Dream Deferred
Langston Hughes
In the piece, Hughes presents the question, "What happens to a dream deferred (Page 805)?" With this simple phrase, Hughes presents the dilemma of what becomes of unachieved dreams. With every following question, Hughes presents a possible result in the form of similes. From drying up "like a raisin" to festering "sores" or "rotting" and "crusting", Hughes suggests that dreams decay and become irreversibly damaged and unattainable. Most importantly and with the greatest emphasis as it is italicized, Hughes suggests that dreams "explode," becoming so large and unrealistic at times that any attainable part or element holding it together simply falls apart and is shattered. Additionally, Hughes emphasizes these unstained goals as "heavy loads" in the only sentence which is not phrased in rhetorical question format. This suggests that dreams can become weights that restrain a person from other dreams, holding one back like the bars of a jail cell.
Rhetorical questions serve as powerful literary techniques that present the reader with dilemmas and uncertainty. The questions allow the reader to look at aspects presented in an open light and analyze the different qualities. In this short poem by Langston Hughes, the entire piece is composed of rhetorical questions. Masterfully though, these questions act not only as dilemmas to be analyzed, but as answers to themselves.
In the piece, Hughes presents the question, "What happens to a dream deferred (Page 805)?" With this simple phrase, Hughes presents the dilemma of what becomes of unachieved dreams. With every following question, Hughes presents a possible result in the form of similes. From drying up "like a raisin" to festering "sores" or "rotting" and "crusting", Hughes suggests that dreams decay and become irreversibly damaged and unattainable. Most importantly and with the greatest emphasis as it is italicized, Hughes suggests that dreams "explode," becoming so large and unrealistic at times that any attainable part or element holding it together simply falls apart and is shattered. Additionally, Hughes emphasizes these unstained goals as "heavy loads" in the only sentence which is not phrased in rhetorical question format. This suggests that dreams can become weights that restrain a person from other dreams, holding one back like the bars of a jail cell. 
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