Essay on Dreams Deferred in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

As we see from her first entrance, Beneatha is a loud and outspoken character. She is a single young female living in a home with Ruth and Mama. Quite similar as characters, they share traditional values and believe women should care for the wellbeing of their family. Ruth and Mama take pride in doing domestic service work as their source of income and are continuously seen putting their children’s needs before theirs. Hansberry uses Beneatha’s character to contradict these values and introduce a character with modern feminist views. Beneatha fiercely fires back to anyone who questions her life goals. She is constantly found bickering with Walter about her dream of becoming a doctor. She is reminded by him that “girls” shouldn’t be doctors. Beneatha voices her feelings on male dependency when she mentions to Mama and Ruth “Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet - if I ever get married”, and they respond with a shocked “if!”(50). The idea of a woman not wanting to get married was shocking to Mama and Ruth. Beneatha feels that she does not need to be dependent on a man; she has one goal, to become a doctor. She does not need a man in her life, she feels perfectly

Beneatha, being somewhat of an outcast, understands that she does not have to follow the status quo of her society by becoming a housewife, so she decides to work hard in order to become a doctor. Beneatha wants to fulfill this dream because she realizes that she enjoys helping people, as she explains to Asagai after the money is stolen, “That was what one person could do for another, fix him up — sew up the problem, make him right again” (III.i.900). Beneatha wishes to help people by taking care of them and ridding them of their problems. She does not want to become the typical, by standing woman that is not able to help if there is a dilemma. Even after Willy runs off with all of the money, Asagai offers Beneatha a way to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. Beneatha reveals this wonderful opportunity to Mama as they exit their apartment, “To go to Africa, Mama -- be a doctor in Africa”

The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household.

       Walter was upset when he heard his mother had spent the insurance money on the house and thought it wasn't fair that Beneatha got some of it for her medical school while he got nothing for his liquor store business. Lena, who always wanted her son to be happy, trustingly gave the rest of the insurance money to Walter. Holding the money in his hands, Walter thanked his mother and appreciated the trust she had in him. Walter then gave the money to his buddies to help him getting his liquor license without realizing that they betrayed him. As his dream crumbled to pieces, Walter was regret that he didn't listen to his mother, wife and sister.

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.

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is a Drama about a generous insurance check that could mean either a profit-making gain for the younger family or destroy the already suffering family. “The Younger family comprises of Mama, Beneatha, her son Walter and his significant other Ruth, and her grandson Travis.” (Synopsis) “The family has lived in the same cramped Chicago dump for quite a long time”.(Synopsis)Walter is a taxi driver and Ruth fills in as low maintenance house keeper. Mother has recently resigned as she is expecting a $10,000 check from her croaked fathers allotment. There are many themes of this play, but the one that stood out most to me is the theme hopes, plans and Dreams.The Younger family is given a chance to realize

Dreams are vital to human existence. Without them, a depressing life such as the one the Youngers have in the play A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, would be utterly unbearable. The Youngers were strong and faithful, continuously trying to make their dreams become reality. Even though they were a family plagued by the hardship of poverty, they pushed on through whatever obstacles they encountered. Beneatha, one of the main characters, had the American dream of becoming a doctor, which is affected by her individualism, determination, and expressiveness.

Beneatha is probably one of the most independent and individual characters in the play. She does not worry about the prejudice her community has about her. She is confident in herself, her abilities, and her intellect. She tries to be independent by not allowing anybody to help her. When she first hears about the insurance money she does not want any help from it. When Walter suggest that mama could use a little bit of the money to help Beneatha out with the cost of college, Beneatha responds by saying, “I have never asked anyone around here to do anything for me” ( Hansberry 281). Beneatha refuses help from others, because she feels that doing everything on her own will make her a stronger woman. She presumes that asking for assistance for anything in life will make her weaker. She does not understand how dependent she is on others until she starts dating George Murchison and joseph Asagai.

