What Happens To A Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes Essay

One of Hughes most famous poems, “Harlem(Dream Deferred)” had a great impact by posing lots of questioning. According to critic Tom Hanson, this poem is just that simple because it gives a bunch of undesirable answers to the same question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Hanson also says how this poem refers almost completely to an unsolved problem (Hanson, Harlem). The poem gives four rather unpleasant interrogatives and one declarative answer followed by the sixth possibility, “Or does it explode?” which is supposed to be a question to make a reader really think. There are several ways to interpret the meaning of the final line, and the most sensible explanation is, the African American community is “deferring dreams” and in doing so their dreams explode in terms of the chance to act is gone. Some may say Hughes presented an unattractive view

Can you imagine having a talent that you have been waiting so long to show an audience? The speaker in this poem tells the audience how it feels. In Langston Hughes short poem Harlem the speaker quizzes the reader on what happens when a dream is postponed. The tone of the poem is informative, curious and exciting. The speaker asks the reader short, simple metaphorical questions pertaining to the possible end results of a dream postponed. The poem title says a lot about the tone and the dream the speaker is referring to, which is the American Dream blacks pursued in the Harlem Renaissance.

"Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?" (2-3). suggest that a postponed dream will eventually be forgotten or fizzled out. The image of a raisin stimulates the reader's sight and taste senses. The dream is like a sweet grape which is fresh and new. If you set that grape aside (in hopes of coming back to it later) it most likely will be bitter, dried out, kaput, and

This poem by Langston Hughes is a very complicated. In it the speaker paints a picture of what might happen to someone’s dream if it is postponed too long. This idea is the overall theme of the poem and it is what unifies and connects each line to the poem as a whole. There are also indirect references that this is not only the dream of an individual, but an entire race’s struggle to achieve peace and liberation. This poem consists of a series of answers to the question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” All of the lines following this first question are presented as different similes.

In Langston Hughes’ poem, the author gives us vivid examples of how dreams get lost in the weariness of everyday life. The author uses words like dry, fester, rot, and stink, to give us a picture of how something that was originally intended for good, could end up in defeat. Throughout the play, I was able to feel how each character seemed to have their dreams that fell apart as the story went on. I believe the central theme of the play has everything to do with the pain each character goes thru after losing control of the plans they had in mind. I will attempt to break down each character’s dream and how they each fell apart as the play went on.

In our journey through life, we all have certain expectations of how we would like our lives to be. All of us strive to reach a certain level of self-actulization and acceptance. It could thus be said that all of us live a dream. Some of these individual dreams inevitably become the collective dream of many people. In "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)", Langston Hughes makes use of symbolism as well as powerful sensory imagery to show us the emotions that he and his people go through in their quest for freedom and equality. By using questions he builds the poem towards an exciting climax.

In Hughes poem Harlem a series of similes are used in the poem to compare a dream deferred to rotting, aging or burdensome items. A dream deferred is compared to a raisin, a sore, rotten meat, a syrupy sweet, and a heavy load. The actions linked to these items suggest what might happen to the dream, such as rotting and dying or weighing down the conscience of the people. The poem ends with a single metaphor with the line "Or does it explode?" (Hughes 10).

With the unique use of his stanza form, Hughes uses his first line in the poem to grabs the reader's attention. As line one is the longest line and it is separated from the rest of the poem. Continuing down further the first image in the poem is formed with the use of a simile. The narrator states “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (line 2-3). The simile likens the original dream to a fresh, juicy, green grape and since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up. The second simile, “Or fester like a sore-- / And then run?”, conveys a sense of infection and pain suggesting that it eats at the skin, constantly aggravating it because the sore has not been obtained (line 4-5). Comparing the dream to a sore of a body, the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of them, like a longstanding injury that has gathered pus. The word “fester” connotes something decay and “run” literally refers to pus. From this viewpoint of the speaker, this denotes to the pain that one has when one’s dreams always defers. A postponed dream is like a painful injury that begins to be

"Does a dream differed stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet". This question is important in the poem because Hughes is comparing a dream that is differed and not acted upon to rotten meat that usually starts out fresh and very useful, but if it is set out to long it begins to become infected and have parasites. If the dream is put aside the aspiration will then stagnate and decompose. The next line "or crust as sugar over like a syrupy sweet" show that a dream can be really sweet and overflowing with good things but that can also become bad because too much of a good thing maybe bad for you, so having a dream but not acting on it even if the dream is tremendous is still not good at

He begins with a hypophora, asking “What happens to a dream deferred?” The following poem answers this inquiry with a series of rhetorical questions. Hughes’ strong use of simile in lines like, “does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Appeals to the senses. The image of a raisin, dry and wrinkled, robbed of it’s juice and freshness, solidifies the idea that a dream that has been pushed aside becomes old and

“Dreams” is a poem that tells us about holding into your dreams. In particular, Mr. hughes uses metaphor to emphasize the dreams, such as “ life is a broken winged bird/ that cannot fly”, and life is a barren field, frozen with snow”.he’s saying that when you let go of your dreams it would be like the broken winged bird meaning you won't get anything without

After poetry is written, published, and circulated, analysis of the poem must take place. It unveils and discusses the themes, figures of speech, word placement, and flow of the piece, and "A Dream Deferred," is no exception. In Langston Hughes's poem, A Dream Deferred, the theme is that no really knows to dreams if they are not reached, and very realistic figures of speech help convey this idea; the poem can be surprisingly related to Mr. Hughes's life through the subtitle and quotes from Langston himself.

As you read further into the poem it allows you to develop a clearer understanding of what Hughes is trying to express in the poem. It is stated that the dream may "crust and sugar over… like a syrupy sweet? He is stating that by not using or putting the dream into use had formed into crust, which is that hard material that is no longer useful because it is no longer pliable. The dream forced to sit idle hardens into an unusable substance of thoughts that have separated themselves from the goals and formed idle destructive thoughts that are crusted over with despair, doubt, anger, and hatred.

Poetry Analysis of “Dream Deferred” Jazz poet Langston Hughes adopts figurative language to convey his message to readers who are unsure about pursuing their dreams. In “Dream Deferred”, Langston Hughes depicts the danger of postponed dreams from the African American community in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance where dreams were left behind due to fear of discrimination. Hughes implements stylistic devices in his poem to develop the theme that deferred dreams may lead to negative outcomes. Hughes applies symbolism and similes to his poem to emphasize the terrible result of delayed dreams. For instance, Hughes questions if “[Dreams] dry up like a raisin in the sun” (2-3).

Langston Hughes’ poem “Dreams” discusses the value of having goals and aspirations. The poem is relatively short and uses metaphors to express such utter importance of dreams. In the first stanza Hughes’ implies that a life without dreams is useless and may as well not even exist. The whole of a bird’s existence is to be able to use its’ wings to fly, just like a human’s life only has a purpose to exist if there are dreams to give it meaning. The second stanza contains another metaphor about comparing having no dreams to living an empty life. A field with nothing but snow, has no use in life except to just be there. The authors use of metaphors comparing lifeless nature to a life without dreams is extremely effective in getting the