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Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Everyone’s dreams are different and many people don’t even have the chance to fulfill them. So, what happens when someone cannot achieve their dream? Or when someone must wait for the right moment before they can reach their dream, a moment that may never come? These questions are the base of the play by Lorraine Hansberry, titled A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry writes about what happens when everyone dreams.
The play follows a man named Walter and his family. There are five family members living in a small, two bedroom house, and everyone has a dream away from the old, musty house. Walter wants to pay for a liquor licence to start a business, Walter’s wife, Ruth, wants a nice home for the family, and Walter’s sister, Beneatha, dreams of becoming a doctor. Everyone’s dreams can come true when Walter’s mother receives an insurance check in the mail after Walter’s father passes away from an untold cause. But the driving question of the play is whether Walter will achieve his dream?
Mama, the head of the household, only wants what’s best for her family, so she decides to go buy a house with …show more content…

In order to fix a bad situation, Walter is sitting in the living room, deciding if it would be smart to move to the house Mama bought with no money, no dream, and a broken family. This is the precise moment, the climax, Walter realizes that his dream is dead, but his family can still make theirs a reality. At that moment, their dreams become Walters’. As the new head of the household, it is his dream to make their dreams come true. The new house will fulfill Ruth’s dream of stability for her family, Mama’s dream of having a garden, and will kickstart Beneatha’s dream of being a doctor. To end the play, Hansberry allows the whole family to start over, in a new neighborhood where they can finally reach and touch their

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In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” (Hughes 1). Mr. Hughes question is answered by the play Raisin in the Sun. The play follows the Younger family as they attempt to achieve their dreams. Hansberry uses Mama, Walter, and Beneatha the show the negative consequences that occur when your dreams are deferred.

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“Just less than 30 percent of workers land their dream job, or work in some related field, according to a recent LinkedIn survey of about 8,000 professionals.” Not “a lot of people end up doing the dream they want. I believe that In “Raisin in the Sun,” the author conveys the theme that dreams morph who you are by developing key character’s identity. Two characters that show that are Beneatha and Walter, who throughout the book show how their dreams affected them as a human. Beneatha values her education as much as Walter values his business In the beginning of the book there is a poem that shows the many ways not accomplishing your dream can with that dream.

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Now even though Walter’s dream was mostly shattered because of the money he lost Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor might come true if she moves to Nigeria with Asagai, and Mama’s dream of having a house for her grandson and her children to live was really the most important dream to have been accomplished. Sometimes we feel like giving up on our dreams because of the obstacles that show up but that doesn't mean we should stop pursuing them because dreams are very valuable, andt as Hansberry showed on the play at the end all that matters is that happiness is present no matter the

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Walter along with the rest of the family are waiting for a check with $10,000 on it and that’s what Walter believes he is going to buy the liquor store with. Walter’s want for this money causes him to be insulting towards others and becomes very irritable. With the family getting money Mama decides to buy a new house causing Walter to become enraged because he doesn’t get what he wants and it doesn’t go the way he planned but what he planned didn’t really have much benefit to the people around him unless the liquor store was a hit right off the

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Raisin in the Sun Book Report     In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” one theme that is extremely prevalent throughout  the whole story is the importance of dreams. In this story almost all of the main characters have dreams that drive and define who they are as a person. These dreams range from a character wanting to be a doctor and one wanting to own a liquor store and not live in poverty. Even from the very beginning it is easy to see that each character is extremely passionate.     First, A prominent example of how each character finds the importance of dreams is the character Beneatha Younger.

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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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In the book Raisin in The Sun the characters talk about their dreams. Dreams are most helpful because they give you hope of one day reaching those sensations in people’s lives. The author Lorraine Hansberry intended the book to have the certain impact about how people back then struggled to deal with harsh circumstances that act in their everyday life. The dreams of Mama, Ruth and Walter show us that, despite great obstacles, the American Dream is still possible. First, one character who possesses a powerful dream is Walter.

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Hansberry states his issue by quoting, Mama. Son— how come you talk so much bout money? Walter. (with immense passion). Because it is life Mama! (I.II.849).

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Hansberry shows how much African-Americans internalize white supremacy through Mrs.Johnson. Mrs.Johnson, a black woman, is the Youngers nosy next-door neighbor. When she hears about the family moving to Clybourne Park, she tells them to stay put. Though she masks her true feelings poorly, Mrs.Johnson pretends like the move is a good idea, saying “You hear some of these Negroes round here talking ‘bout how they don’t go wherever they ain’t wanted and all that... but not me, honey!

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Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, can teach readers many things through its morals and themes. Feminism is an important theme that helps to empower women. Dreams also display a crucial lesson for the reader; always go after one’s dreams no matter how small the window. Readers also learn that discrimination may prevent one from exploring their dreams, but they must overcome that obstacle. A Raisin in the Sun explores how opportunities come to those who do not defer their dreams for too

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Lena, Ruth, Beneatha, and Walter Lee have meaningful dreams that have the chance of coming true when the ten thousand dollar life insurance payment check on Lena’s husbands life arrives in the mail. Even though Lena, Walter Lee, Beneatha, and Ruth all lived in the same house, they all had extremely different dreams. Each member of the younger family had their own ideas of what the ten thousand dollar life insurance payment was going to change in their lives. The play demonstrates the struggles of turning a dream into a reality and reveals the characters true nature.

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In “Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds Earn More Than Their Parents” by Bob Davis economists and sociologists from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of California used a widely used definition of the American Dream and found that the dream was fading. The time to achieve the American Dream is never over, but a majority of the older generation believe the American Dream is dead while 48% of millennials believe their chance of achieving the dream is still possible (Bump). The American Dream will never fade because millennials and their aspirations grow stronger as people like economists and sociologists from this article doubt their ability to outearn their parents. “Barely half of 30-year-olds earn more than their parents did at a similar age...enormous decline from the early 1970s when the income of nearly all offspring outpaced their parents.” Children born into the bottom 10% are more likely to outearn their parents because their parents did not earn very much (Tankersley) .

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Walter was introduced as a man who cared about nothing other than his business. He had sacrificed his sister’s dream of becoming a doctor, and held the power to wipe out Mama’s dream for a better home. Walter sees the gender roles as boundaries keeping him from loosening up to his family. He is given the insight that men must be powerful, wealthy, and demanding for them to truly be the head of the household. However, Walter sees past these gender roles, and not only challenges these rigid roles, but he also regains his family’s trust along the

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Big Walter 's dream drys up like a raisin amidst the harsh and imprisoning environment of poverty in Chicago. Mama experiences this first-hand as her husband withers away as she says, “I seen….him….night after night….come in….and look at that rug….and then look at me….the red showing his eyes….the veins moving in his head….I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty….working and working….killing

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