Through the 1920's through the 1960's many of the black Americans went through difficult hardships and found comfort only in dreaming. Those especially who lived in the ghettos' of Harlem would dream about a better place for them, their families, and their futures. Langston Hughes discusses dreams and what they could do in one of his poems, "Harlem." Hughes poem begins with "What happens to a dream deferred." .
Hughes is asking what happens to a dream that is being put off. What do these dreams do, do they do good, do they do bad, or do they do neither good nor bad? Langston Hughes has many similes in his poem, "Harlem", the first one being "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Using this simile he is stating that dreaming can be good or bad. One example can be a raisin, it is a grape that has been dehydrated by the sun. Hughes is conveying that dreams can suck the life out of a person, mentally dehydrating them. However a raisin is not necessarily bad such as a dream it will not always be bad as well. 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. .
The second simile found in line four of the "Harlem" poem, "fester like a sore", it is suggesting that it eats at you, constantly aggravating you because it has not been obtained. The third simile found in line six, "stink like rotten meat", it is a suggestion that the dream is making you mad because it has not been reached. The simile in found in line eight, "sugar over like a syrupy sweet", suggests that the dream is on the horizon and is so close that it you can taste it. The last simile found in line ten of the poem, "sags like a heavy load", is asking if it is a burden on the dreamer. Langston Hughes switches from similes to a metaphor in the last line for example this metaphor "does it explode", suggests that the dream has finally been reached, one can say that Hughes has switched to a metaphor in this line to symbolize the drastic difference from not successfully reaching your dream to obtaining your dream, just as a metaphor is a big difference from a simile.