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Lorraine Hainsberry's A Raisin In The Sun

1260 Words6 Pages

Things were completely disparate in the 1950’s from what they are now. Especially for African-American people, they had strong prejudices against them, which could make it impossible for them to do things in society. In Lorraine Hainsberry’s A Raisin in the Sun we meet the Younger family, an African American family in the 50’s, but we get to see them have dreams and attempt to follow those dreams. We get a close look at what a typical lifestyle would be for people in the same situation. The Younger family are fantastic examples of the American Dream, but they each have their own different dreams, and each dream has an outer shell plus a deeper meaning on the inside. Lorraine Hainsberry does an amazing job of layering and giving deeper meanings …show more content…

Her version of the American Dream is to own her own house with a little garden to live out the rest of her life: “Been thinking that maybe we could meet the notes on a little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime…” (1.1.28). As a matter of fact, it also gets brought up that this has been Mama’s dream since before she and Big Walter got married, but it never was a possibility until now. Another part of Mama’s dream, is to own this house with her family, but more importantly for them to be happy in it together. Mama obviously cares very much for her family, especially for her children: “You what supposed to be my beginning again. You—what supposed to be my harvest.” (3.1.128). This is what Mama says to Walter and Beneatha as her family starts falling apart after Walter loses the money. As she’s saying, her children were supposed to be this new beginning, a chance to shape a life and create a better future through means of inspiring her own children. Her dream was to live comfortably with her family. Consequently Big Walter had to die for them to move, which Mama never wanted to happen of course, but at least now she gets to live out her dream, even if her family is just a little smaller. Mama’s dreams differ from those of her children by being more simplistic. She’s not looking for a career or fancy new things, just a small house with a happy …show more content…

All the dreams of these characters are very relatable and genuine, it was hard not to hope for everything to turn alright for them. This family, when they are together can overcome anything, and are the most joyous when they are together. When you need help to achieve your dreams, turn to the people that you love and love you back. After all, it’s those people that support and love us that compels us to achieve our

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“Raisin in the sun” by Lorraine Hansberry according to Dreams Deterred: A Study of Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun is the first African American novel played by Broadway (Al-Duleimy). In this novel Lorraine Hansberry write about the dreams of a colored family, and the difficulties of each member of this family to realize their dreams. “What is so interesting is that these dreams are deferred and finally deterred, because simply they are built on the wrong premises” (Al-Duleimy, 538). Each of family member based their dreams with materialism. Lorraine criticizes the discriminatory and racial climate in America in the 1950s.

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This is seen by the actions she takes to get to her goal, statements she makes towards her family members, and how she responds to her family when they are troubled. Mama has lived in her apartment for a long time with her family and is about to get enough money to change that. An example of Mama’s motivation to achieve her goal is shown when Ruth, her daughter-in-law and Mama are talking about what Mama would do with the insurance money. Mama states, “Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime, if we use part of the insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of pitch in” (563). Mama is suggesting to Ruth of what could be a better future for her son and their family.

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She tells the story numerous times that she never planned on residing in the apartment for a long period of time, but intended on moving to a big house with a garden in the back (Act I, Scene I, 16). Through time, her dream deferred as many other things came up and her plant is as close as she ever had to a garden. Other than her own dreams, Mama knew that dreams were important to her family as well and the plant partly symbolized the hope that their dreams will never differ as hers had. There will always be hope for the family as long as the dreams, as well as the plant, stay alive and

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As a civil rights activist, Stokely Carmichael once said, “We are told,” If you work hard, you’ll succeed”- but if that were true, black people would own the country. We are oppressed because we are black- not because we are ignorant, not because we are lazy, not because we are stupid, but because we are black!” This quote is still relevant even to this day, blacks are still considered a minority and they get treated differently simply because of the color of their skin. People continue to treat others by the color of their skin rather than their character. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the interaction between the themes of race and dreams demonstrates that your race can affect the dreams that you have and what you choose to do about it.

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Primarily, Walter Younger is an example of the struggle to achieve the American dream. His dream is to one day own a liquor store, become wealthy and successful a business owner. In other words, his ultimate goal is to provide his family with a better way of life. He hopes for his kids and his wife to have everything they will ever need. “Yes, I want to hang some real pearls’ round my wife's neck.”

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Beneatha doesn 't really believe them though, she thinks that they are against her she says “Forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all” (Hansberry.37). She is saying that no one else in her family is ever going to be anything. She believe that she is the only one that is going to be successful. The rest of her family just has a low paying job and they don 't really make anything of them self. The real truth is that her family is working hard to put her through school so that she can make

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Mama is thinking that the family just shouldn’t move since all the money is gone. Ruth is trying to convince Mama to still move because the apartment is too small for another baby and having Mama not give up her hope of having a house with a garden. This shows Ruth just wants her family to have a nice home and is willing to work for it even more. Another example of Ruth working hard for her family is when, Ruth begs, “Lena—I’ll work…. I’ll work twenty hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago….

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Mama doesn’t work, what she does is butcher hogs and milk cows. “I used to love to milk till I was hoofed in the side” (Walker, 316, 13). Mama is also the narrator of this story. Mama sticks more into religion and is more traditional than her two daughters, mama thinks that Dee is a failure in life and she sees that the way Dee acts she is rejecting her families tradition.

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They share a few small rooms which make up their home. The main source of conflict in this group is what to do with the long awaited life insurance payment for the death of Mama’s husband. Each member of the family has a different dream and a different idea about how to spend the money. Since Walter’s father’s death, their dreams about life with that money have felt so close yet so far until the check

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She too once dreamed that they would prosper and move to a larger home with more opportunities. On the other hand, the dreams of her children, Walter and Beneatha are flourishing. Mama gives up her dreams and financial security to see her children be able to fulfill their own dreams, passing the baton of the American dream to them. We can see this exchange happen again when Mama supports Beneatha at the end of her pursuit of George to secure her financial security at the cost of real love. This is likely because Mama understands like many what it's like to forfeit her financial security, goals, and beliefs for another person and doesn't want Beneatha

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