Read the extract below and answer questions9 to 11. What happened to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And th...

The dominant literary device in this excerpt is the rhetorical question. This is because the author asks a series of questions that are not intended to be answered directly, but rather to provoke thought and create emphasis on the potential consequences of a deferred dream. The questions also serve to build up a sense of anticipation and create a mood of uncertainty about what might happen to a dream that is put off for too long. Overall, the use of rhetorical questions in this excerpt helps to convey the theme of the poem, which is the negative effects of delaying or denying one's aspirations.