The “American Dream” connotes the vision of a home with a white picket fence, a place of warmth and family, a safe place to sleep at night, a place where just stay. Much of the African American literature since 1900 demonstrates that the search for a “home” for most African Americans, complicated by racism, segregation, and oppression, becomes a frustrating and nearly impossible dream. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the short story "Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston, Delia enables her husband Sykes' unemployment and infidelity; she even allows him to bring a snake onto the premises regardless of his fear of the creature, but Delia balks at the thought of giving up her home. The title of the story describes Delia's work ethic which is further demonstrated in her argument 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” saying that he didn't want white people's clothes in his house, Delia quickly and warmly reminds him that it is his “sweat… [that has] paid for this house” (Hurston 1023) . Although Delia realizes that it is too late to worry about her relationship with Sykes, she realizes that she will never be able to give up “her little home.” He had it built for his old days, [he had] planted… trees and flowers there. It was lovely for her, lovely” (Hurston 1024). Richard Wright's “Long Black Song” also describes the struggle to have 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 they “have no money to mend their watches” (Wright 1422). Although Silas does not fill the space in her heart left by Tom, Sarah is grateful to Silas for "[giving] her his house... more than many others had done for their women" (1431). Silas has worked as a slave for "ten years...without [his] farm" (1433) and is proud that he is finally doing well enough to hire another laborer to work on his farm. But both Sarah and Silas's dream of a home and farm to own free and clear becomes a nightmare following an interaction with a white man. Whether Sarah is raped, has sex willingly, or simply consents, it infuriates Silas who has fought too long to be himself. In his article "'The Web Of Circumstance' by Charles W. Chestnutt and 'Long Black Song': The Tragedy of Property" by Richard Wright suggests that "a black man's attempt to participate fully in the white economic system could well lead to tragedy" (Delmar). Silas' encounter with the white men results in the death of one of them. Knowing that the white men will return with vengeance, his choice comes down to running away and giving up his home or staying and certainly giving up his life. Despising the whites, he sends Sarah and the baby elsewhere and chooses to stay and die with respect for himself and his lands. In his article “Pro & Con: “The Great Sharecropper Success Story,” Nicholas Lemann discusses the failure and success of “black America’s overall transition from three-quarters rural to three-quarters urban in the half-century from 1910 to 1960” (Lemann believes that migration did not always lead to better personal conditions for Africans.) -Langston Hughes's two poems “Madam and the Rent Man” and “Ballad of the Landlord” both show the beginning of ghettoization and indifference of the slum lords The speakers of both poems cite numerous conditions, including dangerous ones andunsanitary, in their rental residences only to find that the landlords and rental agents are only concerned with collecting money and not providing reasonable repairs. In "Madam and the Rent Man" a landlord's agent comes to collect the rent insisting that he must have the rent, the lady explains that “The sink is broken, / The water doesn't flow... Back in the window it's broken, / the kitchen floor creaks, / [and] there are mice in the cellar, / and the attic leaks” (Lady 11-18). She points out that she had raised these concerns previously and yet neither the “tenant” nor the landlord “did anything… [they] promised to do” (Madam 13-14). While the lady ultimately refuses to pay, the poem ends with both her and the tenant's frustration, an ironic note of agreement. “Ballad of the Landlord” takes a similar idea a step further. Because the speaker refuses to pay a landlord for such defective conditions, the landlord threatens him with eviction. The speaker reacts by threatening the landlord with bodily harm. Frustratingly, police involvement does not result in forced repairs by the landlord, but instead results in headlines that read "TENANT NOT HELD WITHOUT BAIL / 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 play, set “between the Second World War and the present” (Hansberry 1772), is set in a ghetto on the south side of Chicago. Michelle Gordon, in her article titled “Somewhat Like War: The Aesthetics of Segregation, Black Liberation, and A Raisin in the Sun,” states that “Hansberry directly addresses the crises produced by ghetto economies and dehumanizing living conditions” (Gordon 123). The five members of the Younger family live almost on top of each other in a two-bedroom apartment where their different personalities begin to wear each other out. The tiny apartment was never supposed to be a permanent situation. Mother explains how she and Big Walter, at the time of their marriage, had “planned to live here no more than a year… [They would] save [the money], little by little, and buy a small house. ... [They] also chose the house” (1.1). When the children arrived and finances dwindled, the dream was gone. With the next generation Ruth has the same thoughts and laments how the dream of "the way [she and Walter] would live [is] starting to fade" (2.1). Mom decides to buy a house so they can 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 in anyway. Hansberry ends almost on a happy note as the family returns to their daily arguments, but their future seems perilous. They will most likely encounter extreme and perhaps 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 needs of human beings begin with physiological needs such as food, water and sleep. Once these basic needs are satisfied, humans tend to seek security. A shelter or safe house is part of this need for security. The search for a safe home then becomes a need that must essentially be satisfied before humans can consider the need for love and belonging, or the next step, esteem, and the final step, self-actualization. “Human needs are arranged in hierarchies of arrogance. Namely, the appearance of,. 2013.