When you stop pursuing a dream, where does it go? What happens to it? In the poem “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” By Langston Hughes, this exact question is asked, and in a way answered. He presented many possibilities for what becomes of the dream, and overall, I noticed that none of the outcomes were pleasant. He is trying to show that a postponed goal will perish and become useless to you. Hughes creates a few analogies that demonstrate this idea, which interestingly enough, often involve food..
First used to show that a dream deferred becomes unneeded is a “dr[ied...] up raisin” (2-3). It gives imagery of a grape being left in the sun and all the moisture being sucked out of it. This is saying that when a dream is fresh, it is full of determination
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Pushed to the side, a dream can begin to have things pile up with it. This can cause the feeling of a ton of bricks on your shoulders, weighing you down. Then your mood can begin to change, and you turn into that cranky old man that no one appreciates. An example of this is in the movie Up, Mr. Fredrickson’s dream is put on hold when his wife passes away. And as a result, he becomes depressed and upset all the time, not exactly the kind of person you would like to spend time with.
Finally, Hughes mentions the idea of a dream “explod[ing]” (11). Unlike the other outcomes, in which a dream deferred has one way of viewing it, like how it can change your personality, this analogy could be interpreted in many different ways. My understanding of it would be that the dream would blow up, harming not only the dreamer, but others as well. This is probably the most violent outcome shown, but it could just as well be the most important to conveying the message of the poem. Deferring a dream can cause a lot of destruction and bad outcomes, so it is never a good idea to do this.
Now, let’s take these ideas that Hughes has put into our heads and use it in our real lives. The next time I encounter something that interests me and I would like to one day achieve, I will do my best to carry out what