Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Can money bring happiness to your life? Can it make your biggest dreams come true? In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family has aspiring dreams to become more than what society has for them. They desperately want a piece of the American Dream and will do anything to achieve their goals. Hansberry names the play from a Langston Hughes poem about dreams and what happens to our dreams when they fail to become reality. Family plays an important role in shaping dreams and changing the future. While the Youngers shared a common dream of having a better life, each family member had their own dream in obtaining it. The importance of family can be clearly seen through the characters of Beneatha, Walter, and Mama.
Beneatha Younger

Walter dreams of being a successful business owner and believes that through his business idea, he will acquire all the money he will ever need. "Mama – sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool-quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ‘bout things…sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars…sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me" (41). Walter Lee is jealous of white men who can afford a high standard of living. He is tortured by the men who are the same age with him but have more chances. Walter appears to view racism and lack of opportunity is the root of his problems but does not let that get in his way of his biggest dream yet: to own a liquor store. He feels as if owning a liquor store will put him in a better financial state and help him support his family, especially his son Travis. He tells his son “Just tell me where you want to go to school and you will go. Just tell me what it is you want to be and you will be it. Whatever you want to be, you name it, son and I will hand you the world” (70). Walter wants to encourage Travis and even wants to spoil him. Walter Lee's efforts are genuine in this scene, although he is somewhat materialistic in what he wants at the core, he just wants a happy family and a son who should have all the chances he never had. During this time Mama buys a house to

Lena Younger is a woman to be admired. She is proud, strong, courageous, loving, and sensitive. Throughout her life, Lena has struggled against poverty and racism, working hard to raise her family. The difficulties in her life have not made her bitter or angry; instead, she has maintained her dignity and optimism. In buying a house in the white neighborhood--not as an act of social protest but because she cares for her family and wants to live out her American Dream. Mama wishes to buy a house and fulfill her American Dream. "Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could" (58). Mama wants to make her family comfortable and create better surroundings for her grandchild Travis. Lena sees Walters desperation for the successful comfortable living of white folks and is hurt by his lack of pride. "You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing [your dad and I] done" (42). Lena worked hard with her husband to provide a future for their children and thinks that the working-class lifestyle and shabby apartment are not enough for Walters dreams of bigger and better things. Lena puts family before herself and she is the one who is able to abandon her own dreams, even if that meant her children’s