Dreams

I was teaching Langston Hughes's "A Dream Deferred" last week and was surprised byt the interpretation my students gave. A lot of them liked this poem and chose it to discuss in class, but they saw the meaning of putting off one's dreams as ambiguous in the poem--they thought there was just as good an argument to be made for putting off one's dreams as to trying to fulfill them as soon as possible. I'm not sure overall what to make of their reaction--on the one hand it could speak to a kind of pessimism in their outlook, on the other, it could show that they're not all about immediate gratification. It surprised me anyway as I only read the deferral as a negative.

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I do think that the poem itself is suggesting that deferring a dream is a very negative thing.
However, I do think it's cool that it seems like your students are challenging the perspective of the author instead of just being completely led by emotional imagery.
I'm not really sure if there's anyway to determine whether this is wholly a positive thing, but there is a clear and definite paradigm shift.

I wonder if it's related to how your students define a dream.  How have dreams been presented to this generation?
Do they see dreams as only something trivial and fanciful - an aspiration not worth striving for.... or even just a fantasy that could never come true?  Is the quandry more directly related to the notion that having hope in something is pointless and futile?

It's a conspiracy... I think Fred has visited your class:

Hope. Pandora brought the jar with the evils and opened it. It was the gods' gift to man, on the outside a beautiful, enticing gift, called the "lucky jar." Then all the evils, those lively, winged beings, flew out of it. Since that time, they roam around and do harm to men by day and night. One single evil had not yet slipped out of the jar. As Zeus had wished, Pandora slammed the top down and it remained inside. So now man has the lucky jar in his house forever and thinks the world of the treasure. It is at his service; he reaches for it when he fancies it. For he does not know that that jar which Pandora brought was the jar of evils, and he takes the remaining evil for the greatest worldly good--it is hope, for Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man's torment.

Heh, I think my students are a lot more like Lost Fred (or FFFred) than original Fred.

Some of them said things like, "Well, maybe it's not the right time for the dream" or "It'll be more sweet if you put it off for a while." So that seems to fit with the delayed gratification idea. Still not sure though--I do think there's a kind of naive optimism that existed in previous generations that they might not have. All in all, I'd see that as a good thing because that kind of optimism gets turned into hopelessness so easily (which I don't see as the most evil of evils, despite Fred).

Yup, I'm able to see them.

That was funny.   I love the free association about the taco.

Heh, that was amusing. "And what starts as harmless morning talk may lead to a Freudian free-for-all of overanalyzing."

Heh, talk about prophetic dreaming. Good thing I don't remember most of them!

Well, that's a very good question.  To be honest, I rarely remember my dreams any more.  When I was younger, I had a much more active and deliberate dream-life.  For all I know, I could still have an active dream-life... perhaps it's even very deliberate when it's happening... but recollection almost always eludes me these days.  I still, though, find myself having the solution for a problem that completely baffled me the day before, so I presume my mind is still making progress in the manner it used to.  Perhaps I no longer recall the dreams because my recollection is no longer important? I don't know.

My capacity for daydream has not diminished and in many ways it has been enhanced.  I wonder sometimes if daydream has taken over most of the more interesting dream tasks and my night dreams now address such mundane issues as to not merit detailed recollection.  Again, I don't know.

The most vivid dreams I've had recently, though, that I CAN recall involve my deceased mother.  These dreams take place at various times and in many different places, but they all have several things in common.  Mom isn't sick at all.  She's happy.  And I almost always feel this immense relief that she's not actually dead.  I suppose these dreams have the most uninteresting of interpretations.  Obviously, I wish not only for my Mom to be alive, but for her to be happy and healthy and in the presence of those who love her.

Some who have dreamed of dead loved ones insist that they are attempts on the parts of the deceased to comfort the living.  But I don't get this impression at all from my dreams.  I think I just very much wish that things were different.

But... all of this reflects where I'm at on my spiritual path.  Obviously, I still have many things to learn.  I admire those whose dream-lives are more interesting and, at least to my perception, more potent.

Hi GC

OOhh! Interesting subject here. I wish I could recall my dreams tool! What usually happens to me is, I will wake up and feel a strong emotion yet not know why. It's like the emotions from my dream are still with me when I wake up but the dream is gone. It's frustrating when that happens! Especially when it's a good emotion!! You KNOW it was a good dream, but can't remember it! I'm like, "Ugh! What a waste!" It could have been entertaining, right?

Well, after reading your thoughts on it, I suppose it really isn't a waste. I'm sure it's very important in regards to problem solving. Dreaming is just our brain getting organized and our mind tries to make sense of it so we recall it as a story. Like you said, you may not remember the dream but you do have a solution to a problem. It makes sense that the better organized your brain is the better it will function.

Indeed.  Some say that dreaming is your brain de-fragmenting.  Heh. 

