell short once her life turned to motherhood. Her dreams of opening a store seemed to �crust and sugar over�. This may have been from the lack of support from her school. She had recalled that school was hell for her because she never seemed to be smart or popular enough. She had big plans for her life but they seemed to melt away as her emotions had.
Sean S., Per. 4

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem relates to Beatrice the most. The reason why is becasue it talks about how like what happens to a dream. I think Beatrice let go of her dreams when everything just went away or she just gave up. Another thing is that it seems like seh just gives up and dosesnt care anymore about what she just wanted. oNe line that i think relates to Beatrice from the poem is "maybe it just sgas like a heavy load." i think this relates to her becasue she just dosent care and shows that in the way she carries herself.
said Annemarie period 4

Anonymous said...

The quote relates to both Beatrice and Tillie. It connects to both characters in differant ways.

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it expload?

This part of the poem relates to both characters surprisingly. Beatrice keeps her dreams in a heavy load and then it explodes. When it explodes all hell breaks loose. She kills the rabbit, causes Ruth to have convulsions, stops her income and destroys her home.

Tillie could let all Beatrice's negative influences get to her and her dreams could sag like a heavy load and eventually explode like it happened to Beatrice, however, Tillie finds an outlet for all of that negativity. She has her dreams of atoms and science and lets it explode into something amazing. Tillie is going to go somewhere in life, unlike her mother.

Anonymous said...

I think that this poem speaks to Beatrice because the poem is about how people feel when their dream is broken. Beatrice's dream was broken and she is mad and upset that it didn't come true. The line sentence that says "Or does it explode?" and the book can be connectied by how the mother explodes with her feelings towards her daughters and their teachers.


Aaron
per. 6

Anonymous said...

I believe that the poem "A Dream Deferred" relates most to Beatrice. Beatrice, when she was younger, had many dreams and had some sort of direction as to where she was going but lacked the power whether it be in her hands or not to keep on that track and her dreams were dashed. This whole poem basically describes what happens when dreams, like Beatrice's, become dashed depending on the personality. I believe that the two lines that refer to her the most are "Or fester like a sore--And then run?" and "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load." These refer most to her because since her dreams were dashed she still wears the wound and or burden that they left which is what causes her to be so short with Tillie. She almost is jealous of the fact that Tillie is succeeding in reaching her dreams where she didn't.

Dominic D Per-4

Anonymous said...

I think the entire poem applies to Beatrice. She talks of the days where she could have been something or gone somewhere. She also complains about her life and how she wishes to change things for improvement. Her dream was deferred and did infact dry up like a raisin in the sun because she didn't do anything to change what had been going on. It basically exploded.. [her dream] and nothing was ever done to change that or fix it. Beatrice had dreams of opening a tea shop.. and takes care of elderly people instead. She eventually cannot take her life anymore when she realizes her daughter is going to go more places than she will.

Theresa p4