What happens to a dream deferred? This question, inquired by Langston Hughes, serves as the inspirational piece behind Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Dreams are the central focus within this literary text, heavily influencing the plot. The Youngers are a close-knit African American family made up of five, who each have their own aspirations in life. However, Walter Younger’s dream is the most distinguishable out of the relatives. He yearns for a life of riches and success, immensely disguised with his current one, serving as a chauffeur for others while unable to provide for his family due to his status. This desire seizes control of him, resulting in severe consequences. A pivotal moment within this play occurs during Act …show more content…
In order to achieve this, he plans to invest in opening a liquor store with a ten thousand dollar cheque delivered after his father had passed. The money that will originate from this business would go towards his family and himself. “I have been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room –(very, very quietly)– and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…” The Youngers’ apartment is described as weary and swallowed by darkness. It is obvious that the household is struggling to make ends meet as fifty cents is considered a sacrifice. Walter’s dream to care for his family and have leisure money originates with good reason. “Do you know what this money means to me? Do you know what this money can do for us? Mama—Mama—I want so many things.” However, he becomes so dedicated to this dream that it takes over him. Money becomes his …show more content…
The Youngers family is exceedingly prideful with everything they do. In the opening of A Raisin in the Sun, the apartment occupied by these residents was described in a gloomy tone, yet each piece of furniture was selected with love and care. This led the family to uphold a sense of dignity for their home. The Youngers are family of determination and hard work, priding themselves in that. However, Walter abandons his morals as the play progresses. Mama chooses to purchase a new home with the money (placing a down payment on it) and spend a portion of it for Walter’s sister’s schooling, leaving three thousand five hundred dollars left. This money is then given to Walter. “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be.” This shows the level of trust built between this family. Yet, Walter throws this all away, using all of it – including his sister’s funds – to invest in a liquor store. When this plan fails, resulting in the loss of all the money, he then submits to a white man who can reimburse the money. “We ain’t never been that – dead inside.” Their dignity and pride gave the Younger’s their name and they did not belittle nor submit themselves in order to gain. Yet, Walter proceeds to do just this in Act
Walter plans to invest in his own liquor store, which he will run alongside his good friend Willy, and plans to do so with his portion of his mother’s insurance check; did I mention that the check was for $10,000! Mama puts down money for a house—a house, in an all-white neighborhood, with a lawn, that her grandson will be able to play on. This has always been a dream of her and her husband, and now that he is gone, she only wants it more. I noticed a few major symbols throughout the scenes in this play. For example, Mama’s plant; this plant never fails to be watered and taken care of by Mama, and this represents not only her caring and compassionate attitude towards a plant but her attitude towards her family as well.
While Mama is talking to Walter, she asks him why he always talks about money. "Mama: Oh--So now it's life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life--now it's money. I guess the world really do change . . . Walter: No--it was always money, Mama. We just didn't know about it." Walter thinks that the world revolves around money. He wants to believe that if his family were rich they would have perfect lives. This isn't true though, and Mama knows it. She knows that no matter how much money Walter has, he will never be happy unless he has a family that loves him. Before Walter goes out to invest in the liquor store he has a talk with his son. "Walter: You wouldn't understand yet, son, but your daddy's gonna make a transaction . . . a business transaction that's going to change our lives. . . ." Walter thinks that this transaction will make their lives better. What he doesn't realize is that he already has a good life and he doesn't need more money to make him happy. He should be grateful for what he has instead of worrying about money.
He struggles every day to achieve his dream of getting more money. When the $10,000 check came in, it was his shot at success. His mother gave him a big chunk of it and he invested it in a liquor store and lost the money. After that, Walter became very depressed. He had lost the trust and respect of his family.
Lorraine Hansberry’s carefully selected words in the play A Raisin in the Sun, prove to be a metaphor of the Younger’s past, present, and future life. During this time in American history it was hard for black people to make a name for themselves, and they were almost never seen as equals to white lives. As Hansberry describes the house in which the Younger’s live, she is always describing the struggle that they face. She starts this by saying “The Younger living room would be comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being” (Hansberry 23). One could assume that has Hansberry speaks of the living room she is actually speaking of the lives of the Younger’s. Therefore as we
Lauren Oliver once said, “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up” (Good Reads). This quote connects very well to the play, A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. The quote conveys the message that if one loves someone, one must give things up. A Raisin in the Sun is about an African-American family living in the south side of Chicago in the 1950s. The Younger family is a lower-class family that has been struggling to make their dreams come true. One of the character’s in the play named Walter Lee has been struggling to make his dreams come true. Walter’s changes that are shown tie to the quote written by Lauren Oliver. The changes that are seen in Walter Lee throughout the book, A Raisin in the Sun, reflects the theme that one must sacrifice something for the love and happiness of one’s family.
