'Harlem Dream Deferred' By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem [Dream Deferred],” is filled with imagery to help him communicate the general theme. Throughout the entire poem, Hughes’ ultimate goal is to express what happens to the African American dream in Harlem. The African American community was promised equality but have not received it in the way as promises. African Americans post World War II were still struggling just as before. Hughes asked specific questions and is able to create images in the readers head to further the understanding of “What happens to a dream deferred?” (1). Perhaps the dreams of the African American community wither away into nothingness; or maybe, dreams just reseed waiting for the moment to resurface and be achieved. The question “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (2-3), causes the reader …show more content…
They dream of equality and prosperity but their dreams continued to be deferred. Hughes asks, “Does it stink like rotting meat?” (6). Even when one cannot see rotting meat, one still knows of its presents. The smell of rotting meat festers and lingers. The African American community may have had their dreams in the back of their heads. Knowing that they could not attain them because of the way society would push them down. Much like the smell of rotting meat could remind one of what used to be so would a sore. Hughes continues with the stimulation of the mind to picture what he is talking about when he writes, “Or fester like a sore / And then run?” (4-5). The pain a sore causes a person is very easy to imagine and relate to. Especially a sore that is festering. It becomes more and more painful before it goes away. The pain one must feel within the African American community to have such big dreams, then to see their dreams squashed must be heartbreaking. Through the use of images like festering sores and rotting meats, the reader can imagine the pain felt by the African American community in