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Though some of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s words emphasize the struggles that African Americans have with inequality, he still creates a path to the American Dream by emphasizing the process of the fight, how to gain strength and confidence, and the social economics of work overall his area.

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The word sympathy means the feeling of pity which is what Paul Laurence Dunbar wants you to take out of this emotional poem. Sometimes only, “... a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings!” (Sympathy, 1899). Dunbar emphasized the importance of praying and reaching your goal. Using imagery and metaphors, he created the imagery of black people’s thoughts. He also brought the struggle of imprisonment to life and advocated to change of black lives and proved how it needs to be justified if they want thier lives to be different. He was able to use this poem specifically to engage the readers to make a change during these horrible conditions and start to reach out to their goals of the “American Dream.”

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Dunbar worded Life’s Tragedy in a way that allowed him to create a whole opposite meaning to the American Dream. Living in Ohio in the late 1800s, the lifestyle for many black people included the consistent experience of, “The pale, sad staring of life's tragedy to have just missed the perfect love…” Dunbar continued, “... not the hot passion of untempered youth, but that which lays aside its vanity and gives thee, for thy trusting worship truth.” (Life’s Tragedy, 1913). Remarking on what you can get out of, "life’s tragedy," it truly sounds like an awful thing. Dunbar wanted the readers to analyze the meaning of the poem and how life's tragedy is doable with the knowledge a person is receiving. When analyzing the poem, the thought of a love song comes to life and the similarities become present because there are always breaks and problems in a relationship. Overall, the poem ends with the thought of hardship to perfection which could be a mindset to get to the American Dream.

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Dunbar wrote this poem not only as a tribute to Frederick Douglass but as a way to show how Douglass himself fought for his goal, equal rights. Douglass was a strong leader in the abolitionist movement whose goal was to end slavery as he wrote many pamphlets and spoke in public constantly. Dunbar contravened to this higher power and wrote, “For thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark, The blast-defying power of thy form, to give us comfort through the lonely dark.” (Douglass, Unknown). Dunbar was big on confidence and believed that you can achieve your goals which this source is a big example of by using metaphors like comparing the sea to the fight and how the battle also may reflect the back and forth of the strength of the black people around Douglass. Dunbar put out that you have to keep coming back and not give up.