"Dream Deferred" by: Langston Hughes

I found the central purpose of this poem to be about dreams that are being put off and as a result, they usually come to an unhappy ending. I believe that the author, who grew up during the Harlem Renaissance, is speaking to other African Americans about what will happen to their dream of civil rights and freedoms if they keep putting it off. First, he asks "Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun?." He is trying to state his point that if a person defers a dream, it will eventually shrivel up like a raisin and become no more. The original dream will eventually just die off like a grape dies and becomes a raisin. Next, he compares a deferred dream to a sore that runs. This simile is filled with imagery. When I picture a festering sore, I imagine oozing puss (for lack of a better term) which to me seems definitely negative! He is saying that eventually the dream will become infected and dangerous to the dreamer. He also expresses his belief that the dream will crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet. He is saying that eventually the dreamer will begin to sugar coat the dream. The only metaphor the speaker uses compares a deferred dream to a bomb; to him, this is the worst possible thing that can happen to a dream. It will become unrecognizable and will be unable to be retrieved or fulfilled.