Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

The American dream is the reason so many people have immigrated to America. Everyone is looking for an opportunity at a better life, but is that possible for everyone? America has a history of inequality for those in minority groups based on race, age, and economic or social status. Defined as “the dream of economic opportunity and upward mobility” (Economist) the American dream may not be achievable to everyone. We see in our world today as well in historical fiction situations where people of certain groups trying to achieve the American dream are facing discrimination and prejudice making it difficult for their dream to become a reality.

The term “The American Dream” was coined in the 1800s when pioneers would travel west in search of

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is about a black family living in an overcrowded apartment in Southside Chicago during the Civil Rights movement. During this time black people were being discriminated against and segregation was still in place. When the patriarch of the family, Mr. Younger, dies the family receives an insurance check. Mama, Mr Younger’s wife, decides to take some of the money from the check and buy a house in a white suburban area. When news spreads and the people of this area find out they send Mr. Linder who is “a representative of Clybourne Park Improvement Association”(Hansberry 114). Mr. Linder makes a deal with the Youngers that the neighborhood would buy their house to prevent them from moving in. In the text he says “..at the moment the overwhelming majority of our people out there feel that people get along better, take more of a common interest in the life of the community, when they share a common background. I want you to believe me when i tell you that race prejudice simply doesn't enter into it. It is a matter of people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities” (Hansberry 118) In this statement, Mr. Linder is not trying to sound racist or hateful and trying to seem like he has the Younger’s best interest in mind so they will agree to sell their house to him. In reality Mr. Linder and the people of Clybourne Park want to keep their neighborhood segregated as a whites only community. This shows discrimination against race affecting people achieving their American Dream because people want to keep the Youngers from moving to Clybourne Park and keep them segregated. Due to the normalization of segregation and peoples’ refusal to integrate, many black