Walter has long dreamed of making his family’s condition better, of giving them wealth that his low-paying job is unable to do. Nature appears to be against Walter and his family, for they are living in a poorly maintained tenement apartment while surrounded with racism. Walter understands this situation, so he decides to use the $10,000 check for an investment in order to exceed his primitive state. In mid-morning, he excitedly asks his family about the check’s arrival, “Check coming today?” (Hansberry I.i.868). The check is one of the few reasons that forces Walter to get up each morning, so he will eventually be able to obtain success and self pride. Walter views the check as the only solution to all of his problems, so once Mama receives it, Walter confronts her and begs for her “financial” support. Walter exemplifies his sudden, new-found confidence to Travis when Mama unexpectedly entrusts him with the remaining $6,500, “…your daddy’s gonna make a transaction . . . a business transaction that’s going to change our lives” (II.ii.885). Walter is finally ready to realize his dream, and he has all the possible confidence he can acquire. He foresees the significant change that awaits his family when the money is invested. Unfortunately, nature has different plans for the Youngers. Whe...
I. Conflicts in the Play - There are many types of conflict evident in this play. Some are as follows:
Like the Youngers do in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, living in Chicago during the 1950s was tough for an African-American family. In this play, Hansberry presents a story which demonstrates the effects of putting off one's dreams. Throughout this drama, the Younger family tackles trial after tribulation while they struggle to realize their aspirations. In the concluding segment of the story, while many of the characters’ dreams do not come true, some simply do. The poem “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, embodies this concept of dreams and aspirations. It is apparent that Hansberry used Hughes’ poem as a direct source of inspiration, seeing as she named her story after the line "What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" (Meyer 1730). A Raisin in the Sun is an appropriate title because it figuratively relates to the characters’ dreams.
In 1959, American Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came together at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, a “showcase of American consumer goods” (May 18), for “one of the most noted verbal sparring matches of the century,” aptly coined the “kitchen debate” (16). As Khrushchev applauded the Communist system and its hardworking women, Nixon “extolled the virtues of the American way of life” (16), emphasizing America’s “successful breadwinners supporting attractive homemakers in affluent suburban homes” (18). Although Nixon’s emphasis upon the suburban lifestyle may have successfully displayed America’s superiority in consumer goods, Nixon grossly “exaggerated the availability of the suburban home” (20). For many black Americans, despite postwar socioeconomic gains, the domestic suburban dream was difficult, if not impossible, to obtain because “race made them outcasts in the suburban housing market” (Wiese 99). If the model American home represented the “essence of American freedom,” clearly it was a freedom withheld from a significant portion of America’s population (May 16).
After buying a house, Mama gives the remaining money to Walter, telling him to save some for Beneatha’s medical school, and that he can decide what the rest of the money can go to. Walter tells Travis that he is going to change their lives with the money: “One day...I’ll pull up on the driveway...just a plain black chrysler… though I’ll have to get something a little sportier for Ruth---maybe a Cadillac convertible...and I‘ll go inside...to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of the great in America all around you… just tell me what it is you want to be---… and I hand you the world!” (108-109). Walter fantasizes about owning classy cars and being able to pay for his son to go to any of the top-notch schools in America. His visions for the future reveal that his perception of reality is unrealistic and that wealth matters very much to him. He is very confident that he will be able to give Travis “the world”, which shows that he has excessive faith in his business deal. His delusions and excitement can hinder his ability to make calculated decisions. Without saving any money for Beneatha’s medical school, Walter gives the money to his friend, Willy, to invest in liquor stores. The next day, Walter’s other friend, Bobo, visits Walter to tell him that Willy ran off with the money. Walter melts down and yells, “Man, I put my life in your
Walter is Mama’s oldest son. His dreams are to be wealth but at the same time wanting to provide for his family. His own personal dream is to open liquor store with his money he receives from Mama.
Walter never got his liquor store. Bensaada never got a dime for her education. In reality, all three of the parties could have had some funds diverted to their future dreams- but selfishness allowed only for a home to be bought in the end. Lorraine Hansberry tells us of her own struggles through this story and warns of us not to destroy other people’s dreams in an attempt to fulfil our own.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry illustrates an African American family receiving money from a deceased family member at the beginning of the play. When the Young family accepted this large amount of money, they moved into a house in an all white community in Chicago around 1950s. During this time period there were many social issues that were uprising. Some of these social issues are the following: racism, gender identity, and roles of women. These social issues are the ones which were explored in the play “A Raisin in the Sun”.
Each of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun has a dream for which they base their whole happiness and livelihood on attaining. However, the character of Lena Younger, or Mama, differs from the other members of her family. Time after time, Mama postpones her dream of owning a house and garden to perpetuate the dreams of her family members. Finally, when Mama receives the $10,000 insurance check, she feels that her dream can become reality, and purchases a house in Clybourned Park. Her dream "drys up like a raisin in the sun" when she learns that Walter gave the money to Willy Harris, who mysteriously disappears. Mama does not shatter simply because her dream has not been fulfilled. "Lena Younger's strength of character has come from the steadfast endurance of hardship and a refusal to be conquered by it" (Phillips 51). Mama's economic hardships may have killed her dream, but she has not allowed it to kill her.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.