A Raisin In The Sun Analysis

In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and “turned black” (Jemie 63). This idea provides Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. As the poem goes on, Hughes depicts the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. According to Onwuchekwa Jemie, this may be an allusion to the American Dream and its empty promises (Jemie 64).

In Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun,” she uses the Younger family to show that as characters strive to reach their dreams they often disdain the determinations of others but they may eventually learn to care one another in effort to better their lives. 'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansberry is a play about a family in the late 1940s that struggles through lack and discrimination to find the American Dream. American Dream the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. This message explores their hopes and dreams. As it shown in the book that everybody wanted to pursue their own dreams and goals. They weren’t thinking about anybody else but their self. The absence of the American Dream does infiltrate much of the play. Each main character in the play seeks to appropriate the "American Dream" in their own lives. The family consist of the Mama, the deeply Christian grandmother; her son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth and son Travis; and Beneatha, her daughter.

In the Southside of Chicago in the 1950’s, the Youngers are a typical poverty stricken family that works hard to be able to rise out of poverty. Each family member has a different dream of being able to reach this goal. Mama has the dream of owning her own house, Walter wants to be able to open a liquor store, Beneatha wants to go to school to become a doctor, and Ruth wants to move out of their current apartment. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows the effect of a deferred dream in Walter Lee’s character.

“Money is not the key to happiness,” no big pay amount would make much of a difference. As people in America everybody thinks you cannot afford to avoid the unhappiness of having to  life,  having plenty of cash does not make your any more enjoyable then what it is in the present. Happiness depends on how you feel towards your loved ones which in Lorraine Hansberry's Play, “A Raisin In the Sun” Walter's obsession with money often caused him to act unkindly to his loved ones. In the book Raisin in the Sun a family from the Southside of Chicago they lived in a small apartment trying to find a way out of the community they have lived in. The Younger family was dealing with living in a white dominant society dealing with poverty and prejudice acts. The Youngers’ try to ignore the obstacles and stay on their feet throughout the 1950s.

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry many character have dreams. Beneatha’s to become a doctor, Mama’s to buy a house and Walter’s to own a liquor store. These dreams affect each character differently. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry illustrates Walter Lee’s dream of owning a liquor store affects him negatively by causing him to constantly be thinking about money and causing him to make bad decisions, it also affects him positively, by teaching him an important life lesson.

The first character Hansberry uses to show what happens when you put off your dream is Walter. Walter Lee Younger Jr. is the son of Momma (Lena) and Walter Younger Sr., he also has a son named Travis. Walter’s dream was to own a liquor store and use the life insurance money to pay for it. As Walter said in act one “You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost… ‘bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each.”(Hansberry, 33). This quote shows that Walter only cares about his business affairs and thinks what he’s doing is helping his family, even though his own family doesn’t agree with him. His dream doesn’t work out because Willy, one of Walter’s partners, steals all the money for the liquor store and Walter is now broke. This is a clear connection to Hughes’ poem Harlem, in the lines “Or fester like a sore-/ And then run?” (Hughes, 4-5). This quote means that the consequences affects more than just the person whose dream was deferred, this relates with Walter because when he lost the money it affected the entire family and not just him. Since he lost the money, he had to set his dream aside and the family suffered from it.

“What happens to a dream deferred?” Is a question from Langston Hughes, “A Dream Deferred” asks one what happens to a forgotten dream. This idea connects two well-known American plays, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry and Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, in the sense that each character has a dream deferred. A dream deferred is a forgotten dream or one that has been left behind. The two father figures, Walter and Willy, share many comparisons such as having a big dream reaching for success in business, leaving them behind, and their reactions.

The American Dream is not uniquely American, it is a dream held by people all around the world. It is a dream about success, a word that has different meanings for many people. The play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the American dream and race through the lense of a poor black family that receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check after the death of the patriarch of the family. Walter Lee Younger, the adult male in the house wants to invent it in a liquor store while Walter’s mother believes that decision would be unchristian. Another view of the American dream in presented in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a 1920’s American novel in which a wealthy man, Gatsby, attempts to woo his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. I define the American dream as earning the respect and admiration of one’s peers. Using my definition of the American dream, Walter is successful because he earns the respect of his family by refusing money to keep his dignity, whereas Gatsby does not achieve the dream because of the place and time in which he must climb the social ladder.

Another dreamer in this play goes by the name of Beneatha. She had the grand dream of finishing college and planned on studying to become a doctor, but this dream seemed to be improbable due to her race as well as her gender. In conclusion, the dreams of MLK, Mama, and Beneatha are revealed within these

In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there were characters whose dreams were stated, some of which were shattered by greed and misfortune and others which would eventually come to be true. The first dream that came about was Walter’s dream of one day owning and maintaining a liquor store. He would do anything to attempt to get his dream to come true, but his mama wanted anything but that to happen. His mama had a dream of her own though, she dreamed of one day owning her own house, where her whole family could stay comfortably. She dreamed this because in the apartment that she resided in was too small, and dumpy, as Ruth called it. Her grandson Travis had to sleep on the couch, and all

In Langston Hughes’ poem, the author gives us vivid examples of how dreams get lost in the weariness of everyday life. The author uses words like dry, fester, rot, and stink, to give us a picture of how something that was originally intended for good, could end up in defeat. Throughout the play, I was able to feel how each character seemed to have their dreams that fell apart as the story went on. I believe the central theme of the play has everything to do with the pain each character goes thru after losing control of the plans they had in mind. I will attempt to break down each character’s dream and how they each fell apart as the play went on.

It gives us an example of the resentment that is growing. People are getting more inflamed emotionally, just like the wound gets worse if not treated. It draws a clear parallel between people's emotions and the images of the sore. Just as an untreated sore will not heal, but get more infected, a deferred dream will not go away, but become more intense. A wound that gets worse will eventually start to smell bad. Hughes compares this to rotten meat. "Does it stink like rotten meat?" This image creates the idea that unrealized dreams will bring out the worst in men. It also means that for some the realization of their dreams will become less attractive.

“Check coming today?” The Life Insurance check that Mama will soon be receiving is the source of all the dreams in the Younger family. A major argument that Lorraine Hansberry makes in her play A Raisin in the Sun is the importance of dreams. Dreams are what each member of the Younger family is driven by. Mama wants to have her own home in a nice part of town; she does not want her children growing up in a place with rats. Walter wants to have a successful business so he can surpass the poverty that has plagued his family. And Beneatha wants to get a good education, become a doctor, and marry a nice man. Dreams are especially important to the Younger family as they come from a poverty laden family and desire to live the “American Dream.”

Dreams are hopes that people hope to accomplish in their lifetime. When trying to achieve these goals, people are willing to do anything. But, what happens when a dream is deferred? A dream pushed aside can disappoint a person in the deepest way. It is likely to spread throughout their thoughts and becomes a burden. In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes, through literary devices, introduce a strong theme through a short amount of language Hughes is asking what happens to a dream that is being put off.

A rhetorical question, borrowed from the Langston Hughes poem that serves as an epitaph to her play and an inspiration for her title, Hansberry suggests that while delayed dreams may “dry up / Like a raisin in the sun,” if ignored or suppressed too long, they will “explode” (3). Although Hansberry’s message, upon first glance, appears to be a prophetic warning of things to come, a closer examination of A Raisin reveals it to also be an artfully disguised call to action. Like the Negro spirituals, religious songs created and sung by African slaves as a hidden means of communication and protest, A Raisin in the Sun is a masked work of art, palatable to a white audience, but with a concealed message intended specifically for an African American audience.