The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

The relationship status of Beneatha Younger causes her much distress as her rich boyfriend George which her and her family could use the money, but on the other side, she finds favor with Asagai as he encourages her to do what she wants in life. Overall Asagai makes her feel happy and is whom she wants to be with. Beneatha has just one huge conflict with her mother over religion and her faith. Separate note mama completely understands her decision to be with Asagai over George so all is good.

During the 1900s many black families barely had enough money to pay for the basic necessities needed to live. At times some families would receive a significant sum of money, something they were not used to getting. Deciding on how to spend this money is what caused problems among some families. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, she argues that there are times when in a state of financial instability and where money is a necessity to completing one’s dream that some family members choose to put their dreams over others when suddenly given the opportunity. After Mama’s husband died she was bound to receive an insurance check that would be used by the Younger family. Before even receiving the

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.

(page 45-46)” In the first act alone, the audience is shown the great disparities between the American dream for a white man and the American dream for people of color. However, now with this insurance money from Big Walter’s death, there is a chance of someone their dream, the problem that the Younger’s face is which someone should get to use the money. Beneatha needs it for college to become a doctor, Walter needs it to invest in a liquor store so he can finally “be somebody.” But Mama wants to use that money to buy a house. She wants to leave their current rented apartment and she wants a nice house in the suburbs where she could have a garden and “with a yard where Travis could play in the summer. (page 44)” Mama believes that a change of scenery is what the family needs and that it will bring them back together. These three characters have the most conflicting wants for the

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

She is studying to be a doctor, which is quite difficult for a young African American woman in a working class family since they can barely afford to send her to medical school. Beneatha is then confronted with two men, George Murchison, a wealthy black man, and Joseph Asagai, an intelligent African student from Nigeria. Beneatha sees who she is pressured to be through George, and what she believes she wants to be through Asagai. The American Dream for Beneatha is the search to find who she wants to be through the characters of Murchison and Asagai, in a family and world where she is expected to live and act in specific ways according to her role in society.

A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry's is play by a black family in 1959 Chicago, set in the family very crowded apartment, Walter Lee and Ruth share a room while Beneatha and Mama have the other; Travis must sleep out in the living room on the couch and they must all share a bathroom with other tenants in the building. From what we know from the lay out there is one small window in the kitchen and the apartment is scattered with worn furniture. The story focuses on the different dreams of each of the member of this family as they discuss what they can do with a $10,000 life insurance payment. The overall theme is the aspirations that make up the American dream - the idea that anyone can do well for themselves if they work hard to provide for our family.

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.

    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 world is full of amazing people, with American dreams. They dream on the life they have always wanted. In “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry the four main characters, Walter, Bennie, Ruth, and Mama. Today I will be writing a paper based off each characters American dream of their own.

Beneatha wanted to help people. She was the only one in the family to go to college. She had a dream to become a doctor. Beneatha felt like she wanted to help people when they were the most vulnerable. She also wanted to travel to Africa and learn about her background. Beneatha demonstrates her passion to help people when she said this, “That was what one person could do for another, fix him up – sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world…I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know – and make them whole again. This was truly being God…I wanted to cure. It used to be so important to me. I wanted to cure. It used to matter. I used to care. I mean about people and how their bodies hurt…” Beneatha wants to be able to help people when they can not help themselves. . That is her dream. She wants to be there for the people who do not have many people there. She wants to put in the extra work in school in order to do this. She wants to be able to make a difference in her family. She also wants to be a successful black doctor. There were some successful black doctors during this time, but not many. None that the Younger family actually new. Beneatha is a strong willed woman whose intention in no way disappeared no matter what was going

Mama, however, is strong, spiritual and eager to help her children in any way she can. She values family above and beyond all else, but has the deep insight into the other character's motivations even when she doesn't agree. In the middle of the play (at the fuse for the final conflict), she recognizes that Walter is miserable because no one believes in him and his dreams. She gives him a large chunk of the insurance check to invest in a liquor store even thought she doesn't agree with it. She trusts him with it and, when he loses the money to a "trusted friend," she becomes enraged and begins to physically attack him. However, by the next scene she has forgiven him and tells her daughter that she should do the same; "There is always something to love: when do you think the time is to love somebody the most? It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so!" With those words, Mama seems to symbolize all that is good, solid and peaceful in the world.

Halfway through the play, Walter tries to explain that he wants more out of his life, and Lena says that he has all he needs- a wife, a family, and a job. Walter then gets even angrier and says “Mama, a job? I open and close doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say ‘Yes sir’; ‘No sir”; ‘Very good sir’; ‘Shall I take the drive sir?’ Mama that aint no kind of job” (Miller, pg 107). Walter’s dream to be rich drives him to the brink of insanity. Finally, Lena decides that she will give him the money to invest in a liquor store. She keeps part of the money to invest in a house, and gives him the rest of it. She tells him to put three thousand dollars in an account for Bonita’s tuition, and the rest is his to invest in the liquor store. Instead of putting any money in an account for Beneatha, Walter gives it all to one of his partners to invest in the store. He is told he will get enough of it back in a few days, so he can put the money in the account. As it turns out, his partner ends up leaving town with the money, and never coming back. Walter lost the bulk of the check. His dream to have money, to be somebody, to be rich; leads to his downfall. Instead, he ends up losing the money that could have helped the family as a whole. Not only did he set himself back, but he also set Beneatha back. Not only did he ruin his dream, but he also ruined his

     Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends college and is better educated than the rest of the Younger family. Some of her personal beliefs and views have distanced her from conservative Mama. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well-educated black woman. She realizes her brother, Walter, dislikes the idea of spending the insurance money on the college tuition but is determined to be successful in her life: “BENEATHA: What are you talking about Ruth? Listen, I’m going to be a doctor … first I’m going to be a doctor! (I.i pg. 50)” Beneatha builds her frustration upon the doubts of her brother. When Walter