Children are taught to believe that they can be anything. Parents hold such high hopes for their children before they are even born. Everyone wants their child to be happier and more comfortable in life than they ever were. Most parents give their children as many resources as possible so that they can grow up to have the life that would best suit them. Unfortunately, no matter how badly some parents want their children to have better lives, sometimes that is not an option. Every single reason why an innocent child cannot have everything he or she dreams of is unfair. A Raisin in the Sun is an illustration of old sour dreams that will never have a chance to come true. There are many reasons why dreams may not work out. The biggest of those …show more content…
being a lack of funds, insufficient education, lack of motivation, or a prejudice directed toward a person due to race, gender, or beliefs. Every person in this play has a specific dream. All of them have big dreams with only a small chance to be realized, if there is any chance at all. When a person has a lifelong ambition that is truly unwavering, an inability to achieve his or her goal causes desperation. Walter is a prime example of extreme desperation in this play. At the beginning of A Raisin in the Sun, Walter voices his frustration about the family’s financial problems after feeling as if he cannot provide well enough for his son. He takes his feelings of failure out on his wife, Ruth. Walter claims that Ruth is holding him back from achieving his dream. One of the major signs of feeling failure and low self-esteem is blaming others for shortcomings. Walter felt trapped in a tiny dirty apartment at a job that would take him no place. He dreamed of being a big businessman and making enough money to give his family everything in the world. This is in no way a bad thing, but Walter wanted everything in the world without taking into account what it may do to the people around him if he could not handle a failure or setback. Walter is not the only who had a huge dream in this play. His sister, Beneatha, was very similar to him in that she wanted something huge. She wanted to be a doctor, which was a huge reach for a few reasons. First and most significant of these reasons is that Beneatha was not white. This is a time period when segregation is very much a part of society, and even if Beneatha was able to be a doctor, many patients may refuse to go to her and even try to keep her from practicing. The second reason is that Beneatha is a woman. Being a woman in the medical field was still only just being accepted and even Walter scoffs at Beneatha and tells her to be a nurse instead. The last huge problem standing in the way of Beneatha’s dream is a lack of money. Beneatha and her family are very poor and it is difficult to get anywhere without money. Ruth and Lena are very similar in their hopes to have a happy and comfortable family who is respected. They want a nice place to live and a cheerful environment. While it seems like such a small thing, there are even things standing in the way of that. Poor financial situations can wreck havoc on even the best of people. A lack of money ends marriages and tears apart families. The stress caused because of it can lead people to feel insane things, like believing every choice they have made so far in their lives has been wrong. The discrimination to their race, mixed with a lack of funds, can keep happiness out of any home. At the beginning of the play, a check is mentioned, and it is soon brought to light that the family is to be receiving ten thousand dollars due to the death of Lena’s husband while working. The thought of ten thousand dollars gets everyone thinking of the dreams they believed they would have to abandon. Walter truly believes he will be able to open a business and provide for his family just as he has always wanted to. Beneatha sees her dreams of being a doctor becoming a reality, and Lena sees a new home to watch her family grow in. The problem is that they cannot have everything. The stress due to the prospect of all the money becomes worse than not having any. Walter could only see his desire for a business as a reasonable course of action, and his desperation to see his goals met made him depressed and generally horrible. His love for his family seemingly disappeared and in place of that, an anger took hold of him. Out of fear, he believed his family was holding him back and even says out loud that marrying Ruth was the biggest mistake he had ever made. Of course he did not mean such a thing, but he was so desperate to be more than he was and to take care of his family the way anyone should have the ability to do that he became blinded by it. As Walter becomes more and more desperate to achieve his dream, Beneatha struggles with a truly difficult choice. Being a black woman leaves her with few options. Because of the extreme prejudices people held, her only real option in terms of living comfortably would be to marry into a rich family, but George proves his foolishness by saying demeaning and untrue things about women. He has traditional ideas that clash with Beneatha’s progressiveness as well as proving he does not care in the slightest for Beneatha as a human being. Still, her best chance at being a doctor would be to marry him, if she cannot have any money from the check her family received. Lena tries her best to fulfil her dream by going out and purchasing a house. Even while doing so, she attempts to save as much money as possible to give some to her children. This should both give her a comfortable home while also giving her a happy one because her children will be pleased. This should also give Ruth what she wants. Unfortunately, the new house is in a completely white neighborhood. Lena’s dream was not realized fully because it was hurt by a horrible prejudice. A Raisin in the Sun is based on a poem by Langston Hughes and is the reason for the title.
