Dream Deferred
Langston Hughes
The author is asking the reader what happens to the dreams that are given up. He wants to learn the effects forgetting aspirations cause on the person and on the outside world. He makes assumptions of the different ways these goals might have left their origin, and every view is described using a simile. The similes are almost all grotesque, but one stands out from the others. He suggests that dreams may "crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?" (Hughes). The multiple examples of disgusting ways a dream could die, contrasted with the singular example of a happy ending demonstrates Hughes' hardships he faced throughout his life. Almost all the hopes he had in his life were ripped away from him for some reason, never leaving him satisfied except on rare occasion. The poem concludes, turning back to a violent sense, that dreams explode when they are deferred. The phrase is in italics, posing the question that explosion really is the only way that dreams leave us. It makes sense, because many of us have had miserable failures upon chasing a childhood fantasy. But explosion isn't necessarily a bad thing, for every great life requires something to start it.
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