Analysis of the poem “As I Grew Older”, by Langston HughesTime passes, leaving behind memories but dreams never fade. They are immortalized in the soul. In the poem "As I Grew Older" by Langston Hughes, the character's dreams are immortalized from his childhood although he faces many obstacles in achieving them. The poem is about everyone's dream in life. In the quest of his journey, the character encounters an enormous number of challenges and obstacles. The theme of this poem revolves around the strong will and difficulties required to achieve one's goals. For teenagers, dreams seem to be their inspiration in life. They are stronger with the presence of dreams in their life. The character first introduces his poem with the existence of his dreams, “It was a long time ago” (line 1) and “I almost forgot my dream” (line 2). This is typical among most adolescents. They come out with so many dreams, slowly the dreams fade away with the passage of time and the dreams are forgotten because of their other commitments and at some point in their life the dreams reappear and they become very excited about them. The poet uses “The Wall” to symbolize the obstacles and difficulties that adolescents may have encountered in achieving their dreams. “Rose until she touches the sky” (line 11), the barriers faced by teenagers can sometimes reach a maximum point where all it takes is courage and determination to overcome them. Physical barrier such as poverty, interpersonal barrier which revolves around the individual mental states of the adolescent as well as intrapersonal barrier which takes others as a means of control and semantic barrier which includes the process of communication. These four barriers play a very important role in a person's motivation in life. There is a saying: “No one became rich because he worked on a holiday, nor did anyone become fat because he broke his fast.” Bibliography1. http:www.todays-woman.net/famous-poetsprint-828.html, accessed October 29, 2008, at 5:30 p.m.2. Beard, Adrian. (2003). The language of literature. United States: Routledge.3. Dr. Leng, Andrew. (2002). Literature: reading, theater, poetry and Unsen features. Singapore: Pearson Education Asia Pte Ltd.4. Calvo, Clara and Jacques, Jean. (1998). The literature notebook. United States: Routledge.5. Simpsom, JA and Weiner, ESC (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, volume XVIII). Oxford: Clarendon Press.6. Stanford, Judith A. (2002). Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. New York: McGraw-Hill