Gamma Rays and dreams
The play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds focuses on the Hunsdorfer family – Beatrice, Ruth, and Tillie.
The poet Langston Hughes wrote two poems about dreams which may relate to what we’re reading. Read both of the following poems – "Dreams" and "A Dream Deferred." Select the one poem you think most speaks to the situation in the play. What is Hughes saying about dreams that can be applied to the larger ideas in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds? Explain your connections with direct references from the play. To earn full credit, each post must be between 150-200 words, written in standard conventional English, and fully explore the requirements of the prompt.
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
- by Langston Hughes
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
14 comments:
I chose the poem titled "Dreams". The reason I chose "Dreams" is because it speaks volumes about the Hunsdorf family. The poem talks about following one's dreams, and never giving up. When Beatrice was young, she could have finished her schooling and gone on to be something great. However she didn't. She didn't stay with her dreams, and simply let them die. Beatrice could have gone on to be a great person. She was smart. However, she wasn't consistent, and she didn't follow through with her dreams. Therefore she became nothing, and was tied down. She wasn't of importance. Her "Life is a broken- winged bird", where she is unhappy. Tillie has potential, like her mother did, but she must stay on her successful path. She must rise above her dysfunctional family. She must follow her talent in science, and stick with it. To stick with a scientific theme and to use a part of the title, Tillie must become a gamma ray. She comes from an unstable family, like a nucleus. Her family is unstable. She, like a gamma ray, can either do good or cause harm. She must not be like her mother, and be harmful. She must, like a good gamma ray, be used for good. If Tillie were to let her dreams and potential go, her "life is a barren field, frozen with snow." She too would be crushed like her mother, empty with wasted potential and unhappy with her meaningless lot in life.
-Jena
I think that the poem “A Dream Deferred” most relates to “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man -in -the -Moon Marigolds” because the play is partly based on various dreams of the Hunsdorfer family. Beatrice, the mother, dreams of opening a shop where she can be happy making a living. She dreams of finishing beauty and reality school. Beatrice also dreams of the days when she was young, independent, loved, and truly happy without a care in the world. Tillie, Beatrice’s daughter, dreams of winning the science fair with her project that she worked on so hard. She dreams of a day where she, like her mother, can be truly happy, without worrying about anything at all- not school, her classmates that constantly ridicule her for her clothing and inability to socialize with people, or her psychotic family that holds her back from her dreams. I feel the poem relates to “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man -in -the -Moon Marigolds” because it talks about how dreams can be crushed and more importantly, what happens when they are. I feel the poem essentially demonstrates the various effects the loss of a dream can have on an individual. The dream, like any other item that can be thrown away or forgotten, can dry up, like a flower that is in the sun for too long. The dream can stay in the back of one’s mind for ages, and then disappear, like a dove in a magic show. Or, it can stink, because of the lack of drive to achieve the goal. On the other hand, the dream can have a positive effect on an individual, causing them to become self motivated. A dream can be in a hazy fog that can occasionally cross a person’s mind but slowly drift away like nothing had ever happened. But sometimes, a dream can disappear all at once, without a trace left behind. I think Tillie’s dream is, “like a syrupy sweet” that one day will come true. Beatrice’s dreams are hard to interpret because of her various personalities but I feel that Beatrice’s dreams, “sags like a heavy load”. Although she may think she wants to forget her dreams, she cannot because of the peacefulness they occasionally bring her. The author is looking at the bigger picture by saying that he thinks dreams are not always happy, and they can disappear and although life is a journey, it takes years and years to get there so sometimes, it is important to live in the moment because in everyone’s life, a dream is always lost… regardless of who you are.
-Emily
I chose "Dreams". It sort of relates to what happened to Beatrice. She had so many things that she wanted to do. She could have finished school or became a dancer and had a better life. Rather than taking care of elderly people for 50 dollars a week. I think that Beatrice is a "broken-winged bird that cannot fly" because she's failed at most everything shes tried to do. She didn't go through with anything, she didn't "hold fast" to her dreams. I think the author is saying that if you don't hold onto your dreams and do what you need to do to accomplish them, you might never get the opportunity to again.
-Karen.
I chose “Dreams” because it relates to The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In- the- Moon Marigolds. This poems talks about not giving up your dreams and to stick with them. It also says that if you don’t accomplish your dream, things for you won’t be as easy as if your dream came true. This poem relates to the play because the characters had dreams. Even though not all of them got to follow their dreams; at least one character did. Tillie, who was the youngest child and who was always neglected, wished to stay focused in school and wanted her project to win at the Science Fair. Even though things weren’t easy for Tillie at home, she still didn’t give up at what she wanted to accomplish at. Because she didn’t give up and had confidence in herself, she got what she wanted. On the other hand, Tillie’s mother and sister didn’t follow their dreams. Beatrice wanted to finish school so she could own a beauty salon. However, she gave up on her dreams and didn’t try to go back; she became miserable and selfish. Basically her dreams died. Since she was unhappy she didn’t want Tillie to be happy or accomplish anything in life. If you don't follow your dreams like Beatrice didn't life can become hard or "frozen."
