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What Is A Dream In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Life can be full of false hope and promises, but what we decide to make of the situation is the defining factor. As children we dreamed of becoming doctors, lawyers, or business owners with the idea that our goal would be achieved. As we grow older and the time has come for our goals to be met we sometimes fall short or give up on our lifelong dream. Life can get in the way and things do not always turn out the way we intend it to. Our dreams do not seem as easy to obtain as they did when we were a child with a big imagination. In her play, A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry portrays characters who appear to be strong, determined, and hopeful when it comes to living out their daily lives and following their dreams. Early in the play we …show more content…

It is clear that he is unrelenting towards his family. When his father’s ten thousand dollar insurance check comes in the mail, he practically assumes that the money is his “Old Willy Harris put everything on paper” (1, p. 948). Walter has a dream to open a liquor business and does not have enough money to do so. He wants to take the insurance check in order to open the business, but his family does not agree and doubts him. He tries to show his family, his credibility by explaining to them that he has the liquor business all planned out. He begs his family to listen to him and tries to convince them that they will no longer have to live in poverty as long as he gets the money. Later, after being discouraged, Walter’s mother Lena has a change of heart and after receiving the money Walter becomes foolish and leaves the money in the wrong hands. Walter 's dream is destroyed when his friend comes to tell him “...when I got to the train station yesterday morning—eight o’clock like we planned… Man—Willy didn 't never show up” (2, p. 979). This shows that Walter’s ambitions, passion, and stubbornness to live out his dream have backfired and have caused his family

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It’s all gone . . . (page 102)” This quote perfectly explains why Walter is rude to his family because when he got the money he was suppose to give some to beneatha and put some in the bank. Instead he gave all the money to Willy Harris. Then Willy took the money and bought the liquor store without asking or even telling Walter, Now you have a more reasons to show why Walter is very very rude and ignorant to his family.

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In Walter’s mind, good use of that money was to buy the liquor store and help his family escape their economic status. However, since the money is gone, so are Walter’s hopes and

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Living in a two-bedroom apartment in the slums of Chicago is Walter, his mother (Lena), his wife Ruth, Beneatha (his sister), and his son Travis. Walter wants to do better by them by starting a liquor business using the insurance money his father gave his mother, but Mama, who is religious says it’s not Christian and “We ain’t no business people… We just plain working folks.” Then his wife, Ruth tells him she doesn’t want to hear about a dream he never pursues, and Beneatha tells Walter he’s crazy and that the money doesn’t belong to him. Especially since none of the family seems to listen or even support his idea he becomes bitter towards them.

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Vidur Jain Ms. Grande Academic English I 9 February 2023 A famous American professional boxer, Muhammed Ali, once said, "You don't lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down." This quote states that they encounter many difficulties trying to achieve their dreams, but they should keep on trying until they succeed. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama, and Walter never give up, even though they face many obstacles in pursuing their dreams. Many African-Americans struggled to financially support their families mainly due to the racial discrimination they faced in their society, whereas Mama and Walter continued to struggle attempting to achieve their dreams due to various factors in society.

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Walter had a dream of having big bills and not having to worry about money, so he had plans on how to achieve this, enter Willy Harris and their plan to start a liquor business. Harris was the person who was in charge of getting a liquor license to start the business. However, this never happened due to him robbing the money that Walter and Bobo gave him. “I’m

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He wants to be a businessman and own a liquor store. He wants to be able to provide for his family and give them what they have never had. Walter also wants to take his mother’s position as the head of the house and make the financial decisions for the family. Walter can be seen as selfish as instead of putting the money for him and his sister in the bank he uses it all and loses it trying to fulfill his own dreams with no regard to his sister’s dreams or the rest of the family’s.

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Walter goes into immediate denial, making excuses for where Willy, their second business partner, could be with the money. He continues on until he realizes “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY [HIS] FATHER’S FLESH-” (128) and he had lost it all; he felt he lost his chance of pursuing a better life now that he had even lost his father’s support. His false pride is severely injured up until he is struck with an idea which he believes could save the family. He abruptly calls Mr.Lindner, who he had originally turned away, and tells him to come by because he wants to take his offer of being paid to not move into the new house.

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(114-115) By giving up the money, Walter is shown to be spontaneous and quick to trust. He made a quick decision about giving Willy the money, without even thinking about the consequences, which shows his spontaneity and trust issues. He also didn’t even think to put any money away for Beneatha and he just trusted Willy to get the license before actually getting to know him. The play A Raisin in the Sun, shows how Walter settles on a brisk choice to give his Mamas insurance money to the character Willy Harris so he could purchase an alcohol store. Thus, his choice accounts Willy Harris to steal the cash which causes an apathetic temperament in the story and makes lost expectation in the family.

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Langston Hughes once wrote, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, it opens with a family of five living in an apartment in Chicago’s Southside during the 19050s and struggles socially and economically as they dream of a better life (486). The recurring theme that family is more important than materialism is shown as Walter proves his masculinity by helping his family to move out of the apartment. Throughout the play, Walter grows from a greedy and selfish person to a responsible family member like his father.

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Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in the Sun” is a remarkable example of literary exemplar written form on one of the well known American conflicts in society that African Americans confront during the Civil Rights era. Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in the Sun” use the Younger family as a emblem in order to portray the diverse mindsets of African American families through the Civil Rights era. Hansberry's incredible incorporation of differing personalities and different age ranges was essential to the staging of the symbolic use of the Younger family, to illustrate other African American families. In “A Raisin in the Sun” Hansberry uses Walter Lee Younger in a impressive exclusive way to represent the ambitious but, knowledgeable African American

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What happens to a dream deferred? What exactly would have to happen, for it to become a dream deferred? To understand theses questions; we would first have to look at  factors that would influence the differing. We would have to look at factors such as: race, social class, personal income, and, finally, one 's identity. In Lorraine Hansberry 's play, A Raisin in the Sun; we watch the character, Beneatha, struggle with what society expects out of her, and what she expects out of her life.

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In Susan Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the themes identified are dreams and faith that each character signifies throughout their struggles in their daily lives. The theme dreams refer to how each of the main five characters: Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Travis Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger dealt with different oppression situations that took part in their lives that put the dreams on hold. Furthermore, the theme also connects towards the faith that each main character had to pursue to keep their family together after the death of a love one. The characters’ in A Raisin in the Sun tries to chase after a separate dream, unfortunately their dreams are utterly pushed away to realize the importance of their family

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It is often said that dreams become reality when intentions become actions. In the Broadway play A Raisin in The Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama portrays just how much dreams define one’s character and affect the actions that follow. The play set in the 1950s revolves around Mama and her family: her daughter Beneatha, her son Walter, and her daughter in law Ruth, and the steps they take to achieve their different dreams. Throughout the play, it is apparent that Mama, also known as Lena, is on two different levels on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. She consistently exhibits the characteristics of a person on stage 5, while still not feeling protected, for she is African American, thereby violating stage 3.

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The recurring themes in the text are making it by no matter what struggles you endure, accomplishing your own goals, just staying alive and making a name for yourself. Lorraine Hansberry based the name of her play, A Raisin in The Sun, after a line from the poem Harlem. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

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Despite the fact that dreaming of a liquor store is shallow, Walter’s motivation to be able to support his family helps reconcile his somewhat immoral hopes. Later, Walter shows the idiocy of his plan to own a liquor store when he gets drunk. In act 2, scene 2, Walter borrows Willy Harris’s car and drives around Chicago for two days, then “just walked”, and finally “went to the Green Hat” (2.2 105). Through his actions, Walter shows that he is immature and cares more about pretending to be rich than his job that would allow him to provide for his family.

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