Dream Deferred (Harlem, By Langston Hughes
We all have our childhood dreams - whether it was to become an astronaut, firefighter, photographer or even a professional athlete. However, not many people actually follow these dreams. It may have been due to the fact that your interests may have changed as you grew older, or you could not dedicate the time and effort needed to achieve the goal. In Langston Hughes poem, “Dream Deferred (Harlem),” he uses metaphors and imagery to not only portray how much of a burden a dream can be, but also how positive of an impact it can make on your life. Hughes uses several metaphors within his poem, asking questions about “what happens to a dream deferred?” (1). However, digging deeper into the subtext – we learn that many of these questions answer
themselves. “… fester like a sore-” (4), suggests that a deferred dream won’t heal or go away. It will always be with you, lingering in the pits of your conscience - as it is ignored, not canceled. He also goes into comparing a deferred dream to “rotten meat” (6), because dreams that are stashed away often haunt us - much like the way rotting meat haunts us when it sits in the refrigerator for too long, only for us to throw it away when we smell it. Alongside it haunting us, the scent of rotting meat is almost always associated to death - there is a further assurance that there is a clear distinction between ignoring dreams and getting right of them altogether. Hughes also points out the possibility of good, “... or crust and sugar over -” (7), what happens to things like cheese. While it is still technically rotting - if it preserved properly it will result in something positive, even if forgotten. While he uses these metaphors to imply something else and compare, they also give us a clear image. “...maybe it just sags, like a heavy load” (9-10). This metaphor very clearly represents something such as emotional baggage, which never seems to leave and soon becomes a part of you - the heavier it becomes, the harder it is to carry every day. “Or does it explode?” (11), now this specific line is rather flexible and can perceived in two ways - whether you see it as something positive or negative. On one hand, there is seeing an explosion as it the dream getting completely destroyed into many pieces. On the other, there is the idea of something like a firework - it explodes into something beautiful, creating hope and a renewed passion for that dream. Overall, this poem speaks about both the positive and negative possibilities of a deferred dream - one that has never been acted upon, or was postponed. Langston Hughes used many successful figures of speech to describe a deferred dream; for example, “like a raisin in the sun?” (3), which later inspired a successful play by Lorraine Hansberry - portraying the deferred dreams of African Americans due to slavery. He combined his use of metaphors and imagery, using them to not only compare, but to also give us a mental image of what he believed. A dream deferred is what you make of it, whether that turns out to be positive or negative.
themselves. “… fester like a sore-” (4), suggests that a deferred dream won’t heal or go away. It will always be with you, lingering in the pits of your conscience - as it is ignored, not canceled. He also goes into comparing a deferred dream to “rotten meat” (6), because dreams that are stashed away often haunt us - much like the way rotting meat haunts us when it sits in the refrigerator for too long, only for us to throw it away when we smell it. Alongside it haunting us, the scent of rotting meat is almost always associated to death - there is a further assurance that there is a clear distinction between ignoring dreams and getting right of them altogether. Hughes also points out the possibility of good, “... or crust and sugar over -” (7), what happens to things like cheese. While it is still technically rotting - if it preserved properly it will result in something positive, even if forgotten. While he uses these metaphors to imply something else and compare, they also give us a clear image. “...maybe it just sags, like a heavy load” (9-10). This metaphor very clearly represents something such as emotional baggage, which never seems to leave and soon becomes a part of you - the heavier it becomes, the harder it is to carry every day. “Or does it explode?” (11), now this specific line is rather flexible and can perceived in two ways - whether you see it as something positive or negative. On one hand, there is seeing an explosion as it the dream getting completely destroyed into many pieces. On the other, there is the idea of something like a firework - it explodes into something beautiful, creating hope and a renewed passion for that dream. Overall, this poem speaks about both the positive and negative possibilities of a deferred dream - one that has never been acted upon, or was postponed. Langston Hughes used many successful figures of speech to describe a deferred dream; for example, “like a raisin in the sun?” (3), which later inspired a successful play by Lorraine Hansberry - portraying the deferred dreams of African Americans due to slavery. He combined his use of metaphors and imagery, using them to not only compare, but to also give us a mental image of what he believed. A dream deferred is what you make of it, whether that turns out to be positive or negative.