This also makes me think about middle school, when we read "The House on Mango Street". The descriptive nature of this poem, and how it talks about dreams that were never actually followed.

My final connection to this is "The Alchemist". The idea that dreams need to be chased, as dreams deffered means you're not living to your full potential, that you're not reaching for your dreams.

Another thing that I noticed, is that this poem references "A Raisin in the Sun", I'm sure this was intentional, but I want more information. Which came out first, which inspired or paid homage to which. This is something that I missed the first time I read this poem in 9th grade, is it supposed to be something that not everyone sees?

Although, "Harlem" also reminds me of the last book we read as a class being The Alchemist because both texts feature a theme around dreams and goals.

However, I think that the poem "Harlem" is trying to tell us that some people will choose to do different things with their dreams. This is because the poem symbolizes people who throw their dream away(explode) and it also shows that some people with allows have parts of their dream linger in their mind(rotten meat).

This is the main reason but also I think they might be similar because they are both black girls.

The poem also reminds me of my younger self from the line "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" because I used to have a dream of being a couple different things but as time went on those dreams would change hints the "drying up"

Lastly this poem reminds me of Donald Trump from the line "Does it stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?" because Trump likes to make all bad things he does like its no big of a deal like sugar coating the situation.

The poem also reminds me of books I have read, particularly with a more dystopian theme. These characters have dreams of a better world, and then one way or another they are blocked from that goal, and their dreams come crashing down. (Although, eventually, they figure out a way to achieve their goals. )

Also a memory that comes from my life that reminds me of the poem is my dream to go out of state for college. Although I can make this dream a possibly reality, I rather just let it rot away and fade away.

My last correlation from the text to world is the deferred dreams of the deported immigrants. Since they came here for such big dreams and worked twice as hard due to the double standard just for their dreams to be explode or become like rotten meat.

This reminds me of The Alchemist because a main theme of the book is how we need to follow our dreams, our personal legends, in order to fulfill what life has set out for us.

The poem "Harlem" is quite impressive to me because it portrays the same message as The Alchemist, but in a quite shorter and simpler way. I love how much we can read into such a short poem and how much knowledge we can gain from it.

This poem made me think about a book I read in the past, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. This book talked about how much of an impact the small habits you make have. The positive habits steadily close the gap between you and your dream, while the negative habits may bring you farther away.

When I was very committed to playing soccer competitively, I remember how I constantly reminded myself about how every second I waste only delays myself from achieving my goals. Thus, I would train every chance I had regardless of how I felt because I wanted to manifest my dreams as soon as I could.

I can connect this theme to the type of environment we have in our society today. It seems to be clear that nearly everyone that is young sets their goals high. They want to achieve this dream, and there are so many opportunities that exist for them to accomplish it. However, only the people that are very determined achieve this dream, while the people that don't commit let their dreams die away.

A memory of mine that relates to this poem is when I broke my ankle last year. When I was younger I had a dream to became a professional soccer player. I played sense I was five and I was determined to make it happen but during a SOCCER tryouts I made a wrong move and broke my ankle. My feeling were like in the poem, I felt my dreams "fester like a sore - And then Run" sense then I haven't played soccer sense. But in the poem it also says "or crust over and sugar over - like a syrupy sweet." by breaking my ankle and not continuing soccer I had other opportunities and experience open up in my life. Like playing new sports I haven't played before, having more opportunities to hang out with friend. So really I think challenges you face have meaning and it is your decisions to see a new outlook on your situation.