Of Dreams and Dancers

Of Dreams and Dancers

An Essay on Dreams

By Emmanuel Perry

September 13, 2011

            
             Have you ever listened to Jackson Browne’s song ‘For a Dancer’ or read Langston Hughes’s poem ‘A Dream Deferred’? I happen to have listened to both of them and wondered if these lines and lyrics could relate to me and my life.I was surprised how many positive real-life experiences came to mind! The reason it was so surprising was that both the poem and the song talk about loss and many other depressing thoughts. I feel blessed to have such positive experiences that can even be compared to such a tragic song

             When I was younger, I always wanted to go to a theme park in California called Lego Land. As the name of the park suggests, I was a fan of Legos and I still am a fan of the Lego brand. However, due to the fact that we live in Connecticut, we’d need another important reason to go all the way to California. I was worried that we’d never go, that my dream would dry up like a ‘raisin in the sun’. To keep that from happening, I kept the thoughts of Lego Land in my head as I tried to collect coupons from the Lego Magazines I got every month. One day dad told me that we would be going to California to look for high schools for Mia and me. Dad also mentioned that we had time to stop by Lego Land along the way! This experience taught me to never give up on a dream. You should always strive to complete your goal. If you keep at it, maybe your patience and determination will pay off! As I think about the poem  ‘ A Dream Deferred’, it reminds me of the song ‘For a Dancer’ in some ways. For example, ‘For a Dancer’ talks about an untimely, sudden death of a friend. When you think about someone you know who has died, you’d probably wonder if they have fulfilled their dreams in life.The poem, ‘A Dream Deferred’ talks about what might happen to a dream that is forgotten.  Do you think a dead persons dreams and goals “sagged, like a heavy load” the minds of those who knew the deceased person’s desires, never to be achieved? Do you think that the deceased persons’ friends become inspired to work towards his dreams, like the colored people of America when Martin Luther King died?

  The lines ‘Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known’ from the song ‘For a Dancer’ by Jackson Browne remind me of a time when I used to draw books to aid me with my budding attraction to cartooning. I would carefully copy the images created by a cornucopia of different cartoonists and illustrators. It was hard to draw step by step, and slowly things changed from me copying others to drawing your own ideas in their style of art. A few months later my drawings ‘[became] my very own’, as Jackson Browne would say. Other artists or authors no longer inspired my cartoons. In another verse, Jackson talks about how to cherish friends and family when he said, ‘I must have thought you'd always be around Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found’.  These words mean that you should not take your friends for granted, that you should have fun with your family and always think of each day as a new opportunity to be happy.




      These words of poetry and song relate to many positive things in my life. I think it’s a good thing to relate yourself to music you enjoy. Maybe that is why some people love certain songs, because they relate to some aspect of their lives.  Even though these songs are about somewhat saddening thoughts, I see them as connections to good things in my life. I believe that if you look at a negative thing positively, life will be much more enjoyable.