A delayed dream can be tough or sweet at the moment, but can overall benefit one in some way. In the play, Raisin in the Sun the Younger’s family is seen with various dreams being handled in different ways. The opening scene starts off with a poem by Hughes Langston called Harlem which brings out the certain problems the family faces with dreams. This poem relates to the characters dream in such cases, Walter relating to the line of festering like a sore, Mama relating to the line raisin in the sun, and Beneatha relating to the line crust and sugar over.

Beneatha combats traditional gender roles by going to college to become a doctor. Women were not known for going to school to get a degree, especially to get a medical degree that was not to become a nurse. Walter, Beneatha’s brother expresses to Beneatha and his family how he feels about the path she is taking to live her life which includes becoming a doctor. “Who the hell told you to become a doctor? If you so crazy `bout messing `round with sick people- then go be a nurse like other women- or just get married and be quiet…” (Hansberry 38). Walter is a man who seems to believe in gender roles because he thinks that because Beneatha is a woman so she should not be going to college to become a doctor but she should be going to college to be a nurse.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, we see the positive and negative effects of chasing the American Dream. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters and she portrays the daily struggles of a 1950 black family throughout A Raisin in the Sun. In this play, she is able to effectively show the big impact that even small decisions can make on a family. Hansberry shows the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream.

Suddenly, things changed, and Walter and his family came into quite a bit of money. Walter’s mama got a check for ten thousand dollars from her husbands life insurance after he passed away, which was a lot of money in that period of time. A nice house or a liquor store could easily be bought with half of the money from the check. Since the check was actually written out to mama, the money was all technically hers, so all that she wanted to do with it was buy her new house for her family, but stubborn Walter, he wanted his liquor store, and would stop at nothing to get it. When he finally realized that his mama was never going to give him the money to get the liquor store, he took it upon himself to get it himself. He eventually stole a portion of his mama’s money to get the store, but he was taken for a fool when the other person that he was making a deal with, stole all of his money. Now he had nothing, and mama had only some of her money.

The title of the play itself, A Raisin in the Sun, directly references the poem Harlem written by Langston Hughes. Written in 1951, the poem targets one of the most common themes of that time period: the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. In the poem, Hughes wonders if a “dream deferred” dries up “like a raisin in the sun” (Hughes 1). In other words, Hughes wants to know whether or not delaying dream will make the dream lose its “juice.” Hansberry alludes to the poem to explore the same notion Harlem addresses through Walter Lee Younger, a black man whose struggles throughout the play to achieve his dream. Walter is, by definition, a dreamer. He dreams of being wealthy, he dreams of being important, and he dreams of being a leader, but his goals are often deferred as a result of racial inequalities. However, one dream at the end of the play is fulfilled: the Younger family moving into Clybourne Park. The Youngers defy the societal norm of the time. Instead of backing down when Lindner tries to prevent them from moving, the Younger family fights back. Critics, when evaluating the ending of A Raisin in the Sun, compare the “explosive ending” of the poem to the “unexpectedly happy ending” of the play (Gill 1). Upon hearing the word “explosive,” a negative connotation is created because the word is often used to describe a dangerous weapon. However, it juxtaposes the

Beneatha is referring to the fact that Walter plots and schemes get more ridiculous as time goes on. She wonders however, if there will be a limit to just how far he will go to attempt to provide a better life. He plans to go into business with his friends and buy a liquor store. However, furthermore, Mama will not allow him to spend obtained insurance check for 10,000 dollars, and instead plans to give most of her money to Beneatha for medical school. Walter, in a way, is jealous of his sister, for she will be able to fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor. He, however, will have to keep living a monotonous life, not being able to support his family the way that he would like. He is also angry because Beneatha will get a large sum of Mama’s insurance money, and he will not receive a penny. This dispute leads to general hostility and overall anger in the household. Because of this animosity, there is much verbal abuse that takes place within the household, and also leads to the Walter’s alcohol abuse. Throughout the play, Lorraine Hansberry displays conflict through the lives of her characters.