While Langhston Hughes authors this poem, A Dream Deferred, it can easily be interpreted as Toni Morrison's description of Nel and her life of sorrow and dissatisfaction. Sula and Nel, the protagonists in Toni Morrison's Sula, are each the only daughters of mothers whose distance leaves the young girls with dreams to erase this solitude and loneliness. There is no question that Sula alleviates this aloneness with a lascivious and experimental life, "I'm going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world"(143). Nel, however, for the most part, fails terribly at realizing her dreams and experiencing a happy existence. Compromising her individuality, her emotional stability, and her dreams mark Nel's banal and unfulfilling life.

Early in Nel's life during a trip to New Orleans, she watches as her mother is humiliated by a train's white, racist conductor; she watches the indignity of her mother's having to squat in an open field to urinate while whi

The odor evaporated; the leaves were still, the mud settled. And finally there was nothing, just a flake of something dry and nasty in her throat. She stood up frightened. There was something just to the right of her, in the air, just out of view. She could not see it, but she knew exactly what it looked like. A gray ball hovering just there. .....Quiet, gray dirty ball. A ball of muddy strings, but without weight. She knew she could not look (109)

This passage illustrates Nel's anguish and feelings of failure. The motion and progress of the mud and the leaves in the first paragraph as well as the odor of "green overripe things" represent the hope and action that Nel once had with her "me-ness". Additionally, the "howl" parallels Nel's former readiness and energy to commence her journey for individuality. However, as the "odor evaporated", "leaves were still", and "mud settled", so does Nel's dream fester like a sore. Until there is nothing left, except a harsh reminder of what once was, "something dry and nasty in her throat". Once again she is frightened as she was when she watched her mother's humiliation and submissiveness and made her bold self-declaration of "me-ness". This time, however, she is scared that her dream is lost, but she can sense that it still exists although she cannot see it. It is a "gray dirty ball" with a little substance , but "no weight". The ball corresponds to her dream, which still survives, but her dream is nearly dead, with "no weight".

When Jude leaves, after his betrayal with Sula, Nel suffers emotional torment and further problems from her failure to achieve "me-ness". It is at this juncture in the work that Toni Morrison employs a unique image to represent Nel's dre

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Approximate Word count = 1170
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)