As i grew older

Hughes deliberately uses the symbol of a shadow as a way to actualize his character's blackness, because the speaker's race is the barrier that is keeping him from achieving his dream. When the narrator describes lying hidden in the shadows, Hughes invokes Ralph Ellison's depiction of his African American narrator in Invisible Man (1952): “I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”

As the poem progresses, though, the speaker's listlessness and apathy turns into determination and vigor, creating a shift of energy. The speaker forcefully commands his “dark hands” to break through the wall so he can access his dream. He is no longer willing to let it languish beyond his grasp. He wants to “shatter this darkness" and “smash this night.” Hughes uses this violent language to show that the speaker is suddenly empowered and feels no equivocation or anxiety about what he must do.