Unit ONE. Post ONE.

"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of this poem is the author's use of simile and metaphor. This use of metaphor creates powerful images in the readers imagination. The diction chosen elevates the effectiveness of the literary device. For example, "or does it fester like a sore"(Hughes), creates a strong visual while being read.

Question two of in the book states that this poem describes any dream, but makes the reader realize that Hughes was an African American. Knowing his life span and the history of that era, one can put together the puzzle that the poem specifically describes the dream African Americans had for civil freedoms and how they had to fight to attain them. I might even go as far as to say that this poem is a look back on the civil rights movement and how it exploded from the will and dreams of an oppressed people. All of the similes could also be used to describe how African Americans were not acting on their dream of being free from segregation and it was weighing on their mind, or it sugared over like a treat they could never get to. Or it festered and irritated them that that they were doing nothing about their horrible treatment. Or maybe it withered and dried in the sun as their hopes of civil equality died with the rise of Jim Crow Laws.

Maybe I am reading into it too much and I am tying in too many things outside the text, but I believe that when taking the author's history into context, this boils down to the dream of civil equality.