A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes

Multiple Choice

What is the meaning of "deferred"?

• disappears

• past due

• immediately fulfilled

• postponed, put off until later

Multiple Choice

What is a simile?

• a comparison of two unlike things using like or as

• to represent something very different

• a symbol

• a comparison between two unlike thing

Multiple Choice

What literary device is represented by the following lines?

"like a sore", "like a heavy load", "like a raisin in the sun",

• alliteration

• assonance

• onomatopoiea

• simile

Multiple Choice

What is the theme of the poem "A Dream Deferred"?

• That all people have dreams

• How dreams come true

• The consequences of unfulfilled dreams

• That dreams can be destructive

Multiple Choice

"Like a raisin in the sun' implies that unfulfilled dreams ____

• become a constant unpleasantness.

• cause anger.

• grow less important but make the person bitter.

• become painful.

Multiple Choice

In the poem A Dream Deferred " sags like a heavy load" implies that unfulfilled dreams ____

• become a heavy burden on a person.

• makes a person angry.

• cause pain.

• are unpleasant.

Multiple Choice

"What happens to a dream deferred? " is a ____

• the theme of the poem.

• rhetorical question.

• line of the poem that is not important.

• is a metaphor.

Multiple Choice

What is the speaker implying by "or does it explode?"

• Dreams can be dangerous.

• People with unfufilled dreams have nervous breakdowns.

• Unfulfilled dreams are a danger because they can eventually explode in anger and violence.

• A person with a big dream always fulfills that dream.

Open Ended

How is the Hugh's poem "A Dream Deferred " reflected in Martin Luther King's "I have a dream"speech?

Are they talking about the same dream?

"So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Open Ended

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."
How do both King and Hughes use the idea of heat in their writing?

Open Ended

"This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual."

What does this text from King's speech have in common with the last line of "A Dream Deferred"? Are these warnings from both King and Hughes? Did both these men feel this unrest in their communities?