Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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1920’s American society was full of go-getters. Deemed the Land of Opportunity, people immigrated from far and wide in hopes of achieving happiness via the famous “American Dream.” America was fantasized as an equal opportunity for success, the birthplace of Jazz, and instant wealth for all hard workers. However in reality, although the Roaring Twenties encouraged a relaxed, extravagant lifestyle for the upper class, the strict societal views of race, money, and social power reveal the harsh realities of how social stratification affects attaining the American Dream.

Minority groups struggled to gain equal social respect, jobs, and rights as they combated racism in their everyday lives. Many foreigners risked everything to start a new life in America, but soon learned that

Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, was the daughter of a successful real estate broker and a schoolteacher. Her family saved up to buy a house in a “kid-friendly” neighborhood, but “despite her parents’ wealth, the [African American] family was forced by Chicago law to live in the ghetto” (Hansberry 1540). The fact that a state law existed to enforce and encourage racial stratification just goes to show how society’s judgements can dictate one’s opportunities in America. The Chicago law indirectly implied that the dream of a white picket fence was only for white Americans, therefore denying minorities an equal chance to the American Dream. Similarly, many were falsely under the impression that America had plenty of available jobs for anyone willing to put forth the effort. According Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, “colored people ain’t never going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on...investments and things” (Hansberry 1551). In an increasingly competitive country with limited open occupations, white Americans were often hired over an underrepresented minority. Due