Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire And A Raisin In The Sun

Wish Upon a Star While we wish dreams would become reality, at what point are dreams just... well, dreams? Fragile dreams and harsh realities are not always as black and white as they seem. Lines become blurred in a gray area. In plays, these contrasting conflicts drive the plot through character relations, internally and externally. In both Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, the conflict between illusion vs. reality is developed through Blanche, Walter, Mitch, and Ruth and Mama. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois, Stella’s sister, lives in an illusion. Back home in Laurel, Mississippi, Blanche was an English teacher at a school. Blanche explains to her sister that the superintendent …show more content…

With Walter’s deceased father’s insurance money, Walter wants to open a liquor store with a few of his friends. Walter explains to his wife, Ruth, that in total, the liquor store will cost each man ten thousand dollars. He also explains that the men will have to pay someone a couple hundred dollars so that they do not have to wait for a liquor license to be approved (1562; Act 1; Scene 1). Authors, Nuriadi Nuriadi and Boniesta Melani of “Dreams in Lorraine Hansberry’s Play A Raisin in the Sun: How Do Dreams Signify Black Americans’ Lives during the Civil Rights Movement Era?” reveal that these dreams could never realistically be achieved because Walter Lee is lazy, dependent on other people, selfish, opinionated, and overly prideful at times. Walter Lee depends on his wife and mother and his father’s insurance money for financial support for the family after he quit his chauffeur job. He does not get another job, instead, he just hopes to open the liquor store. When his father’s insurance money does arrive, Walter Lee, selfishly, takes his and his sister’s, Beneatha, portion of the money to his friend to purchase the store. His friend, Willy Harris, leaves town with the money, never to be seen again. Additionally, Mama warned Walter Lee to not open the store because it was illegal. Against her wise opinion, Walter Lee still proceeds and tries to purchase the store. Walter Lee is too prideful in himself at times. He …show more content…

English Studies at NBU. no. Then you can use the. 1, 2016, pp. 113-114. 31–41, esnbu.org/data/files/2016/esnbu.16.1.3.pdf. Hansberry, Lorraine. A. A Raisin in the Sun. The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, short 14th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2022, pp. 1556 - 1619. Lund, Marie. A. “Harold (Mitch) Mitchell’s Role in the Demise of Blanche Dubois in a Streetcar Named Desire.” Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 78-95. 46–53, https://doi.org/10.7146/lev.v0i2.104695. Nuriadi, Nuriadi, and Boniesta Melani. “Dreams in Lorraine Hansberry’s Play A Raisin in the Sun: How Do Dreams Signify Black Americans’ Lives during the Civil Rights Movement Era?” The International Journal of Literary Humanities, vol. 21, No. 1 -. 1, 2023, pp. 113-122. 127–43, https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-7912/CGP/v21i01/127-143. Williams, Tennessee. The. A Streetcar Named Desire? The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, short 14th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2022, pp. 1925-1991.