-Victoria
I picked "dreams" by Langston Hughes because you should always stick with your dreams and not say that your done. in the middle of your dream. You won’t know what your dream is like until you try the whole dream. You should never betray your dreams. Always follow your dreams. But with Beatrice she never followed her dreams. She wanted to do are school. She never followed her dream. She just failed to succeed. She thought it would be a good dream for her but she failed to say that it was too much for her. I think she was also in cooking school. That was her dream to but she also failed to succeed her dream. Her dreams died because she never believed in her self. They cannot get any stronger when you let go from the dreams. To her after she failed to accomplish her dreams it's like being frozen in the snow with no dreams to accomplish. Your just a like a bird with a broken wing that can't fly. But when the wing is getting healthier and healthier the bird will be succeeding in his own dreams. Beatrice made some really bad decisions and she doesn’t want her children to fail like her. She wants them to succeed. Not to fail. Not to be a failure. You have to hold on to dreams. Never let go of dreams until you know that you hate that dream. Don’t be like a empty field with nothing to do. Have something in life to do. I think what Langston Hughes is trying to say here that when you don’t have any dreams to share with anyone later on in your life than they will try to follow your dreams but they will also fail. You always have to share your dreams and be happy that you have succeeded in your dream not fail your dream.
Elyssa
I think "A Dream Deferred*" better repersents "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds". In the poem, Langston Hughes suggests some of the things that can happen to a postponed dream. Beatrice had many hopeful dreams when she was young. But her life was occupied raising her children, so she never got to follow her goals. Because of that she ended up abonding her dream for a while, and made money unwillingly taking care of elderly people. Her dreams were "dried up like a raisin in the sun". Beatrice is now mom of two teenage girls, and her dreams from youth are not ripe enough to follow. The only thing that this woman can do is regret the fact that she never got to stick to one of her dreams and make a living out of it. Now not knowing what to make of her life, she feels fustrated, and the only fragil hope she has is to open a teashop. Her dreams have exploded along with her own self. With the exploded dreams, Beatrice has to carry on with her life that she hates. Because her deffered dreams were exploded, Beatrice becomes a person who's full of resentment against successfull people like the Miss Career Woman. The unhappy woman also becomes a bad mother who doesn't fully support her child's interest. She becomes a pessimist, sarcastic, and a rude lady who when her dreams were friutful would have never thought of becoming such a person. Had she had been a successful person, she wouldn't have truned out that way.
Anjita
To me the poem “Dreams” most speaks to the situation in the play. The “broke-winged bird” from the play is like Beatrice because she had lost her dream. Birds are born to fly but with no wings it has no purpose in life. The bird is considered lifeless because it needs wings to survive and compete with others. Beatrice, like the broke-winged bird, doesn’t have the basic requirements to succeed. Her wings were lost when she decided not to finish school and because of her foolish choice she’s not able to support her family. Beatrice life is like the “barren field” from the poem because she’s probably not going to be successful in the future. Her tea shop is most likely going to be unsuccessful. Like a barren field she is unproductive and might quit like she did with her beauty school. Also, she is cold like the “field with frozen snow”. Beatrice is heartless and harsh to her daughters and blames everything on them. Because she was successful she doesn’t want her them to do well either, which is childish. Her jealousy is preventing her from supporting her kids’ education. ash
The poem “Dreams” mostly speaks about the situation in the play because in the play, Tillie entered a science experiment that her mother Beatrice disapproved of. Tillies dream was to become involved with science. On the other hand, her mother wanted nothing for her daughter and didn’t want her to go to school. Beatrice couldn’t fore fill her dreams so she doesn’t want Tillie too. This poem is the right poem for this kind of situation because it talks about wings being broken on a bird and it can no longer fly. That’s referring to dreams. When dreams are broken and can’t be repaired they no longer exist to be happy. When birds have broken wings and can’t fly, they are no longer happy and become miserable. Tillie is trying her best to have her mother understand how much science means to her and that it’s her dream to become more involved in science but her mother just doesn’t want to listen nor understand. Beatrice thinks that since she couldn’t fore fill her dream, none of her children can. Beatrice is extremely jealous of her daughter Tillie because Tillie wants to be in school, she wants to learn, especially science, she is better looking than her mother and she is smarter. Tillie is everything that Beatrice wanted to be. This poem best represents how dreams can be broken, and when their broken it’s hard to become happy again because your dream is everything you ever wanted.
Crissy Smith
I chose the poem Dreams. I think dreams makes more since for this story "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" because in this story the youngest child Tillie thatg grew up in a dysfunctional family, never gave up on her dreams. Even though her mom and her sister never finshed school. Beatrice wanted to finsh school and be a dancer. So this is the reason that Beatrice is bottled up. Since she didnt accomplish anything she doesnt want Tillie to. This relates to real life like when someone doesnt like you for something you have and what they dont have
Rashawn
I think that "a Dream deferred" better realtes to the play. I think that this poem is talking about how if you let one of your dreams go that it does come back and bother you. That you can't just forget about the dreams that you've let go. In the play Beatrice is desperarately trying to esacpe the circumstances that she has been put in and find a way out. Her life is horrible. But she says in the play that she once was popular and that she once had mnay dreams that hse intended on following. Clearly, she did not follow those dreams and it has landed her in the worst of situations and lifestyles and constanlty weighs her down like a heavy load. Because Beatrice did not follow her dreams it haunts her every day of her life. It constantly bothers her that she chose not to do what she really wnated and now she is making everyone around her suffer the consequences for her misery and sorrow. This poem is showing that if you don't not follow a dream, that you do not just simply forget about and find a new dream to follow. It is showing us that not following a dream is constantly going to be reminded to you everyday throught the life that you live and how you wished it could have been different if you had followed your dreams. That is why I think that this poem most closely relates to the play rather than the other poem.
the one above is Jake's
I think this is a great exercise.
I frequently find myself having to translate things from Spanish to English. This can be quite time consuming for me since although I speak some Spanish I am not fluent. I am wondering whether or not there is a good Spanish to English translation website that I can use to do this a bit more quickly and easily. I would love to have more time to do other things. The translations don't have to be perfect, they just have to be good enough that I can get the gist of what the document is saying and make an answer to any questions posed to me.
Post a Comment