Identify two similes in "Harlem" and describe their connection to a "dream deferred".

Figurative language is a device used by poets and other writers to create a more effective impression upon readers. Figures of speech such as similes, for example, allow authors to express concepts that go beyond the literal meanings of the words they use. Readers are able to understand deeper meanings in the language employed by writers using these devices. During the Harlem Renaissance of the mid-twentieth century, Langston Hughes demonstrated the power of figurative language to craft insightful portrayals of African American life.

In the short poem, “Harlem,” Hughes chooses the device of simile to cement his impressions upon the minds of his readers. His underlying purpose is to sway his readers toward a better understanding of the plight of African Americans in the United States whose dreams are often dashed by a lack of means to fulfill their destinies.

Hughes begins his poem with a rhetorical question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” In order to allow his readers to reach their own conclusions, he inserts several similes into his poem as a method of cementing lasting images rather than answering the question from his personal perspective.

Hughes challenges his audience to respond to his question with a realistic simile:

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

This comparison is a direct connection to the dreams never realized by those deprived of the opportunities to enrich their lives. Hughes equates stagnant human dreams to shriveling raisins dying in the sun.

Another powerful simile is found in the line, “Does it stink like rotten meat?” Once again, the poet relates lost human dreams and aspirations to decaying food. The effect of these analogies is to convince readers that overcoming societal obstacles faced by black Americans is a hopeless and draining effort.

It is important to note that Hughes is not content to simply tell people how unrealized dreams die. He opts through the use of similes to connect the concept of a slow death to dreams deferred. Delayed fulfillment of aspirations causes painful decay. The poet implies that putting off dreams eventually rots the human spirit until it eventually succumbs to death, like the rotting food in his similes. Hughes’s choice of title for this poem makes it clear that the atmosphere in Harlem promotes hopelessness.

Identify two similes in "Harlem" and describe their connection to a "dream deferred".

In the poem "Harlem," Langston Hughes uses five similes and one metaphor to describe what can happen to a dream when it is deferred. To "defer" means to put off or delay, and so all of the comparisons describe what happens to something that is left too long.

First, the speaker asks, in a simile comparing a dried-up raisin to the "dream deferred" referenced in the first line, "Does it dry up / like a raisin the sun?" (2-3) One might imagine the original dream as a firm, plump raisin, sweet and flavorful; however, the dream deferred is more like a hard, small raisin that has dried out and become undesirable. The contrast between the two images shows us the harm in delaying a dream.

Next, the speaker asks, in a simile comparing a festering wound to the dream deferred, "Or fester like a sore-- / and then run?" (4-5) Here, the dream that is deferred is compared to something that, if left to sit without being taken care of, becomes infected and painful. The implication is that a dream deferred becomes something bad, something that hurts.

Third, the speaker asks, in a simile comparing the dream deferred to rancid meat, "Does it stink like rotten meat?" (6) Now the delayed dream is making its presence known. Its "stink" affects everyone around, and again, the comparison has shown how something good can go bad when it is not used right away.

Fourth, the speaker asks, in a simile comparing the dream deferred to an old piece of candy or pastry, "Or does it crust and sugar over-- / like a syrupy sweet?" In this case, again, something that was once perhaps positive becomes inedible and kind of disgusting ("crust[ing] over" and "syrupy" have negative connotations). A dream deferred is like this: it begins as good but then goes bad.

Fifth, the speaker suggests, in a simile comparing the dream deferred to weighty baggage, "Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load." "Sag[ging]" clearly has a negative connotation, as does "heavy load." This comparison suggests that a dream deferred begins to weigh the dreamer down, to tire them out as carrying a heavy load would do.

Finally, the speaker uses a metaphor to compare the dream deferred to a bomb: "Or does it explode?" It is notable that Hughes uses only one metaphor in the poem because metaphors are more forceful than similes; they say that something is something else rather than that something is like something else. Perhaps he uses the metaphor here because he believes this one to be more truthful than the similes, or perhaps it is the inevitable and eventual outcome of any dream deferred, regardless of what other stages it might pass through.  

How does the imagery in "Harlem" address the question "What happens to a dream deferred"?

Langston Hughes uses the elements of imagery and rhetorical question to foreshadow the destructive consequences of unfulfilled dreams. Particularly, the dream in question, and the subject of his poem, is the dream of survival, freedom, and personal happiness for all African Americans who are still living under oppressive circumstances.

Langston Hughes's poem is filled with dark images of decay and destruction. He uses a series of similes that compare dreams to raisins that "dry up," sores that "fester" and "run," and "rotten meat" that "stinks." He speaks of syrup that "crusts over."

Then he hints at the physical exhaustion that comes from one not fulfilling one's dreams when he uses the simile "it just sags like a heavy load."

The comparisons he makes are phrased in the form of rhetorical questions. This means that the speaker is not really asking a question, but making a point. His point becomes most clearly made in his final question, "or does it explode?"

Hughes's last question presents many destructive possibilities. These possibilities are in fact the answer to the central question that the poem poses. One is that African Americans will self-destruct by actions that harm themselves and their individual lives and neighborhoods. Another, more violent possibility is that African Americans will rebel and do whatever it takes for society to give them the freedoms and chances for opportunity that they truly deserve. The idea of an explosion seems to imply that these actions may involve bloodshed, violence, or destruction.

While the poem is generally understood in a civil rights context, if one takes the poem as a statement on humans as a whole, it seems to say that each individual needs the rights and abilities to pursue their own aspirations and lead their best life. When these possibilities are denied, catastrophic consequences will follow.

How does a simile in "Harlem" help the reader understand a deferred dream?

I wonder if you have perhaps become slightly confused between literary terms in this question. Unfortunately, this excellent poem by Langston Hughes contains no similes. However, it does contain metaphors, and I wonder if this is what your question is referring to. Similes and metaphors are very similar in likening an object, place or character to something else, but similes use the words "like" or "as" to do this, whereas metaphors assert the comparison directly.

Note how this operates in a repeated metaphor in this short poem:

So we stand here

On the edge of hell

In Harlem

Here, a metaphor is used to compare Harlem to "the edge of hell," obviously relating the impoverishment and lack of rights that Afro-Americans were experiencing at the time with hell. I suppose the "deferred dream" that your question refers to is the dream of what such Afro-Americans would like or imagine America to look like in terms of racial equality. Their imaginings of a world free from racism, where Afro-Americans are able to get jobs in spite of the colour of their skin, is a dream that is necessarily deferred because of the immense prejudice and racism that existed at the time, which is reinforced through the metaphor analysed above.

What is the significance of imagery associated with deferred dreams in the poem "Harlem"?

The images that are evoked in Hughes' poem are largely negative as they are the result of dreams being denied or deferred, put off and not realized.  For this reason, I think that one can see how these images evoke a sense of anger and frustration in a setting where people are continually told of "the American Dream."  The images illuminated by ideas such as "dry up, fester, stink, crust, and sugar over" are all a part of this.  The explosion that happens at the end of the poem also is an image where there is a sense of betrayal evident.  These images make clear that the promises and possibilities of America are not being experienced by a group of people.  The images in this light are more reflections of this.  I think that these go beyond the standard view of "positive" or "negative" images because of their reflection of a state of being for many at the time of writing.  Hughes is convinced that there is a segment of the American population that is experiencing a blight in their dreams and a deferral in what it is they wish to pursue.  This experience is one that results in a variety of responses, and where the images become a representation of these responses.