Dream Deferred 
by Langston Hughes

In his poem Dream Deferred, Langston Hughes uses a lot of imagery: most in the form of similes. Phrases like "a raisin in the sun" and "stink like rotten meat" engage the reader through their senses. (Hughes) Four of the five senses are used when reading this poem, each bringing to mind a situation that the reader can relate to and picture. This along with all of the rhetorical questions in the work force the reader to really focus on Hughes' main point. "What happen's to a dream deferred?"(Hughes) Hughes wants to know what happens when a dream goes unfulfilled. His imagery contributes to the question: making readers think about wounds festering and something overly sweet, neither of which have a very positive connotation. All of the images he uses are either excessive to the point of discomfort or are just gross. None of the mental pictures from this poem are things a person wants to think about while skipping through a field of daisies or trying to fall asleep at night. Hughes is trying to convey a sense that when something as bright and hopeful as a dream comes to fruition but is put off the situation can fester or become overripe to the point of no longer being desirable or useful. Then at the end of the poem, Hughes poses the question of the dream exploding. which puts a whole other picture in the reader's head of a fruit or something overripe exploding in the head after being out in the sun too long. Hughes is saying if a person or group of people has a dream but do not fulfill their ambition it could fester in their minds and come to the point of explosion if it continues to be put off.