In his poem, he wonders “What happens to a dream deferred?” Everyday people give up on dreams and either become discouraged, or they pick up a new dream. Every time people change their minds about what they are going to do with their lives, another possibility is crossed off the list. As newborn children, there are so many possibilities, and the first half of life is simply a process of narrowing down the list to a few things. The last half is hoping that the things left are a true possibility and that the dreams formed from those options are actually feasible. It is so hard to give up on something after wanting it for so …show more content…
long. There is always pain in giving up a dream and Hughes wonders whether those dreams “dry up like a raisin in the sun” or if they leave in much more painful ways. What if they do all of these things? Letting go of a dream is like letting go of a body part sometimes. Often people hold onto a certain goal for years and it becomes a part of who they are. Giving up on it feels much like a festering sore as described in the poem. It slowly begins to rot away until the last remaining shards of hope explode, and whatever is left after that withers away with time. While it may be morbid to think of forgotten dreams this way, it is accurate. It really puts the events in this play into perspective. The people in A Raisin in the Sun were all regular people trying to be happy in their lives, just like anyone else who has ever lived.
The fact that they could not have their dreams realized because of things beyond their control is extremely unfair. No one should ever have to suffer the pain of realizing they will probably never do what they really want, but it happens all too often. These people were held back by prejudices against them due to race. They were poor, also largely because of their race. The bitterness Walter had due to an inability to pursue his dreams becomes much more understandable when truly
considered. A Raisin in the Sun is about many things. It deals with racism, financial problems, and dysfunctionality in families. More than anything, though, it deals with dreams. Everything people do in life is to achieve something. Even if it is the smallest thing, there is always a goal to work toward. Being held back from achieving a goal for no truly good reason is horrible and causes a lot of pain. This play illustrates the way impoverished minorities are held back from achieving goals they are perfectly capable of because of silly traditions and overall human stubbornness. Someday people will all have progressive views similar to Beneatha’s and then dreams may have fewer chances to wither away with time.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties. In To Kill a Mockingbird, theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based off an author’s opinion about a subject. The theme innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols.
AP English Literature and Composition MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET Title: A Raisin In the Sun Author: Lorraine Hansberry Date of Publication: 1951 Genre: Realistic Drama Biographical Information about the Author Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. She grew up as the youngest in her family. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a real estate broker.
In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry uses an allusion to compare Walter Lee to the mythical Prometheus. This allusion was conveyed by George Murchison in the Act I, Scene II, when George and Beneatha went on a date. Walter’s reaction to George calling him Prometheus was not a good one. Walter was upset with George Murchison because he did not necessarily know what Prometheus means. If Walter would have known what George Murchison meant by calling him Prometheus, he would have reacted a totally different way than he did at the moment. When a person call another person Prometheus, it should have a positive connotation to it.
Dreams deferred usually end up being diminished from existence. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the characters dreams, which are put on, hold all get destroyed. Lennie's dream was to live on the land in which he owned and to tend the rabbits (pg.14). He finally was almost about to achieve his dream in a month but after working in a ranch for a few days he killed Curly's wife by accident (pg.94) so he dies and also loses all his dreams so his dreams are pessimistic. Also with Lennie's dream being destroyed also George's dream was which was also to live on a ranch so (pg.7). This happens because he can't make his dream reality without Lennie showing pessimistic out view on dreams. Dreams only can bring you so far it all depends on what your destiny is. This is because even though Lennie and George's dreams were crushed even though they tried there hardest to reach them also Candy, Crooks and Curly's wife dreams were ruined too.
This passage contains a wide array of literary devices, ranging from syntax to figurative language. These devices all help to describe the situation Jim is in, in this part of the book. He stayed the night at the Cutter’s house instead of Ántonia, which resulted in him being injured and humiliated. From the figurative language and imagery at the start of the passage, such as, “My lip was cut and stood out like a snout. My nose looked like a big blue plum” (161), the sheer damage is shown to its full extent. This connects to the larger motif of the past or childhood that backdrops the entire novel, as it is this kind of very drastic experience that impacts someone. Such an event serves an important role in the development of an adolescent, and the repercussions of this event may be elaborated on later in the book.
