Langston Hughes is the author of the poem "What happens to a dream deferred" . Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, a descendant of noticeable abolitionists. His racial heritage was a mix of Indian, African, and French. Langston Hughes was an American poet, essayist, playwright, and short story writer. He is still considered one of the most distinguished contributors to American literature in the 20th century. He rose to fame during the Harlem Renaissance and continued to produce experimental and groundbreaking work for the next several decades. Hughes was known for vocalizing the concerns of working-class African Americans. His work was deeply influenced by jazz, and he often wrote in a simple and straightforward fashion, sometimes even using the vernacular.
Hughes asserts that he writes about racial issues. He writes about racial problems because for the black, everything in America is a racial question. To do else is to reject that sense of identity and to reject that sense of identity is to say that you don’t want to be a Negro poet or a Negro novelist or a Negro musician or Negro dramatist.
The poem A Dream Deferred is about dreams being put off. The author talks about dreams as both positive and negative. Some dreams can come true for some people, while others are delayed and never become a reality. In the end the poet shows how dreams can be achieved or deferred. Finally, it is our duty to hold on to dreams and believe in them or they’ll disappear.
The literary devices included in the poem, A Dream Deferred, are simile, metaphor, and rhyme. Similes are presented throughout the poem: “like a raisin in the sun,” “like a sore,” like rotten meat,” “like a syrupy sweet.” An example of a metaphor is in the last line of the stanza, “does it explode?” Rhyme is the third literary device used by the poet. The following words rhyme: sun-run, meat-sweet, load-explode.
By using these literary devices, Langston’s theme in the poem is both energetic and serious.
