Raisin In The Sun Dreams

In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry starts off with Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” to show what can happen to dreams that get caught in the middle of life. In Hansberry’s play a family of five African Americans live in a small crouched apartment on the south side of Chicago. Hughes’ poem relates to Hansberry’s characters because each one of them has a separate dream, however, not everyone’s comes true and “stink like rotten meat” (Harlem 6). The dream deferred can refer to anyone in the play. Ruth Younger, the wife of an abominable Walter Lee Younger, has dreams of moving out of the ratty old apartment and joining her family together for good. Ruth has lost her youth, her family, her hope, and came close to losing a child. Many people

From the play, we can infer Ruth grew up like any other African American in the mid 1900’s, which was during the civil rights era. Ruth had this bossy yet gentle attitude, however, she was very quiet, well at least when bad things were happening to her family. Ruth, unlike Beneatha Younger, was uneducated. Ruth devoted herself to the family by putting all of the money she earned towards the needs of the family. She was also easily embarrassed and would take responsibility for others’ actions, which was one of the reasons she was so overwhelmed in the play. Ruth is tired, weary, and she is thinking about giving up everything, even something that is living. Ruth is willing to do anything just for her family and so that they can stay together and live in a house where is hopes there will be fewer problems. Tayebeh Nowrouzi in his essay “In Search of Equality: A Dream Deferred for African Americans in A Raisin in the Sun” stated why each character could be the dream deferred, “Ruth is "dried up" for she was weary, tired, disappointed, settled, and "older than her years" and her hope had disappeared”(2273). His description of Ruth illustrates her well being throughout the play. She is a religious woman, and she stands with Mama on that too. Ruth was similar to Mama Lena in many ways, but Ruth is the fitting representation of the dream