Step into the worlds of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ by Lorraine Hasberry and ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller reveals two families from different cities whose stories resonate on a deeply human level. Although they may seem like separate tales at first, a closer look reveals that they share common threads that weave through the fabric of the American experience. These plays, though set in different locales and circumstances, explore themes that are universal and timeless, touching on dreams, identity, and family. At the heart of both plays is the timeless chase for the American Dream. This dream suggests that riches and success are just around the corner for anyone willing to work hard. In ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’ the Younger family’s sudden …show more content…
He expresses this as he says, “I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy.” (Hansberry, 842). Meanwhile, in ‘Death of a Salesman,’ Willy Loman is also in hot pursuit of success. He’s tormented by the opportunities he’s missed and clings to the belief that he’s destined for greatness, not an ordinary life. Willy reflects on his life’s ambition, lamenting, “Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead.” (Miller, 21). Both characters embody the relentless pursuit of a dream that is tempting and hard to grasp. As the characters chase their dreams, they’re also on a quest to discover who they truly are. Beneatha Younger from ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ wants to be different and make an impact. She loves her African culture and wants to be a doctor, even though some people don’t believe in her. Expressing her dedication, she says, “Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again” (Hansberry, 870), showing she won’t give up on her dream. In ‘Death of a Salesman,’ Biff Loman faces a moment of truth that turns his world upside
Raisin in the Sun is a film adaptation directed by Daniel Petrie off of a award-winning play written by Lorraine Hansberry. Overall I would rate the film as an 8 out of 10.
Stereotypically, the “American Dream” is the idealistic family life in America: husband, wife, children, two-story house, etc. Even more than that, this dream is a dream of equal statuses and no gender or race prevails over another. All My Sons, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Joy Luck Club all deal with the idea of the “American Dream” in a different way. In A Raisin in the Sun and The Joy Luck Club, you can see the yearn for this American lifestyle in the racial issues; while in All My Sons it ties into the lifestyle in a more family oriented way (Hansberry) (Tan) (Miller).
Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, we see the positive and negative effects of chasing the American Dream. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters and she portrays the daily struggles of a 1950 black family throughout A Raisin in the Sun. In this play, she is able to effectively show the big impact that even small decisions can make on a family. Hansberry shows the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream.
In the plays A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, two individual families are faced with family conflict. Each family struggles with the issues of money, marital issues, gender roles, and trying to resolve these issues. While both families are from different areas they both undergo similar situations while they try to achieve the “American dream”. A Streetcar Named Desire and A Raisin in the Sun illustrate how family conflict including money, marital issues, and gender affect the families negatively.
The phenomenon of the American Dream has been engraved into the American culture since perhaps the beginning of post-revolutionary America itself. The classic belief that if you work hard, you would be able to reap the material benefits of what you sowed, at least enough to live comfortably is a myth that has been propagated in many literary works, deconstructed in many American literary works as a mere myth. And in Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, we see such deconstruction of the American Dream take place through both plays’ showcasing of the many complexities of the American life, complexities that are not taken into consideration with the black-and-white narrowing of the American Dream. While hard work does make up a part of the equation, it does not make up the entire equation of a comfortable lifestyle. That manifestation of the many facets of the American Dream is shown in both Miller’s The Death of a Salesman and Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.
Even though south side chicago had a low amount of hope, the characters of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Walter, Beneatha, and Mama found a way to dream big. It led them to doing what they thought was right, eventually molding Walter into a greedy man during most of the play, Beneatha into an aspiring woman that demands respect, and Mama into an improvising woman who loves her
In Death of a Salesman as well as in American Beauty, the main conflicts revolve around a great basic problem, which is the "appearance" as a way of life and expression to the outside. Following this, they will all problems relating to the relationships between the characters, and the lack of communication in the families. It could also be seen in both works that the characters go through great efforts pretending to be happy with themselves.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, has often been dubbed a “black” play by critics since its debut on Broadway in 1959. This label has been reasonably assigned considering the play has a cast that consists primarily of African American actors; however, when looking beyond the surface of this play and the color of the author and characters, one can see that A Raisin in the Sun actually transcends the boundaries of racial labels through the universal personalities assigned to each character and the realistic family situations that continue to evolve throughout the storyline. As seen when comparing A Raisin in the Sun to “The Rich Brother,” a story for which the characters receive no label of race, many commonalities can be found between the characters’ personalities and their beliefs. Such similarities prove that A Raisin in the Sun is not merely a play intended to appeal only to the black community, nor should it be construed as a story about the plights of the black race alone, but instead should be recognized as a play about the struggles that all families, regardless of race, must endure in regard to their diversity and financial disparity. A succinct introduction and excellent writing!
