The “American Dream” conjures up visions of a house with a white picket fence, a place of warmth and family, a safe place to rest at night , a place to be. Much African American literature since the 1900s demonstrates that the quest for "home" for most African Americans, complicated by racism, segregation, and oppression, becomes a frustrating and almost impossible dream. . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, Delia enables unemployment and the infidelity of her husband Sykes; she even allows her to bring a snake onto the premises, regardless of her fear of the creature, but Delia balks at the idea of ​​abandoning her home. The title of the story describes Delia's work ethic, which is further demonstrated in her discussion with the errant and selfish Sykes, "Sweat, sweat, sweat!" Work and sweat, cry and sweat, pray and sweat! (Hurston 1023). When Sykes refers to the house as "his" by saying that he didn't want white clothes in his house, Delia quickly and warmly reminds him that it was his "sweat...[that] paid for it." for this house” (Hurston 1023). Although Delia realizes it's too late to worry about her relationship with Sykes, she realizes she can never give up "her little home." She had it built for her old age, [she had] planted... trees and flowers there. It was charming to her, charming” (Hurston 1024). Richard Wright's "Long Black Song" also describes the struggle to make a home in the rural South. “Long Black Song” is set shortly after World War II and tells the story of Sarah and Silas, who are so poor that they “have no money to repair any clock” (Wright 1422). Although Silas does not fill the space left in her heart by Tom, Sarah is grateful to Silas for "[giving] her her own home...more than many others had done for their wives" ( 1431). Silas has worked for "ten years...to free [his] farm" (1433) and is proud to finally do well enough to hire another employee to work on his farm. But Sarah and Silas's dream of a free and clear home and farm turns into a nightmare following an interaction with a white man. Whether Sarah is raped, has sex voluntarily, or simply acquiesces, this fact infuriates Silas who has fought too long to be his own man. In his article "The Web Of Circumstance" by Charles W. Chestnutt and "Long Black Song" by Richard Wright: The Tragedy of Property", he suggests that "a black man's attempt to participate fully in the white economic system could very well lead to tragedy.” (Delmar). Sila's encounter with the white men results in the death of one of them. Knowing that the white men will return for revenge, his choice comes down to fleeing and abandoning his home or staying and surely giving up his life. Despising white people, he sends Sarah and the baby elsewhere and chooses to stay and die with his own respect and on his own land. In his article "For and Against: 'The Sharecropper's Great Achievement,'" Nicholas Lemann discusses the failure and success of "black America's overall transition from three-quarters rural to three-quarters urban over the course of half a century between 1910 and 1960” (Lemann notes that migrations did not always result in better personal conditions for Africans). -Langston Hughes' two American poems, "Madam and the Rent Man" and "Ballad of the Landlord" both show the beginnings of theghettoization and the indifference of the slum lords. The speakers of both poems cite the numerous, even dangerous and unsanitary, conditions in their rented residences. only to find that landlords and letting agents only care about collecting money and not providing reasonable repairs. In “Madam and the Rent Man,” an agent of the landlord comes to collect the rent while insisting that he must have the rent. rent, Madame explains that “The sink is broken, / The water does not flow... Back the window is cracked, / The kitchen floor is creaking, / [and] There are rats in the cellar, / And the attic is leaking” (Madame 11-18). She points out that she had raised these concerns before and yet neither “the farmer” nor the landowner “did anything... [they] promised they did” (Madame 13-14 ). While Madame ultimately refuses to pay, the poem ends with her and the tenant's frustration, an ironic note of agreement. “Ballad of the Landlord” takes a similar idea a step further. As the speaker refuses to pay a landlord for similar defective conditions, the landlord threatens him with eviction. The speaker responds by threatening the owner with bodily harm. The frustrating thing is that police intervention does not result in forced repairs from the landlord, but rather headlines that read: “TENANT HAS NO DEPOSIT / JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL” (Ballad 32-33). A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is about a poor, working-class family. The drama, set “between World War II and the present” (Hansberry 1772), takes place in a ghetto on the south side of Chicago. Michelle Gordon, in her article "A Bit Like War: The Aesthetics of Segregation, Black Liberation, and a Raisin in the Sun," asserts that "Hansberry directly addresses the crises produced by ghetto economies and dehumanizing living conditions” (Gordon 123). The Younger family, consisting of five members, lives almost on top of each other in a two-bedroom apartment where the different personalities begin to wear on each other. The tiny apartment was never meant to be a permanent situation. Mom explains that she and Big Walter, when they got married, had not "planned on living here for more than a year... [They] were going to save [the money], little by little, and buy a small accommodation. … [They] even chose the house” (1.1). As children arrived and finances tightened, the dream faded. With the next generation, Ruth has the same thoughts and laments that the dream of "how [she and Walter] were going to live [is] beginning to slip away" (2.1). Mom decides to buy a house to have enough space for the new baby Ruth is carrying, but not without reservations. While Mom buys a house they can afford, it's in a white neighborhood, and despite the white neighborhood's attempts to buy them out, they move anyway. Hansberry ends almost on a happy note as the family returns to their daily squabbles, but their future seems perilous. It is more than likely that they will encounter extreme, even violent, reactions to their presence in a white neighborhood. In 1943, AH Maslow wrote his article titled “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he postulated that the most basic human needs begin with physiological needs such as food, water and sleep. Once these basic needs are met, human beings tend to seek security. Shelter or secure housing is part of this need for security. The quest for a safe home then becomes a need that must be,. 2013.