I found a really cool article on this:

A Neurobiology of Dreaming: Dreams and Biologic Reductionism
The article argues in favor of "biologic reductionism".

They believe that their studies show dreams are simply a form of "sleep thinking,". The firing patterns of the neurons involved are "far from random", and that dreaming would indicate a very organized network of brain structures that continue to function during sleep in very much the same way they function in our waking hours.  However they clarify that regardless of problems we may solve upon waking from a dream, dreaming is not problem-solving or "defragmenting".  They state that a dream more often than not reflects the waking worries of the person.  They believe that dreams do not have have deeper meaning or a universal symbolism (unless perhaps you consider Jungian archetypes in your common "every day") but are simply a reflection of everyday occurrences or going through familiar tasks.

It revealed there was a different brain chemistry during sleep, that the researcher claim would explain "through chaotic nerve impulses"our wild and bizarre dreamscapes during REM sleep.

They also ask: why do we want to believe in a greater meaning for our dreams? and claim "no one believes that waking thoughts are so unusual, no matter how off-the-wall any one fleeting thought may be." Why then, should dreams hold such a mystic quality if they are nothing more than a sleeping biological process?

But I ask "DO WE want to believe in a greater meaning for our dreams?"

The pattern I've seen is that people would like to believe there is greater meaning in their dreams when it is about something they want, like or value.  They then use this "deeper meaning" to justify their actions in relation to that dream because they want it to be true.
If the dream is about something bad, makes them feel uncomfortable, or about something they don't like - they would like to dismiss the dream as irrelevant to their situation, and just random. That way they can claim that they had no control over a thought they did not want to have and any negative association with it.

I think at the root of this is that people generally don't want to be held responsible for their own thoughts and feelings.
If they can believe that the root of a thought or feeling is mystical, unexplainable, and outside of themselves... then a person doesn't have to consider that these thoughts and feelings are a part of them that they need to confront.  "Sleep thought" is not the only kind of thought we feel socially at liberty to detach ourselves from ... what you say and do when you're drunk is often brushed aside the same way - because you can claim "the alcohol impaired my judgment".

I would also disagree that people don't find their waking fleeting thoughts disturbing.  I've seem people take random thoughts they have even during the day and freak out because they believe if they thought it - that it must have been "on purpose" and it says something about what kind of person they are.  Sometimes not talking about something controversial is even socially enforced to a point where it's not even thought about on a conscious level - the rules about how to behave in particular situations becomes internalized and habitual.  (Again maybe even might be a reason someone might drink in order to cope with them.)

In some cases I agree that perhaps the brain is thinking the thoughts we repress during the day... thoughts about worries that need to be addressed.  I do think that people who reflect on their dreams gain insight that can be used to resolve a problem or conflict that perhaps they did not feel at liberty to deal with "out loud" in the "waking world".

However, the study admits - and I find significant - that they do identify that the brain chemistry is different during "sleep thought" vs "waking thought".
It's clear to me that science still has a lot to investigate in all of those regards before they can come to any solid conclusion.  Questions they don't answer:
Is there something that causes this difference in chemistry? 
Or even:  Does the brain chemistry come first - or does something else bring this function about?  Which came first - the Chicken or the egg...
How do they define "mystical"?  Have they been able to locate "mystic areas" of the brain?
If so is the subconscious related to these areas?
Are there different types of dreams that show more of a drastic change in this chemistry?

Scientifically I would be curious to see - if they tracked all kinds of thoughts - would they find that there are different kinds of waking thoughts that are closer to the chemistry of sleep thoughts? 

Perhaps there are some kinds of waking thoughts are more mystical than people lend them credit for.

Maybe your just a man with a clear conscious and therefore are not "remembering" your dreams/

when does vivid daydream cross over to hallucinations?

Your mom is happy and in the presence of those who love her every time you think of her. That is how she lives on forever. and that is healthy.

If you really want to have some freaky dreams, go into a different time zone (like say Europe) and try to adjust to a new sleeping pattern. Kind of a neat way to see how your brain is working in the unconscious.

There is alot to learn from you.

Well... I don't know how clear my conscience is.  I try to do the right thing, of course, which in my thinking means also not beating myself up forever when I mess up.  I do worry some, but mostly about the future, not the past.  Although I do realize that worrying about the future does about as much good as worrying about the past; that is, none at all.

I think a vivid daydream would pass over into hallucination if I thought the visions were taking place outside my head instead of inside.  So far, that's never happened to me.

I suppose your comment about my mother is correct.  And it is comforting.  Thank you.

Yes, I've heard that a good case of jet lag or perhaps spending some time up north where the days are very long can really remove the veil between the conscious and unconscious mind.  It's a fascinating subject to be sure.

I'm most grateful for the vote of confidence.  I only hope you're right.  Most of the time I feel like I'm the only one who's learning things from others because everyone else seems to already know what's going on!  But I reckon that's what we're all here for.  To learn from one another.