Thomas Paine once said “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” Conflict is an obstacle that many characters in books go through. It is what drives the reader to continue reading and make the book enjoyable. Additionally, authors use symbolism to connect their novels to real life, personal experience, or even a life lesson. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines, both take place during a time where colored people were being looked down upon and not treated with the same rights as white people. However, both novels portray the conflict and symbolism many ways that are similar and different. Additionally, both of these novels have many similarities and differences that connect as well as differentiate them to one
...ontrol of his personal ambitions to benefit the whole or in Walter's case the family. Certainly it would be unfair for Walter give up his aspirations. The issue is whether Walter can distinguish between a fantasy of reality and a dream deferred.
In both plays such as Hamlet and A Raisin in the Sun all character in the story face internal conflicts that lead to the overall meaning of the play. From Hamlet King Claudius faces internal conflict that adds to the dramatic events of tragedy in Denmark, In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha faces internal conflicts that enlarges African American women struggles in the 1950s, both character internal conflicts illuminates the meaning of the plays.
The quote I chose was “Reading good literature won't make a reader a better person any more than sitting in a church, synagogue, or mosque will. But reading good books well just might.” The text I chose from this school year is A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. In this essay I’ll be exploring this quote and text separately and together.
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” Clover, the main character in the story The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, Clover grows up, disobeys her mom, and makes a new friend. I think the theme of the story The Other Side is courageous because Annie and Clover are both kind to each other, they accept each other, and they are both brave.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
Poverty and homelessness are often, intertwined with the idea of gross mentality. illness and innate evil. In urban areas all across the United States, just like that of Seattle. in Sherman Alexie’s New Yorker piece, What You Pawn I Will Redeem, the downtrodden. are stereotyped as vicious addicts who would rob a child of its last penny if it meant a bottle of whiskey.
Though American citizens are recognized as adults at the age of eighteen, human brains take much longer to fully develop. The play A Raisin in the Sun takes place in the apartment of the Youngers, an African American family struggling with financial issues during the 1950’s. Walter’s father has recently passed away, and Mama receives a life insurance check for his death. Walter and Mama share their cramped apartment with Walter’s sister Beneatha, his wife, Ruth, and their son, Travis. Walter works as a chauffeur and Ruth does domestic chores for rich, white families. They do not have many opportunities for better jobs or higher quality education, but Beneatha attends college classes in hopes of becoming a doctor. Walter’s job as a chauffeur
Racism is a major issue that has affected the United States since its discovery. Racism is the hatred by a person of one race pointed at a person of another race. The United States has grown up to improve as a whole but this process is a long way away from completion. Some citizens still believe that African-Americans are inferior to Caucasians and that they should be slaves. In the 1950s, whites and blacks were segregated to a point that they could not go to the same schools or even use the same bathrooms. Chief Justice Earl Warren abolished the segregation of schools in May of 1954. The desegregation of schools has helped people of all races grow up together in a non-hostile environment where they can develop relationships with people of other races. Throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry criticizes the racial and discriminatory climate of America in the 1950s and early 60s.
In the words of Jim Cocola and Ross Douthat, Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun to mimic how she grew up in the 1930s. Her purpose was to tell how life was for a black family living during the pre-civil rights era when segregation was still legal (spark notes). Hansberry introduces us to the Youngers’, a black family living in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s pre-civil rights movement. The Younger family consists of Mama, who is the head of the household, Walter and Beneatha, who are Mama’s children, Ruth, who is Walter’s wife, and Travis, who is Walter and Ruth’s son. Throughout the play the Youngers’ address poverty, discrimination, marital problems, and abortion. Mama is waiting on a check from the insurance company because of the recent passing of her husband. Throughout the play Walter tries to convince Mama to let him invest the money in a liquor store. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor while embracing her African heritage, and Ruth just found out that she is pregnant and is struggling to keep her marriage going. The Youngers’ live in a very small apartment that is falling apart because of the wear and tear that the place has endured over the years. Mama dreams of having her own house and ends up using part of the insurance money for a down payment on a house in an up-scale neighborhood. The Youngers’ meet Mr. Lindner, who is the head of the welcoming committee. Mr. Lindner voices the community’s concerns of the Youngers’ moving into their neighborhood. Is the play A Raisin in the Sun focused on racial or universal issues?