In America, every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although each person is given these rights, it is how each person uses them that defines how successful they will be in America. There are several obstacles that some Americans face on their pursuit of happiness. In this country’s past, Americans lived by a very specific set of beliefs that valued the importance of hard work, faith, and family. As time progressed and America began to evolve as a nation, this capitalistic society no longer devoted itself to family and faith but rather success, and the pursuit of prosperity. The shift from dependence on tradition towards a society that values success and how people struggle to b successful when society makes it difficult marks a common theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Two of the main characters in this story Lena Younger (Mama) and her son Walter Lee directly reflect the shift from tradition to a focus on success and capital and the struggles they face in regards to racism. Mama and Walter Lee’s contrasting values about the American dream and the way in which they pursue their own dreams while facing racism exemplifies the shift from valuing tradition like in previous generations in America, to valuing success and prosperity like in more current generations.
In Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman’s warped view of the American Dream caused tragedy in his family because he stressed the importance of popularity over hard work and risk-taking over perserverence. *Willy grew up believing that being "well-liked" was important to becoming a success. He believed that being well-liked could help you charm teachers and open doors in business. *He is proud that the neighborhood boys flock around Biff and respond to Biff’s athletic abilities, and in the same breath scoffs at the nerdy Bernard, who is too focused on school and his studies to be popular. Even though Biff turns out to be a failure as an adult, Willy holds on to the hopes that a business man who Biff met years ago will offer him a terrific job if Biff can be his old likeable self and recapture the confidence and grace he had as a teenager.
In history there have been an uncountable amount of plays made, but there have only been two that fully captured the American dream like A Raisin in the sun and Death of a Salesman. In both plays the protagonist is trying to achieve the American dream, but it is near impossible when neither of them has the respect of their superiors or the people around them. It is amazing that two different plays can so closely parallel each other when they have a time gap of over 10 years.
Willy Loman equates success as a human being with success in the business world. When Willy was a young man, he heard of a salesman who could "pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, make his living." (81) This salesman is Willy's inspiration; someday to be so respected and so well known that he can still provide for his family, even at an old age. Of course, Willy is no good at being a salesman because his heart isn't in it. The only time Willy puts his heart into anything is when he works with his hands, and his son, Biff, comes to realize this. "There's more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made." (138) Willy never comes to the realization that it is not being a salesman that he cares about, but rather being well known and, perhaps more importan...
The pursuit of the American dream can inspire ambition. It can transform a person and cause him to become motivated and hard-working, with high standards and morals. Or, it can tear a person down, to the point of near insanity that results from the wild, hopeless chase after the dream. This is what occurs to Biff, Happy, and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's book Death of a Salesman. In the play, Willy Loman is a traveling salesman whose main ambition in life is wealth and success, neither of which he achieves. Corrupted by their father, Biff and Happy also can not attain success. Biff fails to find a steady, high-paying job even though he's 30, and he hates the business world, preferring instead to live on a farm in California. Happy, on the other hand, has a fairly well-paying, steady job, but still suffers from emptiness and a sense of being lost, a void which he fills by sleeping around with many women, some of whom are even married or engaged. Thus, Miller uses motifs, such as deception, theft, and hallucination, to show the pathology that all three of these characters experience in the wake of the American dream.
The struggle for the pursuit of happiness and prosperity has always been an extremely relevant American culture and society—most strive to be at the top (e.g. in some sort of alpha position). “The Death of a Salesman” and “A Raisin in the Sun” are two stories that delve into this struggle. Both are about two classic American families, specifically two men, between the 1940’s and 1960’s that portray the common way of life along with many tribulations that come with it. “The Death of a Salesman” is about a middle-class American white family living in New York, while, “A Raisin in the Sun” is a lower middle-class African American family living in Chicago. These families might seem normal, but they actually have many problems and differences that differentiate them from other families and themselves within their own family. Though, both families share a few similarities’, which makes these two stories relevant subjects for a comparative essay.
As an entrepreneur you will be coming up with a business plan for a product or service that you think is going to be a big hit, so where do you go from here? The first thing an entrepreneur should do is conduct a market analysis, which is an in depth assessment of potential target market, competition and need for a product or service. Conducting a market analysis also provides a realistic and honest assessment of the viability of your new idea. It also provides you with critical information and data necessary to successfully start and grow a business. The first step is to identify your product; you can do this by creating a customer profile of your target market. If your target audience is a consumer you should determine your customers age, gender and income level of your audience. If your target audience is businesses you should determine company size, industry, and number of employees. Conducting a market analysis and being in sync with your customers’ wants and needs is a lot of work but it is worth it in the long run. Knowing where your consumers are coming from gives you the tools to correctly identify how they will react in your market. In figuring this out you will be able to focus your attention on those details that are most important to your consumers. Targeting a niche is a great way for small companies to take advantage of a market that large companies cannot afford to take a chance on while also offering a competitive advantage that large companies do not have.