"Harlem"

            Figurative comparisons in the form of simile and metaphor play a major role in Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem.”  The poem focuses on the idea of what happens to a lost dream by using a series of similes and a metaphor.  An example of one of the similes comes at the beginning of the second section of the poem; “Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (Hughes 2-3).  The comparison of a deferred dream to a raisin in the sun highlights how many black Americans had to give up their dreams in order to work and earn money to take care of their families.  When a raisin dries in the sun it takes extended exposure to brutal heat, and when compared to what happens to a dream that has been put on the back burner shows that when the dreams of black Americans in the early twentieth century were put off they often stayed there to dry up until they were no longer the same thing.  This simile gives the idea that the process of the dream dying is slow, but the metaphor at the end of the poem contrasts that idea entirely.  The poem ends with the question: “Or does it explode?” (11).  This question metaphorically relates a tabled dream to an exploding bomb directly contrasting the simile at the beginning of the poem.  The first simile suggests a slow transformation of the dream but the closing metaphor suggests the process is as quick as an explosion and just as destructive.  The dream not only ceases to exist after the explosion of said bomb, but it is blown into millions of pieces with no hope of ever realizing said dream as well.  The usage of figurative comparisons by Langston Hughes highlights the lack of hope black Americans in the early twentieth century had for their dreams and the various ways that those dreams could fall apart.