Monday April 16

Today we talked about the themes we came up with on Friday, and chose which one we thought was the
best. We analyzed the symbols in the American Dream, and the things we found in the poems.
We talked about the “dream deferred” bit from Harlem, by Langston Hughes, examining the word
choices and symbolism. We also began “A Raisin in the Sun”, reading the opening section. We also used
this T chart to mark the literal and figurative aspects.

Literal	Figurative
Worn out house and furniture.	Don't have a lot of money.

In the first part of the book, we read a scene setting and are introduced to our characters through an opening scene, where Ruth wakes up Walter and Travis and begins to prepare breakfast. We read and analyzed the scene in order to get information about our characters. By doing this, we were shown how the family goes about their morning in a daily fashion. This gave us insight into the relationships between characters.

The way we can apply this into our daily lives and interactions is to analyze symbolism on a deeper level. By looking at the subtext of something and the deeper meaning behind it, we can elaborate and determine things about people we could not glean without deeper analysis. If we can utilize this information in basic conversation, we can make reasonable assumptions and correctly make statements about a person.Being able to do so would create opportunities for deeper understanding and creating a stronger connection with a person, environment, or item. The meaning behind it can be discovered by taking into consideration where it has been, what it has done, or things it has interacted with, giving context. This was shown in the play when they talked about how the house was furnished in a way that made it seem drab and old.