A Raisin In The Sun And I Have A Dream Analysis

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In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry and the speech, “I have a Dream”, by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have many similarities to having many dreams, a urge for power, and a want to make a change in the world for the many years to come. In Lorraine’s play, Lena Younger, is a mother who has two children and a step daughter with a kid all living in a two bedroom apartment. Lena wants nothing more than to give her family a better life. In Dr. Martin Luther King speech he wants nothing more than to give the world a better life. In King’s speech he says, “We have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice” (King). This section in his speech is similar to Lena Younger’s action of cashing in her insurance check to put a down payment on a house for her family. Mama, “She went out and she bought you a house”(Hansberry 91). Cashing in the check shows that this check of reality will give African Americans an opportunity for freedom and justice especially since the Younger family is the only African American family in the Clybourne Community. Along, with a want for a better life there is a sense of hope both in King’s speech and Hansberry’s play. “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of Hope” (King). King exclaims that through all of the bad and ugly there is always a silver lining of hope. Mama Younger has the same view but her silver lining is the actually