Mama's Dream in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

As a black poor family, their opportunities are limited just as the limited window of sunshine to the plant. Like the plant, the family struggles and does not live an amazing life yet they survive and persevere. Mama dreams for her family to grow new roots and become healthy again, and if they do not acquire new opportunities soon , the family will never change in a positive way. “Like them, this little old plant that ain't never had enough sunshine or nothing -- and look at it…”(1557). When Mama gets the new house, the change from one to many windows connect with the change from a few small opportunities to a possible many successful opportunities. At the end, Mama picks up her plant and walks out of the Southside apartment for the last time, with perseverance to face the many incoming obstacles that come with being a black person residing in a white neighborhood.

Furthermore, Beneatha is Mama’s youngest child. She dreams of majoring in the medical field as a doctor. “Well, I do all right? thank everybody! And forgive me forever wanting to be anything at all! Forgive me, Forgive me, Forgive me ( Hansberry).  Even though she is not very independent at all, she is planning on the money to help herself through college. For

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, introduces a family struggling to hold themselves together. They live in an apartment with other families and issues that come up include fighting for a bathroom in the morning, lack of space within their apartment, and the lack of money evident by actions of the family members and the furnishings throughout the house. The subject of money is quickly

Dreams are important to everyone. Some little girls dream of being a ballerina while some little boys and even teenage boys dream of being a major league baseball player for their favorite team. In the famous drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, dreams have a prominent role. The title, even though there’s never a raisin in the drama, is important because: it refers to a poem written by famous poet Langston Hughes and it relates to the dreams of each of the characters.

Lorraine Hansberry was a writer during the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. She was the first woman, the first black person, and the youngest person to get a show on broadway with her hit A Raisin in the Sun. The name comes from Langston Hughes’ famous poem Harlem (Dream Deferred) where Lorraine got all of her inspiration from. Harlem is about what happens when you put off a dream for too long. In A Raisin in the Sun Hansberry uses the characters Walter, Beneatha, and Momma to show the consequences of deferring your dreams.

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, depicts the struggles of an African American family in the 1950s. The Youngers are a poor African American family of five living in a run-down, one-bedroom apartment. Mama, or more formally known as Lena, is the head of the family who lives with her two children. Her son, Walter, is married with a child who both live with them. Her daughter, Beneatha, dreams of pursuing medicine instead of a husband. Soon, an opportunity to escape poverty arises in the form of a $10,000 life insurance check from the patriarch of the family. From buying a house, paying for medical school, and investing in a business, each member of the family has a different plan for the money. When Walter discovers his wife is pregnant and wants an abortion, he says nothing to change her mind. With this, Lena decides to use some of the money for a down payment on a house and gives the remainder to Walter to take to the bank. Walter is supposed to deposit some of the money to pay for Beneatha’s medical school but instead, Walter gives all the money away. Without the excess funds, the Youngers rely on the strength of family and dreams. The American Dream is embodied in the lives of Lena and Beneatha Younger in A Raisin in the Sun.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry shows the life of African Americans in the 1960’s. The Younger family represents a typical black family: a small apartment, not enough money, and low quality jobs. When a $10,000 check is given to Lena Younger (Mama) from an insurance company, the Younger family’s lives change. The family must decide what they want to do with the money. Everyone has their dream – the American dream. The American dream is having a backyard to play in, having a garden, a fence, and a place to sleep. It is a chance to succeed in the world. With the money they have received, they are now able to achieve the dream. The family must realize what is important to them and not themselves. They must work out conflicts and

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, “Why? You want to know why? 'Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don 't know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!” (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-American community for the 1960’s, is built upon a loose ideology that is a brutal cycle that infects the lives of those who inhabit the area; tired of all the commotion from the Caucasians who, to them, miraculously achieve a life of ruling and

A raisin in the sun is a book that explains the life of a family that is in hard times but some how gets through it. The Younger family is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to economic status this affects the whole family and dreams and values, but the one thing they are good at are arguing and keeping their dreams alive by being a family and loving and caring for one another when nobody else does. The book a raisin in the sun written by Lorraine Hansberry is about a family that are at the bottom of the economic ladder they have a lot of people in the family so it's hard to tend to everybody's needs. The younger family is getting money, the family starting to become a family, Walter gets the money

Beneatha has lost hope in succeeding her dream of becoming a doctor. She believes that life is one large circle that everyone marches in. I am not the kind of person who would be able to redeem myself and find hope again for something big. I feel like this is the reason why I chose Beneatha's side.

Throughout many works of literature, characters are described to go through a rite of passage, developing the plot and solving conflicts. A rite of passage is when a character goes through life changes, realizing his/her flaws and maturing as a person. Walter Lee Younger is a man that goes through many different character changes, which cause conflict amongst the other characters. Once he goes through his rite of passage, he is able to fix his flaws and mature. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, characterization is used to portray that one must experience a rite of passage in order to mature.

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.

The struggles of being African American have been very evident throughout history. To present day many African Americans (commonly referred to as "black") endure injustice and inequality. As many racial protests and movies have been made to depict such hardships, so have books. The controversial topics of racism and gender roles are spread throughout A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry lived through such a time where racial and gender discrimination was at its highest point; which she portrays in her book. As the Younger family eventually developed into a family so do the gender issues. My goal in this paper is to identify gender injustice as it has been dominantly illustrated, whether that be where the women stand or what the men should be doing as opposed to the women having higher power.

There are four major characters in this story; Walter, Ruth, Mama, and Beneatha. Walters dream is to get rich by investing in his liquor store. Mama wants the family to move to a house with enough room for everyone and a garden in the backyard. Ruth has a similar dream like Mama, where his son, Travis has his own room. Beneatha's dream is to become a doctor. All of their dreams leads towards, a life without poverty and not having a financial problem. Much of the problems and internal fights in the family are because of their inability to complete their dream. Race

When Walter is given the money to begin his dream, he tells his son his ideal future. It involves an elegant car-- “rich people don’t have to be flashy”; servants; and when he comes home from the office, Travis will be looking at all the best colleges he might want to go to (109). It is easy to see this as greed because it appears his highest aspiration is to become rich. A second interpretation might be that this reveals a generosity or kindness because he wishes to give Travis whatever he wants. But a closer look at Walter’s words reveal his true desire: “Just tell me where you want to go to school and you'll go. Just tell me, what it is you want to be-- and you'll be it... Whatever you want to be-- Yessir! You just name it, son... and I hand you the world” (109). It isn't about Travis, it's about Walter. Walter’s fantasy is that Travis will tell Walter what he wants and Walter, not Mama or anyone else, will be able to provide it. In Walter's fantasy, these things show he is the top man, the one who made it. It isn't about the money itself, rather that he is known to be the best. If Walter could be rich and provide for his family, but only in secret, so no one would know it came from him, he would not be satisfied. No one would need him. In his fantasy, he never mentions Beneatha or Mama, as though they are not necessary to the paradise. For Walter, Mama and Beneatha pose a threat to all of his dreams,