Dreams Deferred By Langston Hughes Essay

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Have you ever read something that makes you about and think about your dreams and goals? How about one that reflects the after war mood of many African Americans. The wars were over but for African Americans the dream, whatever specific form it took, was still being deferred. Whether one’s dream is as ordinary as hitting the lottery or as noble as hoping to see one’s children educated properly, Langston Hughes takes them all seriously in his poem “Dreams Deferred”. Hughes takes the deferral of each dream to heart. This poem asks, and provides a series of upsetting answers to, the question, "What happens to a dream deferred?" (line 1). Looking deep into the poem, it is clear to be a ground of unanswered battles. Several components of its outer…show more content…
However, this piece speaks specifically to a black dreamer who has not been allowed to dream. The speak in this poem has a questioning, judgmental, and warning tone in which allows us to believe that this he or she has not been allowed to believe that they have the right to dream and see their dreams come true. African Americans were given the dreams of equity and equality. But these dreams never came true. African Americans are promised dreams of equality, justice, freedom, indiscrimination, but they are not fulfilled. They are delayed, deferred and postponed. Only promissory note has been given but has never been brought into…show more content…
Phrases used that indicate their destiny such as rotting or decaying would be “dry up / like a raisin in the sun?…fester like a sore, And then run? Stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over, like a syrupy sweet?” It implies an effect on the individual that the images are unpleasant and foul, but not severely life-altering. When the dream is postponed or deferred, it brings frustration, it dries up like a raisin in the sun but there is wet inside, similarly it stinks like rotten meat, it becomes fester like a sore and one day it will explode and cause larger social damages. This poem has vivid images along with these phrases, The first image being “dream dries up like a raisin”. This simile compares the original dream to a grape, which is sound, juicy, green and fresh since the dream has been neglected for too long, it has probably dried up. The next image in the poem “fester like” a sore and then run” expresses a sense of infection and pain. Comparing the dream to a sore of a body, the poet suggests that unfulfilled dreams become part of us, like an old injury that has collected pus. The word “fester” implies something decaying and “run” literally refers to pus. The speaker, is trying to signify the pain that one has when
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