Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

1040 Words3 Pages

Nathan Yip Mr. Erickson English 7 19 April 2024 An American Dream People say that the American Dream is like a guideline to success, and through this belief, anybody can achieve a higher social status, but that isn’t always true. In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family has dreams that they all want to fulfill, and they follow the American Dream. However, the path to reach their goals includes several difficult steps, such as hard work, sacrifice, and risk taking, and in the end, they don’t even achieve their goal. The American Dream may not always be the road to success as others see it, because there can be many other obstacles that can stop people from achieving their goal. Hard work is important to being successful, …show more content…

When people find out that hard work doesn’t always work, they will try to take chances to play it risky. Sometimes, people take risks in order to gain something even more valuable, but it doesn’t always work out. When the Younger family tells Mrs. Johnson the family was going to move into Clybourne Park, she tells them “I bet this time next month y'all's names will have been in the papers plenty—‘NEGROES INVADE CLYBOURNE PARK—BOMBED!” (Hansberry 102). Mrs. Johnson states that the Younger family, as the only colored people living in Clybourne Park, would get bombed shortly after they moved in. Mama is willing to take this kind of risk so that her family can have more space to live. Walter is an example of what happens when people suffer the consequences of a risk, and when Bobo came to tell him his money was gone, Walter cried out “Man.I trusted you.Man, I put my life in your hands (He starts to crumple down onto the floor as Ruth just covers her face in horror)” (Hansberry 128). Walter risked his father’s money by mindlessly giving it all to Willy in hopes that they would be able to start their own …show more content…

In this way, he is also risking Beneatha’s future, too, because a portion of the money he lost was supposed to be for Beneatha’s medical schooling. The sacrifices of risk-taking can cause extreme anger and sadness, so people should take more caution with their risks. The younger family are in poverty, but the sacrifices they make don’t always have a positive impact. When Ruth is about to abort her child, Mama tells Walter, “when the world gets ugly enough—a woman would do anything for her family. The part that’s already living” (Hansberry 75). Mama is saying for the family to not have to worry about multiple children, they will sacrifice one so that they wouldn’t be as crowded. Even if people may not want to sacrifice things, they will have to do it for the sake of their family. This sacrifice was completely pointless as Mama had bought the house later, and the new house would have space for all of them. However, sacrificing everything will not always cause success, like in Walter’s case where he loses the money, and Mama asks him, “is it gone?”. Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it a snare? All of

Open Document