Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

The American dream has been visualized and pursued by nearly everyone in this nation. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about the Younger family that strived for the American dream. The members of the Younger family shared a dream of a better tomorrow. In order to reach that dream, however, they each took different routes, which typified the routes taken by different black Americans.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun features an African American family in the late 1950’s as they look forward to achieving their individual dreams in the era where racism and economic hardship among African Americans was the norm. While Hansberry doesn’t directly mention well-known events in the civil rights movement, she illustrates the realistic struggles an African American family would have faced during this time. In the introduction of the play, Robert Nemiroff illustrates several themes and issues that are addressed throughout Hansberry’s play. One of the subjects Nemiroff mentions is the “value systems of the black family”(Nemiroff, “Introduction,” 5-6). A main value that Hansberry illustrates throughout the play is the

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.

When a person thinks of the American dream they think of wealth, financial stability, and a centered household, but they often do not think of what level of self-interest one must have in order to succeed. When people form upper class families have certain privileges that others do not they are not considered to be selfish. Furthermore when people that have lower class budgets get the opportunity to be privileged they are both trying to fulfill a personal centered objective but are also stopped by other people's success and selfishness. This is the controversy that has framed the United States today. The American dream has separated the fortunate and the less fortunate and has blurred the lines of societies standards of being selfish. The play A Raisin in the Sun exemplifies this controversy as the characters with their own selfish needs but we have to ask, are they really selfish if the higher people in society are doing the exact same thing? The play also shows that everyone is trying to achieve the American dream, and for that people have to be focused and accumulated more towards their self needs.

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.

Many can see the appeal of the play” A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry because it is telling how much the Younger family wants the American dream, the better life that each character wants are different from each other. The family wants the insurance money to start their dreams, the money that would not have been available if not for the death of the head of the family.

Mama's inheritance of ten thousand dollars left by her deceased husband provides fodder for conflict in the family. Each of the family members, envisioning their own American Dream, has an idea of how the inheritance should be spent. All of these ideas, of course, conflict with Walter's "get rich quick" scheme. Mama, Ruth, and Travis all have the dream of moving to their own home with a white picket fence, a garden, a place for Travis to play outside and a bathroom that is not shared by other

In the play Walter has dreams that get pushed away because of many reasons. One of the reasons is Mama and the rest of the family act selfishly. They did not believe in Walter and his ability to truly make a business. Walter says, “I have been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room -- and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…”

Mama uses her money to buy a house for her family not just for her dream but to make everyone happy, especially her grandson, Travis. “She went out and bought you a house!” (2.2). Even though Mama does not have faith in Walter’s dreams she still gives him her remaining money to invest. Walter jeopardizes the family by losing all of Mama’s money back-tracking them, leaving no money for Beneatha’s college savings. Soon Walter comes to realize how important this new house is to the family Walter declines the offer to sell the new house. “And we have decided to move into our new house because my father-my father- her earned it for us brick by brick. We don't want no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors. and that's all we go to say about that. We don’t want your money.(2.3)” This shows Walter has come to value family as his mother

The book Raisin in the sun took place in the 1950’s it was in Chicago southside in this era there was racism and segregation. The character is Walter and the theme is money and morality. Walters choice on using the money for the liquor store shows how insensitive he is and doesn't even think about his mother's opinion on the matter.

The American Dream is an idea that one can achieve success through their hard work. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Arthur Miller's The Death of a Salesman the authors show the American Dream as something that is sought by most but only leads to suffering and ultimately death through their use of motifs and symbolism.

Have you ever played monopoly with cheaters? Although monopoly is just a game it’s not fun playing with cheaters, games like monopoly are a lot like living under systems. Especially when there’s cheaters involved because people don’t like living under systems when people in power aren’t fair. The historical fiction play A Raisin In The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is about the struggles of living under an unfair system for an African-American family in the 1950’s. This family is large and living in a very small home, in this time period that was common because people were still adjusting to the idea of racial equality in the U.S.

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

It is not usual for writers to agree on an opinion about a certain piece of writing, in this case we are referring to A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Lorraine Hansberry is a African-American author was born in Chicago Illinois during the 1930’s, an era where America had selected a new president, also known as the last years of the great depression. Lorraine Hansberry is also proven to be the granddaughter of a freed slave, however Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate broker, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Her parents contributed large sums of money to the NAACP and the Urban League.

Act one gives detail in what the setting of the place is like, their apartment. Information about the setting gives better insight of what time period A Raisin in the Sun takes place. When accounted for, it can give a better understanding of what the Younger family had to go through.