Similarities Between A Raisin In The Sun And The Pursuit Of Happyness

Colin Sorvillo
Dr. Verghese
English 2 Honors, Period A
Date:
The importance of having a dream and the devastation that occurs when that dream is shattered are central themes in many works of literature. Compare and contrast the treatment of these themes in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and “The Pursuit of Happyness”. Which story is more realistic about the attainability of dreams? Support your conclusion with specifics from the two texts.

Black families all over America struggled with severe poverty in the late 20th century while searching for the American dream. Despite the poverty epidemic spreading across the country claiming victims left and right manny held their dreams close and did what they could to achieve them. The play

In the movie The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner, the main protagonist and real person, aspires to be become successful. He plans to achieve this dream as a young man buy investing his life savings in a collection of bone density scanners. However early in the movie he acts recklessly, he is blinded by his dreams and fails to realize the mistake that would affect the rest of his life. The scanners that he bought would be seen as an unnecessary luxury by doctors which made it virtually impossible to sell them. The scanner provided “A slightly better picture than an X-ray at double the price.” (Pursuit of Happyness) The movie includes a scene in the beginning of Chris and his wife unloading the scanners from their car and stacking them in their apartment. They even hire a professional photographer to come to the apartment to take a picture of the two of them in-front of a wall of the scanners. At this point in the movie the audience knows that buying the scanners was a bad decision, seeing the wall of them shows them the magnitude of the mistake that chis made and enforces the theme of poverty. They writer chose to include the specific scene of the photographer because it she how hopeful and confident the couple used to be. They thought that They would want to remember that day when they hired the photographer but, in the present they would do anything to forget it. Chris pursues his dreams only to make a horrible financial decision. This situation is similar to a part in the play A Raisin in the Sun. Walter Younger, a character in the play, Wants to be successful and to always have enough money. To accomplish this he intends to open a liquor store with his friend Willy. However the only way that they would have the money to do this is from the check that the family will receive from walter’s late father’s life insurance. There