A Raisin In The Sun American Dream Essay

The American Dream is a dream that all Americans try to achieve no matter their social status, wealth, or heritage. There is no exact definition of what the American Dream is in this play but many characters define their own dream and what they want to achieve in life. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family is a family of 5 that consists of Walter, Ruth, Beneatha, Travis, and Lena “Mama” Younger. The Younger family is a lower-income African American family that lives in Chicago and can barely afford rent and each one of them clings to their version of the American Dream. Walter, Lena Younger’s son has a dream that is harder to achieve than the rest of his family’s but Walter has to give up his own dream so

Walter believes that buying the liquor store is the most important thing that his family can invest in because to him the liquor store is their ticket to becoming more successful. Buying and owning a store as a low-income family is next to impossible because, at that point in time, Walter does not have the kind of money to invest in a liquor store. Walter wants to achieve his dream so badly that when he finds out that mama got money from the insurance company he planned to use Ruth to convince her to give him the money so that he can invest it in his own dream, “you just sip your coffee, see, and say easy like that you been thinking ’bout that deal

After Mama spends some of the money on the house she trusts Walter with the rest of the money, she tells him to spend three thousand dollars on Beneatha’s tuition and the rest he can keep to himself and spend on his liquor store. He ends up not listening to Mama and takes all the money and invests it into the getting the liquor store but he ends up losing all the money, Yessss! All of it ... It’s all gone …(Hansberry 129). Walter gave all the money Willy and Willy was supposed to use the money to buy the liquor lisence that they need to open the store but instead Willy fleas with the money and Walter loses everything that Mama had given him including the money that was supposed to be used towards Beneatha’a tuition. With no money to achieve his dream Walter is desperate to make money to try and have some hope of achieving it. When Lindner shows up offering to buy their house at a hight price than what they bought it for Walter tells him to leave but after losing the money Walter calls him back to try and negotiate a deal and make a final decision on his offer, “We have decided to move into our house”(Hansberry 148). With Walter’s dream on the line he decides to give up on it and instead reject Lindner’s offer and move into the house allowing his family to achieve their dream because if Walter can not achieve his the least he could do