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Symbolic things in a raisin in the sun
Ethnic american literature
The american dream in american literature
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What is the furthest that money has driven you? Has it made you insane? Forgotten about those who were with you all the while? Walter Lee Younger, a defiant, selfish, dreamer, who does not feel validated, wants a better world for his family. In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter and his family all have dreams. These visions are overshadowed by racism, pride, and support from their family.
What is the american dream? The play Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry takes place in a Chicago ghetto, the american dream being deffered here then compared to a white household. Being the early 1950’s, africans and caucasians still lived mostly segregated lives from themselves. Separate washrooms, eateries, etc. The Youngers live in a described as run down apartment, sharing one washroom with everyone on their floor. 5 people inhabit their apartment. His mother Lena, himself Walter, his wife Ruth, his sister Beneatha, and his son Travis. Walter does not want to live in that current situation anymore. He wants a life for his son and family.
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Working as a chauffeur, he does not make a lot of money nor does he enjoy himself. He states how his hands were not made to be waited on. His character changes from someone who cares to someone who only cares about money. Being african american during this time period is still bad. Blacks are not treated equally still, people are still prejudice, a neighborhood committee member Mr. Lindner even ask the Youngers if the neighborhood can buy the house back so that no colored people live in it. All of these, plus having dreams changes his attitude to only caring about money. Walter has good reason for doing it though, he cares about his
Walter decided he wanted all the money from his dead father’s insurance money in order to start up a liquor store, selling alcohol. In his mind, the money not only meant the means to survive, but rather, as a way to have power. Just like Beneatha thought becoming a doctor would earn her respect, Walter felt as though getting extremely rich would earn him all the respect in the world. With his current job, he states all he does is “open and close car doors all day long. [He] drive[s] a man around in his limousine and [he] say[s], ‘Yes; sir; no sir; very good sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?’” He adamantly states that “that ain’t no kind of job… that ain’t nothing at all” (73). Walter feels as though his job as a chauffeur makes him inferior to the white man, so he doesn’t even consider being a chauffeur as a job. In his mind, being a chauffeur possibly can be as horrible and undermining as being a slave would have been for his
In ''A Raisin in the Sun'' Hansberry uses Walter Lee Younger to represent the ambitious but, uninformed African American family. Walter's main role in 'A Raisin in the Sun' is to personify the African American families that make many gambles, which eventually lead to complete failure. Walter is shadowed by greed and ignorance which causes him to fail to achieve the success he wishes to gain. Walter Lee Youngers' greed is exemplified when he talks about, "Check coming today." (Hansberry 26). Walter's lack of wisdom and hard headedness allows him to portray American success, which he hopes of achieving in a very short time. When Walter Younger fails at what he has been trying to do he exclaims, "THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER'S FLESH." (Hansberry 128). Walter is emotionally and physically drained and begins nearing his breaking point. He finally realizes that society trumps over one individual. Walter can be best described as a greedy, foolish, yet ambitious individual.
The American dream is “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Everyone has opportunities in the US although some have it harder than others to be able to achieve their dream. In the stories, A Raisin in the Sun and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass they both want the “American dream” even though they don’t believe it to be the same. Separated by time but brought together by its struggles they share some similarities but have distinct differences that divide the two stories.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The primary focus of the play is the American Dream. The American Dream is one’s conception of a better life. Each of the main characters in the play has their own idea of what they consider to be a better life. A Raisin in the Sun emphasizes the importance of dreams regardless of the various oppressive struggles of life.
A Raisin in the Sun is written by a famous African- American play write, Lorraine Hansberry, in 1959. It was a first play written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the white section of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 1938. The struggle of Lorraine Hansberry’s family inspired her to write the play. The title of the play comes from Langston Hughes’s poem which compares a dream deferred too long to a raisin rotting in the sun. A Raisin in the Sun deals with the fact that family’s and individual’s dreams and inspirations for a better life are not confined to their race, but can be identified with by people with all back grounds.
In Arthur Miller's, Death of a Salesman, we see how difficult it was for Willy Loman and his sons to achieve this so-called American dream, and these people were proud white Americans. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Son, she examines an African-American family's struggle to break out of the poverty that is preventing them from achieving some sort of financial stability, or the American Dream. It focuses on Walter's attempt at "making it," or "being somebody." She also analyzes how race prejudice and economic insecurity affect a black man's role in his own family, his ability to provide, and his identity. What Hansberry is trying to illustrate is how Western civilization has conditioned society to have materialistic aspirations and how these ideals corrupt the black man's identity and his family.
