Raisin In The Sun Dreams

In A Raisin In the Sun Lorraine Hansberry uses everyday objects-a plant, money, and a home to symbolize a family's struggle to deal with racism and oppression in their everyday lives, as well as to exemplify their dreams. She begins with a vivid description of the family's weary, small, and dark apartment in Chicago's ghetto Southside during the 1950s. The Youngers are an indigent African-American family who has few choices in their white society. Each individual of the Younger family has a separate dream-Beneatha wants to become a doctor, Walter wants to open a liquor store, and Ruth and Mama want a new and better home. The Youngers struggle to accomplish these dreams throughout the play, and a major aspect of their happiness and

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– And then run?" (Langston Hughes). It is important to never lose sight of one’s dream. Dreams are what keep people moving in life, but if they are ignored, they may morph and lose their prevailing form. This is evident in Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun", as Walter’s, Beneatha’s, and Mama’s dreams become delayed, distorted, and blurred.

The predicament that Walter finds him-self in motivates him to want to invest in a liquor store in order to grasp some type of financial freedom. He doesn’t just want to have enough money to provide for his family, but he tells his mother, “I want so many things” (74). He is obsessed with earning a lot of money. At the beginning of the play Walter is waiting for Mama's check from the insurance company as if it was his own, and Beneathea has to remind Walter that, “that money belongs to Mama, Walter and if is for her to decide how she wants to spend it” (36). Here we see how he is searching for his identity with money. Much of Walter’s dialog is about making money or who has money. When his wife Ruth mentions that his friend Willy Harris is a good for nothing loud mouth, Walter retorts; “...And what do know about good for nothing loud mouth? Charlie Atkins was just a good-for-nothing loud mouth too, wasn’t he! He wanted me to go in the dry-cleaning business with him, and now he’s grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thousand dollars a year! You still call him a loud mouth!” (32) The idea of making a hundred thousand dollars is what he had most on his mind, and to Walter the liquor store is how he will achieve that. The liquor store represents an

       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.

A Raisin in the sun shows the hardship many needed to face in order to attain this notion of the American Dream. The play did more than simply show what everyone faced, she shows the struggles that many African Americans families had to face when trying to achieve the notion of the American Dream. She does this by showing the environment that many African Americans lived in when there was bombing in the neighborhood or when white people would force African Americans who finally bought a home, out. Lorraine also shows the struggles of the characters of the play like Walter who struggles with the decision he makes and the contradictions that stop him from achieving his goals of being wealthy or when Beneatha goes against the norms of society by becoming a Doctor and trying to do activities that men usually do.While American Dream is quintessential to America because you’re able to go from nothing to something, this notion is unique to African-American since the society work against them even with having the same aspiration because of the prejudice they faced from the society.

A Raisin in the sun shows the hardship many need to face in order to attain this notion of the American Dream. The book did more than then just show what everyone faced, she shows the struggles that many African American families had to face when trying to achieve the notion of the American Dream. She does this by showing the environment that many African American lived in when there was bombing in the neighborhood or when white people would force African American who finally bought a home, out. Lorraine also shows the struggles of the characters of the book like Walter who struggles with the decision he makes and the contradictions that stop him from achieving his goals of being wealthy or when Beneatha goes against the norms of society

At the beginning of the play “A Raisin in the Sun” the main characters from the play all demonstrate that they have dreams for themselves and all of them deal with how they identify with themselves. These dreams are, for Walter, to be perceived as wealthy, for Beneatha to be independent, and for Mama to continue what she and her husband started to own their own house with space for everyone. These characters had to comprehend their own identity to settle on the whole family’s dream of moving to a middle-class neighborhood, and how that dream fulfilled all their dreams. Walter’s dream of appearing wealthy stems from him wanting a better life for himself, his wife Ruth, and his son Travis. He believes he can accomplish this by investing in a liquor store and changing his financial standing. Walters dream is exposed when he discusses it with his son Travis:

Family is expressed in diverse ways. Mama strongly believes in the importance of family throughout the book. She continues to try to keep them together by fulfilling their dreams before hers. Her dream was moving her family out of the ghetto and into a house with a yard where children can play, and she can tend a garden. Her dream has been deferred since she and her husband moved into the apartment that the Youngers still inhabit. Every day, her dream provides her with an incentive to make money. But no matter how much she and her husband strived, they could not scrape together enough money to make their dream a reality. As they go through trying times the eventify they come together as a family because by the end they realized being together was most important. They are still strong individuals but together they prove they are a strong family. Throughout the book the Younger family is constantly arguing about what Mama should do with the ten thousand dollars she inherited from her husband. “I-I just seen my family fall apart today…. Just falling into pieces in front of my eyes we couldn’t have gone on like we were today (Hansberry91)” Mama is trying to tell her family that these arguments about the money are tearing her family apart. She wanted them to know that she did the right thing by buying the house, thinking it would make her family happy again. Mama could have spent the money on herself, but she chose her family first and their needs that is

In the play, Mama has her own American Dream that she chases after, which heavily

A Raisin in the Sun is a family drama about the importance of sharing a collective dream. A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives.

    The American Dream, although different for each of us, is what we all aspire to achieve. In Lorraine Hansberry's, play, A Raisin in the Sun, each member of the Younger family desperately hopes for their own opportunity to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream to the Younger family is to own a home, but beyond that, to Walter Younger, it is to be accepted by white society.

The masterwork of Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, centers heavily around its characters and ultimately, their dreams, largely communicated through the $10,000 insurance money which moves the plot and appears to represent the pathway to the dreams of the characters. There are a variety of dreams which influence decisions in the play, such as Walter’s desire for wealth or Mama’s desire for a comfortable family life, but the motivation behind those dreams develops the characters and the central idea in an indirect way which the story as a whole benefits from. Lorraine Hansberry herself was a brilliant writer in the way her story introduces and develops different viewpoints without necessarily designating any as any more important than

Mama is a strong woman who is the head of the household. She loves her kids and grandkids with all of her heart. She will not let anyone really tell her what to do. Mama’s dream is to own her own house with her husband and have her own little garden. She wants to get out of the tiny apartment.

In A Raisin in the Sun, all of the characters have a dream. These dreams are different from their ancestors because of the Harlem Renaissance and the opportunities they have now. African-Americans finally were able to do more with their lives and weren’t limited to the statue quo. Now that they have more opportunities, they have bigger dreams. The Youngers has a dream of moving out of their small apartment and being able to own a house where they could raise a family.