The verb “defer” means to postpone something, to put off or delay some action or proceeding and implies a deliberate putting off to a later time (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

The verb “fester” means to undergo or exist in a state of progressive deterioration, to become badly infected, to become worse, because you do not do with wounds successfully (Oxford Explanatory Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

Langston Hughes applies to such expressive means and stylistic devices as similes to show vividly what may happen if dreams are neglected or deferred until better days.

Hughes uses five similes persuading readers that deferred dreams are not pleasant and life is broken without them. They are the following: “like a raisin in the sun”, “like a sore”, “like rotten meat”, “like syrupy sweet” and “like heavy load”.

1. A dream deferred is like a raisin in the sun because if it is forgotten or put off it withers and dries up, it loses its liveliness like grapes lose their juiciness under the persistent influence of sun rays. As raisin making process is long and gradual, so is the dream coming true process. One should hold one’s breath to wait until it comes true; moreover, one should do something for its realization.

2. A dream deferred is like a sore because it is as painful to touch and as causing sorrow and embarrassment as a wound. It disturbs and causes constant inconvenience, one cannot forget about it, as it either hurts all the time or the time it is touched. The only way to get rid of it is to cure it, and the best healing is naturally making the dream come true but not putting it off.

3. A dream deferred is like a heavy load because it makes the one who has it, feel like a person with a stone on the neck, or the one carrying a heavy burden. So if one relaxes he will easily sink like a stone, as the dream pulls him down and does not allow moving freely. To escape the suffering one has to pursue his dream and whatever happens, he should not let it go, as L. Hughes keenly imagined it also may either “stink like rotten meat” or “crust or sugar over like a syrupy sweet”.

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