The concept of the American Dream has always been that everyone wants something in life, no matter if it is wealth, education, financial stability, safety, or a decent standard of living. In addition, everyone will try to strive to get what they want. The American Dream, is said to be that everyone should try and get what they hope they can get in life. In the play A Raisin in the Sun the author Hansberry tells us about a family where each has an American Dream, and Hughes in the poem “ Let America be America Again “is telling us to let America be the America that was free for us to obtain The American Dream. Hansberry and Langston see America like as a place to find the dream desired, although they also see limitation to obtain the American Dream, such as poverty, freedom, inequality, racism and discrimination.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play about an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. This family is going through many struggles, both within the family and financially. The family is awaiting an insurance check. The story focuses on the individual dreams of each family member and what they want to do with the money. The family struggles to mend their family issues along with deciding what they will do with the money. This play shows a family trying to achieve the American dream. Although the American dream has changed slightly since this time period, readers can relate to the family's dreams and aspirations.
The American Dream is a vision of economic opportunity available to all those who work for it, regardless of race or class. However, as seen in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”, perverted conceptions of the American Dream convince certain characters that they are entitled to the fruits of miracles. Despite their best intentions for supporting their families, Walter Younger and Willy Loman encounter unsurpassable obstacles and are unable to fulfill their dreams. When all hope has been lost, family is the only thing that these characters have left. “Death of a Salesman” and “A Raisin in the Sun” portray family as asylums of safety amidst the hopeless ambitions of tragic heroes.
The American Dream seems almost non-existent to those who haven’t already achieved it. Every character in the novel has moments of feeling happy and endures a moment where they believe that they are about to achieve their dreams. Naturally everyone dreams of being a better person, having better things and in 1920’s America, the scheme of getting rich is quick. However, each character had their dreams crushed in the novel mainly because of social and economic situations and their dream of happiness becomes a ‘dead dream’ leading them back to their ‘shallow lives’ or no life at all.
The idea of the American Dream still has truth in today's time, even if it is wealth, love, or
The idea of The American Dream, according to James Truslaw Adams’s, is that people should strive for a richer and a successful lifestyle, according to their ability and achievement, meaning that anybody can become successful, if the effort or talent is present. (Reference) Albee and Miller have both produced plays which interrogate the idea of ‘The American Dream’.
From dreams deferred to identity affirmed Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” presents readers with many differing themes. The most prevalent and reoccurring theme is the effect money plays on society’s views of manhood and happiness. Readers are shown multiple characters with a diverse view on manhood. From Walter Lee with his matching societal views that a man should be able to provide whatever his family needs or wants to Lena whose views are a biased compilation of her late husband’s behavior and her own ideals, that a man should maintain his honor and protect his children’s dreams.
The American Dream consists of many different things - freedom, money, rights, opportunity, and even success. In my perspective, the American Dream can be defined as something everyone wants such as happiness, wealth, and a time where everyone can reach an opportunity to succeed. When we take the American Dream into consideration of the traditional American family, this family should be filled with happiness and opportunity, but as we all know life isn’t always easy and it can bring us down at any moment. I believe the play “Buried Child” is a primary example of what could happen to an American Family when the chase of the American Dream fails.
The ideology of the American Dream can be traced back to the flood of immigration in the early twentieth century. Families from European Countries sailed on boats from months to read the great promise America held. They left their home countries and everything they had to lead successful and prosperous lives in the US. Another form of the American Dream arose in the 1950s after the US successfully win World War II. Young men came back to their young wives and had many children, hence the name “baby-boom generation.” Soon Levittowns sprung up around the country, cookie-cutter houses divided by pristine white picket fences, to handle the population increase. In Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic, Death of a Salesman, the antagonists American Dream is to retire comfortably, pay off the house he raised his family in, and for his sons to have a steady job and settle down with a woman. His dreams are much like those of elder parents who want not only the best for themselves, but also the best for their family. My American Dream is different then those listed about though being prosperous and happy is a theme that ties them all together. Instead of the perfect conforming dream of the 1950s, I would have a more Cosmopolitan twist to it. Though everyone’s American Dream is different, they all have the some underlying tone: to be successful, comfortable, happy, and prosperous.