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Deferred Dreams In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

1329 Words6 Pages

Deferred dreams: dreams that have persitanty been put on hold. A Raisin in the Sun illustrates what happens to people when their dreams, aspirations, and hopes have been put off. Everybody has dreams that keep them going through this hardest of times, we see this in the various characters. When this hope is taken away or put off we see that people explode. In Lorraine Hansberry 's play, A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter, and Beneatha are faced with discriminatory housing restrictions, gender inequality, and gender stereotypes that defer their dreams and cause angst amongst the Younger family. Throughout the play, Mama faces discriminatory housing restrictions that defer her dreams. The beginning of the play starts off by …show more content…

Walter exclaims, “¨I want so many things that they are driving me crazy...Mama-look at me” (Hansberry 73). Walter is a stubborn, self-centered, materialistic man. Walter is never satisfied with what he has. He longs for more. Walter can see his dream being put aside because of the situation he has been put in. Those situations occur because of racial injustices others put upon him. Walter proclaims,¨ A job. Mama, a job? I open and close car 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 ain’t no kind of job…that ain’t nothing at all. Mama, I don’t know if I can make you understand” (Hansberry 73). Walter despises his job as a driver for a rich white man. He feels like he does nothing; Walter knows he is capable of so much more. The fact that he is a Negro is deferring his dreams. A line in “If I Had a Hammer” says, ¨I’d sing our love between my brothers and sisters¨ (Peter, Paul, & Mary). ¨If I Had a Hammer” was originally wrote for the labor movements that were occuring in the United States. Once the civil rights movement started, the songs meaning evolved to relate to racial inequality. This line shows that we need respect and love between all places in order to be able to achieve anything. Walter wishes that he had respect from white men and was able to occupy a well-paying job to provide for his family. All of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun have been affected by racial

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Walter feels his job is more than unsatisfying, and can not make Mama understand, since her simplistic views are just like Ruths. In spite of his personal inadequacies with his job fulfillment, Walter shines in the end of the story with understanding and growth of his own fathers not so wonderful job. Walter seems to be reflecting on his own status as a

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The Deferred Dreams of the !950’s In Lorraine Hansberry 's play, A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter, and Beneatha face several obstacles and hardships that refrain the characters from being able to accomplish their dreams. They are faced with issues such as gender stereotyping, discriminatory housing , and racial prejudice. All of which lead to their deferred dreams. Throughout the story, the reader is given a visual of how all of these issues are relevant and how they affect each character.

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