Figuratively Speaking (Question 11)

Hughes' "Dream Deferred" is almost entirely a series of consecutive analogies. After asking the rhetorical question, "What happens to a dream deferred?" (1), Hughes then proceeds to list the possible consequences of putting off a dream in the form of four similes and a metaphor. In each simile, Hughes opens with an active verb--"dry" (2), "fester" (4), "stink" (6), "crust and sugar" (8), and "sags" (10). He then follows with the analogical portion of the simile, comparing the deferred dream to "a raisin in the sun" (3), "a sore" (5), "rotten meat" (7), "a syrupy sweet" (9), and "a heavy load" (11), respectively. At the end, however, Hughes employs an implicit metaphor: "Or does it explode?" (11). In most cases, metaphors tend to carry more power than similes due to the subtler comparison; because the analogy is less obvious, the comparison is cleverer and therefore more effective. An implied metaphor bears even more power: not only is the word of analogy (such as like) absent; the object to which the dream is being compared is also absent, making the metaphor even subtler and more powerful. By ending with a sophisticated implied metaphor after a series of simple similes, Hughes indicates that the last result of a deferred dream is the result which Hughes believes will happen. Instead of coming out and stating his belief, Hughes subtly makes it known.