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

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

Beautiful, also, is the sun. ... The poet answers the question in an indirect way using similes to show what might happen as in "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" the word "Raisin" a nutritious and useful fruit, Hughes adds "Dry up [] in the sun" thus turning the "raisin" into something hard and no logger useful. ...

• Word Count: 934
• Approx Pages: 4
• 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

"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

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