Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

All in all Mama and Walters dreams both involve money. Mama shows us her longing for the acceptance of society when she immediately buys a house in a white neighborhood, to provide for her family. Walter shows us his desperation to be a valuable human being when he steals money in hopes of starting his liquor business. Walter wants to be respected and live a happy lifestyle for this family. He longs to be the head of the household. Walter see’s himself with a liquor store as having power. It isn’t till the end until he rethinks the values of himself and his family’s future about how there is more to living than just having material riches. Mama only yearns for her family to be respected and live up to what society perceives.

       Lena, Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha Younger all lived under the same roof, but their dreams were all different. Being the head of the household, Lena dreamed the dreams of her children and would do whatever it took to make those dreams come true. Walter, Lena's oldest son, set his dream on the liquor store that he planned to invest with the money of his mother. Beneatha, in the other hand, wanted to become a doctor when she got out of college and Ruth, Walter's wife, wanted to be wealthy. "A Raisin in the Sun" was a book about "dreams deferred", and in this book that Lorraine Hansberry had fluently described the dreams of the Younger family and how those

The Younger family scrapes through life, each person searching for their own version of the American Dream. Walter clings to the original American Dream of being successful, even if that means going against his mother’s wishes. Mama wants a house for her family, this dream causes her to not fully support Walter’s dream. Walter holds on to his dream of being successful and nothing less, however Mama only wants a home for her family, meaning “Her dream is unacceptable to Walter, who will have nothing less than the complete American Dream, since her version of it only amounts to surviving, not living in the fullest sense” (Washington 94). Their dreams are so different and Mama struggles to support Walter’s risky dream of becoming successful through opening a liquor store. Finally out of the goodness of her heart, Mama gives him the remaining part of the insurance money to start his business, however Walter loses this money to a dirty friend. Thus causing pain to not only himself, but also his family. Barriers and issues constantly block or prevent him and his family from attaining the wealth and success that Walter desires so greatly.

Many people go through different moralities in there life some that they believe can change their life for the better but don’t know the consequences. This ties in with issues involving money. Many people believe that money is the way to happiness and do what they can to get money even if it means to hurt your loved ones. In the play “Raisin in the Sun” Walter Lee Younger is man that lives in South Side Chicago and at point in life that he’s in, he wants to do something in his life and make a difference for colored people. The way he believes he can accomplish that is by opening a bar to make money for his family while believing money is the only source of happiness. Walters ideal morality was to make sure he got his hands on the insurance money so he could open up the bar even if it meant his family would suffer when things went wrong.

Walter's dream was to invest his father's ten thousand dollars to put toward a liquor store. But he knew that investing the money for himself would not provide the family with enough money to get out of the poor lifestyle they were living in. The Younger family and Walter, the son, are faced with racism everyday in the Chicago

The Younger family has not been able to experience the finer things in life, and Walter, being the authoritative male figure, feels he is at fault knows that a change is needed. Walter’s solution is to use his father’s life insurance money to fund the acquiring of a liquor license. The women of the household are always ordering around Walter. It’s Ruth, Mama, or Beneatha telling him how to run things, and when he gets a chance to take the initiative by using the money to invest in his liquor license, his friend betrays him, and his dreams are crushed.

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry is a dramatic play depicting economic and social prejudice during the Harlem Renaissance era in Chicago. The central theme of this written drama is centered upon a forgotten dream. In this same way, This theme could be applied to both Walter's dream of economic stability as well as Beneatha’s dream to be a doctor. Hansberry uses literary symbolism techniques to convey the theme of economic and struggle in society for minorities in America. This drama uses multiple examples of symbolism to contribute to the theme of class and wealth.

Walter Lee Younger is a man who does not comply with his promises to his family; additionally, he lets his desire to take precedent before everything and everyone in his life. This takes place in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin In The Sun. Although some people have sympathy for him believing that he took decisions while being under pressure, Walter Lee Younger´s words, actions, and business venture make him selfish. Some people assume that due to segregation back in the late 1850´s, is to be blamed for Walter´s warped way of thinking.

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

Dreams are the about the future and it’s usually positive. Dreams can fade away due to some changes in life. Walter’s actions and attitude towards the family are because of his dreams. Walter wants to use the insurance money that his mom (Lena Younger) is getting from her late husband to start up his own business.

He thinks that Beneatha dream is a joke and he want her to get married. Also the important things to him is the money because he tells his wife Ruth to tell his mother Mama to give him the money that they're going to get. And Walter Lee wants to use the money for the liquor store so he told Ruth to convict his mother to give him the money for the store. But Ruth doesn't want the to buy the liquor store but Walter doesn't listen to Ruth because he want to be the man of the family. When Ruth was telling Walter that it was Mama money and she could do whatever she want to do with it but, Walter just ignore her. Also Walter Lee wants to be the head of the of

For these reasons, Mother bought the family a new house and put it in the name of Walter's son, Travis. In other words, she made an investment in Walter's future and his family. Mother saw the family falling apart and that their feelings of resentment for one another, and general discouragement in their lives, was an effect from living like sardines in their tiny dreary apartment. Walter, however, did not see it this way and felt nobody would listen to what he wanted. He wanted the same thing as his mother, to make an investment in his and his family's future, but he had his own idea of how to do it. As he tries to explain to his mother, "Sometimes I can see the future stretched out in front of me--just plain as day." However, Mother knows an investment in a liquor shop is riskier than an investment in a house in the middle of a white neighborhood but is unable to convince Walter of it.

A Raisin in the Sun is written by a famous African- American play write, Lorraine Hansberry, in 1959. It was a first play written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the white section of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 1938. The struggle of Lorraine Hansberry’s family inspired her to write the

“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.”

All of the significant characters in the play have dreams. Walter wants to start a business in order to better support his family. Beneatha, his sister, wants to get an education to become a doctor. Mama and Ruth want their family to be happy. They all believe that their lack of money is holding them back, so when they receive the insurance check they believe they will finally be able to achieve them.