What is life worth without dreams and the hope that those dreams can come true one day? Is there a dream you have been postponing in your life? What happens when the goal of a dream is postponed? In “ Dream Deferred,” Langston Hughes has a visionary way of expressing six different consequences that happen when a dream is deferred. Langston’s poem raises the question about dreams and about what happens when dreams are ignored or unfulfilled by using the stylistic devices of diction, figurative language, and sound to show people who don’t achieve their dreams can have consequences The first stylistic device diction gives an important information to the reader in “ A Dream Deferred.” The first question to get his reader thinking about his message
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The similes used are to emphasize the possible reactions to a dream constantly repressed. In addition, the smilies hold strength to Hughes question of “ whether the deferred dream will explode” (Cornell 3). The first simile in line 1 “ Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”, this line shows that dreams could possibly become like a raisin by shriveling up. The image of dried and shriveled raisin contrast with the luscious juicy grape that once was a dream. In contrast, the following similes give a worse image. Hughes presents a deferred dream can also “ stink like rotten meat”(line 6) or “ fester like a sore and then run” (line 4) or its “ like a syrupy sweet”(line 7)? One critic remarks “ Is one constantly reminded of this dream, a dream that can never be fulfilled, or is it just forgotten”? In addition, Hughes use of contrasting smilies help “ ideas in order to emphasize his points” Cornell 4). In each of the questions, the word choice is formal and dark: “ stink,” “ fester” are not delightful words to hear. The informal diction and figurative language coincide with each-other, creating important questions. In contrast, he provides an “ imploding-exploding” factor that is not a question but a guess: “ Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load”(line 9-10). This simile makes the deferred dream seem like “ Maybe the dream remains with the person …show more content…
The sound of “ A Dream Deferred” intensifies it meaning. The jazz music, the poem uses rhyme and rhythm. The rhymes “ meat/sweet,” and “load/explode” gathered the idea of the similes and metaphors together, repeating and reinforcing the importance of a song. Repetition of words and phrases, such s “ Does it” and “ Or” at the beginning of lines in the poem also intensifies the question. Similarly, just as pause in music creates a dynamic rthyms, the line in the poems have pauses between them. According to
The similes used are to emphasize the possible reactions to a dream constantly repressed. In addition, the smilies hold strength to Hughes question of “ whether the deferred dream will explode” (Cornell 3). The first simile in line 1 “ Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”, this line shows that dreams could possibly become like a raisin by shriveling up. The image of dried and shriveled raisin contrast with the luscious juicy grape that once was a dream. In contrast, the following similes give a worse image. Hughes presents a deferred dream can also “ stink like rotten meat”(line 6) or “ fester like a sore and then run” (line 4) or its “ like a syrupy sweet”(line 7)? One critic remarks “ Is one constantly reminded of this dream, a dream that can never be fulfilled, or is it just forgotten”? In addition, Hughes use of contrasting smilies help “ ideas in order to emphasize his points” Cornell 4). In each of the questions, the word choice is formal and dark: “ stink,” “ fester” are not delightful words to hear. The informal diction and figurative language coincide with each-other, creating important questions. In contrast, he provides an “ imploding-exploding” factor that is not a question but a guess: “ Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load”(line 9-10). This simile makes the deferred dream seem like “ Maybe the dream remains with the person …show more content…
The sound of “ A Dream Deferred” intensifies it meaning. The jazz music, the poem uses rhyme and rhythm. The rhymes “ meat/sweet,” and “load/explode” gathered the idea of the similes and metaphors together, repeating and reinforcing the importance of a song. Repetition of words and phrases, such s “ Does it” and “ Or” at the beginning of lines in the poem also intensifies the question. Similarly, just as pause in music creates a dynamic rthyms, the line in the poems have pauses between them. According to