Comparison Of The American Dream In A Raisin In The Sun And Death Of A Salesman

In the plays A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, both authors use two very different families to live out their opinions on what the American Dream really means. Hansberry and Miller, through the Youngers family and their struggles during the 1950’s and the portrayal of the white 1940’s Loman family respectively, provoke the thought that the American Dream cannot be achieved when one dreams outside of their limits. The American Dream is supposedly unlimited, that anyone can be anything they want to be, but both authors indicate that depending on one’s social status, the dream is limited. Terrence Smith and Mike Miller once said, “The purpose of drama is not to define thought but to provoke it,”

Willy Loman is old, old enough to retire by now, but neither of his children earn enough money to allow him to retire. He pushes through his job as a salesman, convinced that he is going to make it big. He tells his wife, Linda, “You wait, kid, before it’s all over we’re gonna get a little place out in the country, and I’ll raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens…” (Miller 53). Willy has no doubt in his mind that he will strike it rich and get to retire with his own little garden, in a place where the garden will be free to grow to its fullest. He is deluded about his dream; if he has not made it thus far, then how can he achieve what he wants continuing on the same path as before? He says that he wants to ‘raise some vegetables, a couple of chickens,’ which makes the reader wonder if perhaps he would have lived a happier life as a laborer rather than as a salesman. Willy refuses to change his dream, or how he plans to achieve that dream, and he eventually kills himself so as to give Biff the money he needs to start his [Willy’s] dream. Biff, unlike his father, wants to work on a farm, but Willy convinces himself that Biff is going to be a big businessman soon. His deluded dream that he will one day be rich, with children who are settled down and wealthy as well, is the

This message is so incredibly important to young readers who are still trying to decide what they want to do with their lives, especially for high schoolers who are trying to figure out a future career. People need to know that the American Dream is not just about working hard, it is about working smart and in the right way. The American Dream is like having a huge pile of snow on the road, when one has to be somewhere on time for a job interview. One can work hard using a shovel to clear it all away, but the person who has got the snow blower will clear the snow instantly and be able to get to their job interview on time. The person with the snow blower gets the job, whether or not the person with the shovel is more qualified or not. Young readers need to have realistic expectations based on their limits, or else live an unhappy life when their idealistic dreams come crashing down around them. Hansberry and Miller both prove there are multiple ways a person can be limited, and both show the outcomes for those who try to dream too big. In this way, the two authors are heroes, saving people from spending fifty years trapped in an inescapable agony as they realize their teenage dreams will never come