DRAMA ASSIGNMENT

Drama Assignment

Drama Assignment: A Raisin in the Sun and

A Dream Deferred

A Dream Deferred

The poem starts off asking, "What happens to a dream deferred? Already inquiring ones mind to the subject at hand. But what does the author mean by a deferred dream. Langston Hughes refers to a "deferred dream" as a dream of which has been postponed or put off for some time. This may resemble a dream that has been lost or a dream that is becoming further away from a reality everyday that passes. Next Hughes asks, "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" This simile associates the dream with a dried up raisin. Claiming a dream not reached will slowly start to wilt away until no more damage can be done. The poem proceeds saying “Or festers like a sore- and then run?" This line of imagery compares the dream with a festering sore. Saying the unlived dream is in a state of deterioration and will constantly sit there like an itchy sore on your arm. Exposed to the rest of the world and always bringing your attention to it.

Furthermore, Hughes uses increasingly destructive imagery and diction to present his warning of what will happen if one does not obtain his goals. Hughes' first two images depict withering and drying, a sense of death. His first example, a "dried raisin," conveys that the dream deferred has shriveled into nothing and has no hope of ever happening. The dried raisin, being old, wrinkled, and lifeless, suggests that the dream deferred is forgotten, lost, and nothing but a memory. The second example, "crusted syrup", being hard and dried up, again suggests that the dream deferred has no life. Also, being bittersweet, using the example of "syrup" implies that the dream deferred is hard and ...