Exploding Dreams?

          Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes has five similes and one metaphor. The metaphor, "Or does it explode?" (Hughes, 805), is placed at the end of the poem by itself. Its placement and italics suggest that it has a different tone than the rest of the poem. It seems to have a positive connotation, contradicting the beginning of the poem. The five similes describe the deference as harmful towards the dream. The dream may become unrealistic to people. It may become repulsive. It might disappear from the people's minds. It may become a nightmare. It may seem to become better than it really is. It may become a burden to people's minds. What the metaphor explains that if a dream is delayed long enough, no one can prevent it from becoming a reality.