As Hughes answers the question, he asks if a dream deferred dries up like a raisin in the sun. This symbol means that a dream that is disintegrating and dying like a raisin left out in the sun. If a raisin is left out in the sun too long, it will die. ... It will wither up and die, just like the raisin in the sun. The raisin is a dehydrated grape, lacking water, and life, when Hughes compare dreams to raisins he means that without dreams a person is almost dead. ...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the play, "Raisin in The Sun", Walter who is Lena's son has big dreams that he talks about throughout. He dreams of getting the check from his father's insurance, he dreams of making an invest to get money, he dreams of his family being able to experience equality. Some of the events that occur c...

• Word Count: 903
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Langston Hughes has many similes in his poem, "Harlem", the first one being "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" ... One example can be a raisin, it is a grape that has been dehydrated by the sun. ... Continuing with the simile, "dry up like a raisin in the sun", it is also suggesting that the dream is not necessarily forgotten but over time it will not be the same. ... He suggests that deferred dreams, like a raisin in the sun, like a sore like rotten meat, like a heavy load, cause tremendous pain and suffering. ... For example each question in each stanza uses  simile: "like a rai...

• Word Count: 1185
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

A Raisin in the Sun takes place in the slums of Chicago post World War II. ... This alludes to the fact that regardless of the effort made, Mama's dream still hasn't come true and is at risk of drying up like a "raisin in the sun.... Hansberry was able to pull from one of his metaphors to better exemplify a major theme in "A Raisin in the Sun." We may not immediately refer to broken dreams as raisins, festering sores, or rotting meat; but these metaphors serve as cautionary statements to personify the consequences of not acting on your dreams. Both "Harlem" ...

• Word Count: 1259
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"A Raisin in the Sun" Lorraine Hansberry wrote the award winning play" A Raisin in the Sun." ... Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... He wonders if they shrivel up like a "raisin in the sun". ...

• Word Count: 1265
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The first metaphorical example is "does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?... With the sun being the pressure and the raisin being the person dreaming it shows that a person could just wither down when their dream is being withheld or postponed. ...

• Word Count: 520
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." (Langston 1-4) This metaphor in "Dreams" by Langston Hughes tells the reader that without dreams one is as useless as a bird without flight. Likewise, a dream that has been deferred can be just as or even more...

• Word Count: 641
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Maybe the dream breaks up like a raisin, damaged and old, but the essence of it is still intact. ... The poem suggests the inevitability of violence if racial cruelty is allowed to continue and A Raisin in the Sun first appears at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. ... Something that makes Hughes" poem so poetic is his reference to the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. ... Hughes also asks the question: "Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?" ...

• Word Count: 1645
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Lorraine Hansberry wove a woeful tale of a family called the Youngers, A poor black family living in a tiny run-down apartment, in her novel A Raisin in the Sun. ... His dream was, drying up like a raisin in the sun, because no one would support his ideas. ...

• Word Count: 723
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

"Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?"... That raisin, left in the sun will dry out, thus making it impossible to eat. ... The slaves were forced to labor day in and day out in the hot sun, picking cotton, or whatever jobs their "master" forced upon them. ...

• Word Count: 1067
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

I found the poem, "Harlem," by Langston Hughes to be extremely powerful, albeit short. Although this poem was written in 1951, while America was still largely segregated, I feel this poem can relate to the racial minority groups of any era. The name of this poem is after, "the New York neighborhood ...

• Word Count: 454
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the 1920s following World War I, an entire generation of Afro-Americans moved to the north of the United States, to Harlem, considered as the greatest Black city in the world. This generation, known as the Harlem renaissance, was enlightened by folk sources such as black music and black literatur...

• Word Count: 1971
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School