What is the best definition of a dream deferred?
In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes creates a central metaphor surrounding a dream by comparing a dream to multiple images of death and destruction in order to ask what happens to a “dream deferred,” meaning a dream that has been delayed in being fulfilled.
What is the dream being deferred?
“What happens to a dream deferred?” The word, deferred, in this context means that it is put off or delayed indefinitely.
What is an example of a dream deferred?
Literary Element Examples in “A Dream Deferred” “Does it stink like rotten meat?” “Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– / And then run?” “Maybe it just sags / Like a heavy load.”
How many questions does dream deferred ask?
like a heavy load. Or does it explode? If “Harlem” begins with a big question—“What happens to a dream deferred?”—the rest of the poem speculates on how best to answer that question. Hughes’s “answer” takes the form of five questions and one conjecture.
What happens to a dream deferred questions?
The speaker of this poem is trying to answer the question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” (line 1). Deferred means delayed or withheld. Typically, if one defers something, one puts it off until later. Therefore, the question is really asking what happens to a dream if it is delayed or put off.
Why is it entitled a dream deferred?
By Langston Hughes Hold onto your hats. This poem actually has two titles. Hughes first titled it “Harlem,” but later called it “Dream Deferred.” Some people even refer to it by its first line, “what happens to a dream deferred?” “Dream Deferred” focuses on a greater philosophical question plaguing all humans.
What are the 5 smiles that Hughes compares a deferred dream to?
Series of Similes A dream deferred is compared to a raisin, a sore, rotten meat, a syrupy sweet and a heavy load.
What happens to a dream deferred paraphrase?
“What happens to a dream deferred?” the speaker asks. The speaker doesn’t go on to define what the dream is or whose dream it is; instead, the poem leaves this implicit and, in some ways, open-ended.
What happens when a dream deferred answer?
It is a dream FULFILLED! Our dreams are our destiny, so make your destiny happen today. So to answer your question Mr. Langston Hughes, “what happens to a dream deferred?” Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
How many questions does dream deferred ask explain?
What does deferred mean in a dream?
Deferred means delayed or withheld . Typically, if one defers something, one puts it off until later. Therefore, the question is really asking what happens to a dream if it is delayed or put off.
What happens to deferred dream?
“A dream deferred” applies wherever injustice exists. Injustices, that is, such as Israel’s oppressive military occupation of the Palestinian people , an occupation that began either in 1948 or 1967, however one wishes to measure the history of stolen land and stolen lives.
What is a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes about?
Langston Hughes’s poem “Dream Deferred” is basically about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. Hughes probably intended for the poem to focus on the dreams of African-American in particular.
What does Langston Hughes poem Dream Deferred mean?
Langston Hughes’s poem “Dream Deferred” is speaks about what happens to dreams when they are put on hold. The poem leaves it up to the reader to decide what dream is being questioned. In the opening of the poem the speaker uses a visual image that is also a simile to compare a dream deferred to a raisin.