Dream Deferred By Langston Hughes example essay topic

In The Beginning, There Was Language A dream is a hope, a wish, and an aspiration. Everyone has dreams about what they want to be when they grow up, how they want to live, whom they want to marry and how their life will turn out. However, not all dreams can come true right away. Many of them are just out of reach and can only be attained by hard work, leadership and determination. The poem "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes is an example of just that, a dream that is just simply out of reach.

So what happens to a dream deferred? Deferred, defined by The New American Webster Dictionary, means to put off, delay or postpone something to a later date. Poetry is filled with many different aspects of poetic language just a few of them being, connotation, denotation, metaphors, similes and imagery. This poem, by Langston Hughes is one of many that is filled with these different types of poetic language and spikes the ears, eyes and imagination into painting a picture of what the poet was feeling. A dream should always be realized, never deferred.

The poem opens up with a rhetorical question in the very first line, "What happens to a dream deferred?" (1). The rest of the poem goes on to propose an answer to the question. Langston Hughes makes it a point to use words with a very negative connotation, such as dry, fester, sore, stink, rotten, crust and sag. All of these words have an off-putting attitude, and by describing things in a deconstructive manner, the poet creates a very gruesome picture for the reader, leading you to be live that all of these bad things happen when a dream is deferred. These descriptive words however, lead us into the next element of language in poetry, figures of speech such as metaphors and similes. Within this short eleven-line poem, there are five similes present.

A simile is a comparison of two objects using like or as. The first simile used is comparing the "dream deferred" (1) to a drying up "raisin in the sun" (3). Before a raisin dries up, it is a beautiful juicy grape. However, once the sun reaches and affects the grape, the once plump fruit used to make juice and wine for all to enjoy, is now just a shriveled up raisin. A raisin can still be of use just not for as many things as a plump grape.

The next one compares a dream deferred to a festering "sore" (4). A sore that never completely heals can grow bad and cause infection in the body. In applying that thought to a dream that cannot be realized, you come up with a dream that has become somewhat of a burden for the owner, like that of a festering sore. If the owner does not attend to and properly care for the sore and it does in fact become infected that could cause more problems for the dream that will not only be deferred but maybe never even realized. The poet just can't seem to realize the dream instead it just sits there like an infection that continually reminds him it is yet to be accomplished. Does a dream deferred, "stink like rotten meat" (6)?

To imagine a dream that is stinking like rotten meat is disgusting. What once was a beautiful, tender filet has wasted away into a piece of stinking rotten meat. The meat is still edible but could probably make one very sick if not be deadly. So to look at the dream as if it is meat, if the dream is not 'eaten' or 'prepared' then it could just sit there and rot over and become of no use to anyone. Later in the poem, the dream in question is thought of as a "crusted over syrupy sweet" (8).

Sweets are always a treat for anyone, but what if a syrupy sweet sits too long? It will form a crusted encasing over the sugar and not be the once delicious treat that it was when it was first attained for all to enjoy. The last comparison in the poem is to a sagging "heavy load" (10). Some dreams that are too big can sometimes be more of a burden then that of an actual reward. Many people make the mistake of taking on too much or trying to pursue a dream that is simply not attainable for them at that point in their lives. Dreams should be looked forward and worked on, not carried along like an unfinished pile of work.

If the dream becomes to 'heavy' the owner might not be able to bear the load. While metaphors are far and few between in the poem "A Dream Deferred", the last line, "Or does it explode?" (11) makes up for the lack thereof. If one can somehow imagine a dream "exploding", they can share the state of mind that Langston Hughes must have been in when he wrote the line. The closing line of "A Dream Deferred" does anything but end the poem. Rather, it brings up many unwritten questions; does the dream disappear completely or is it scattered everywhere? Is the explosion a good thing, like fireworks, or destructive like a bomb?

The field of language and our auditory senses are measureless. There are over three hundred languages in use around the world today and they all affect people in many different ways. Language, under its surface, is alive and is connected to all. The genre of poetry has come to see many different variations and forms of language that can completely change the meaning, tone or sound of a poem. "Does is explode?" (12), the seemingly appropriate ending to a long battle against whatever may be keeping Langston or the reader from their dream, wraps up the thoughts of the poem but leaves the reader to his or her own imagination at the same time.

Language affects everyone and everything, so what really happens to a "dream deferred"? The answer is up to the reader, but the fact remains that dreams, no matter how large or small, should be realized at one point or another. Dreams should not be deferred.