Martin Luther King Jr. Quote and Langston Hughes Poem

This blog post will take me back to high school because I had many class discussions about Martin Luther King Jr. back then. When I was in high school, I studied about African American history in Social Studies classes and read a lot of literature work in English classes. I still remember whenever MLK Day came closer, almost all of my classes had MLK discussion. I enjoyed talking about his life, works, quotes, and ideas with my teachers and classmates. I also liked to read many literary works from African American authors. When I hit college, none of the classes I took had to deal with MLK or African American culture, so this post will refresh my memory. 

People have to remember Dr. King for what he did for us. I admire him a lot because he changed the world. He had a lot of famous quotes, and this one is my favorite.


"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." 

I agree that hate cannot resolve hate, but love can. It is very true because when one person hates another person, and the another person hates him/her back, their conflict will get bigger and bigger. Only if the another person shows his/her love back to the person who hate him/her, their conflict might be solved. Hates and violences are NEVER the solution to any kinds of conflicts. ONLY love and forgiveness are the ways to resolve the conflict. Dr. King used "Darkness and Light" to describe the conflict and resolution. They are the perfect metaphors. From this quote I learned if I want to reconcile with someone, I have to forgive the person first. Actually love someone is easier than hate someone. Seriously, I can love someone much easier than hate someone because I need a reason to hate someone. I do not need a specific reason to love someone. People who did not get enough love are more likely to hate than love others. People need to be loved in order give love to others.


You can find more Martin Luther King Jr.'s quotes from this website:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html#ixzz1jev8Iv4P


Besides Martin Luther King Jr., one of my favorite African American authors is Langston Hughes. I like his "Dream Deferred".






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?
This poem explains what it will look like when a person's dream was destroyed. There are many metaphors describe the sadness of the destroyed dream in the poem. Dream will dry like raisins, and then it becomes pain and stinky meat. Destroying the dream like weakening the hope and walking toward despair. I strongly remember this poem because I like how he used common objects to illustrate the dream deferred feeling. They can easily touch people's hearts.