Dreams are something everyone wants to achieve at some point in their life. In the play everyone in the younger family had a dream they wanted to achieve. They lived on the southside of Chicago during the 1950s. The Younger family consisted of Walter, Ruth, Beneatha, Mama, and Travis. Walter’s dream was to be a businessman, Mama’s dream was to own a house, and Beneatha’s dream was to be a doctor. Sometimes dreams can cost a lot of money to achieve and sometimes money can be the reason of not achieving dreams. In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter, Beneatha, and Mama show the hardship and pain of reaching the American dream aw worsened by financial constraints.
Walter’s dreams were hard to reach because he did not have the money. When Walter started to head towards his dream he found out that nothing can ever be done truthfully, there always had to be a cheating way to achieve dreams like bribing someone. During
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People believe that money is easy to get if there is a well paying job. So many people in the world want to achieve their dreams but they can’t because they don’t have enough money to make their dreams possible. People in the world have to make tough decisions when it comes to money even if it means going to work when they are sick. In the play Mama and Ruth stated, “Ruth: I got to go in. We need the money. Mama: Somebody would of thought my children done all but starved to death the way they talk about money” (Hansberry 501). Money is hard and difficult to make, even in the play Ruth had to work when she was sick to make money to help her family. Mama also had to work to make her dream come true and help her kid’s dreams come true. Dreams can sometimes be hard to come true because the person might not have enough money to afford their dreams. In conclusion, people’s dream are something they want to achieve but can’t because they don’t have enough
Walter wants financial freedom, he doesn't want just enough money to provide for his family, but rather he tells his mother "I want so many things. " Walter is materialistic and greedy, corrupted by a superficial “American dream”. Walter has no desire to find out about himself through his African American heritage. He believes he can define himself through money, money is everything to this man.
In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there were characters whose dreams were stated, some of which were shattered by greed and misfortune and others which would eventually come to be true. The first dream that came about was Walter’s dream of one day owning and maintaining a liquor store. He would do anything to attempt to get his dream to come true, but his mama wanted anything but that to happen. His mama had a dream of her own though, she dreamed of one day owning her own house, where her whole family could stay comfortably. She dreamed this because in the apartment that she resided in was too small, and dumpy, as Ruth called it. Her grandson Travis had to sleep on the couch, and all that she wanted was for him to have a bed of his o...
Dreams in A Raisin in the Sun & nbsp; Lena, Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha Younger all lived under the same roof, but their dreams were all different. Being the head of the household, Lena dreamed of the dreams of her children and would do whatever it took to make those dreams come true. Walter, Lena's oldest son, set his dream on the liquor store that he planned to invest with the money of his mother. Beneatha, on the other hand, wanted to become a doctor when she got out of college and Ruth, Walter's wife, wanted to be wealthy. " A Raisin in the Sun" was a book about "dreams deferred", and in this book that Lorraine Hansberry had fluently described the dreams of the Younger family and how those dreams became "dreams deferred." & nbsp; Lena Younger, Walter and Beneatha's mother, was a widow in her early sixties who devoted her life to her children after her husband's death.
“Check coming today?” The Life Insurance check that Mama will soon be receiving is the source of all the dreams in the Younger family. A major argument that Lorraine Hansberry makes in her play A Raisin in the Sun is the importance of dreams. Dreams are what each member of the Younger family is driven by. Mama wants to have her own home in a nice part of town; she does not want her children growing up in a place with rats. Walter wants to have a successful business so he can surpass the poverty that has plagued his family. And Beneatha wants to get a good education, become a doctor, and marry a nice man. Dreams are especially important to the Younger family as they come from a poverty laden family and desire to live the “American Dream.” Every member of the Younger family has a dream but each one is different with a different view on what the true “American Dream” really is.
The American dream has been visualized and pursued by nearly everyone in this nation. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about the Younger family that strived for the American dream. The members of the Younger family shared a dream of a better tomorrow. In order to reach that dream, however, they each took different routes, which typified the routes taken by different black Americans.
The American Dream, although different for each of us, is what we all aspire to achieve. In Lorraine Hansberry's, play, A Raisin in the Sun, each member of the Younger family desperately hopes for their own opportunity to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream to the Younger family is to own a home, but beyond that, to Walter Younger, it is to be accepted by white society.
The dreams of Walter, Beneatha, and Mama in Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun", may take longer than expected, change form, or fade. Even if dreams seem to never get closer, one should never give up. Without something to work towards, society would just dry up, like a grape in the sun.
Like the Youngers do in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, living in Chicago during the 1950s was tough for an African-American family. In this play, Hansberry presents a story which demonstrates the effects of putting off one's dreams. Throughout this drama, the Younger family tackles trial after tribulation while they struggle to realize their aspirations. In the concluding segment of the story, while many of the characters’ dreams do not come true, some simply do. The poem “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, embodies this concept of dreams and aspirations. It is apparent that Hansberry used Hughes’ poem as a direct source of inspiration, seeing as she named her story after the line "What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" (Meyer 1730). A Raisin in the Sun is an appropriate title because it figuratively relates to the characters’ dreams.
Of Mice and Men and A Raisin in the Sun Dreams Make What Life Is
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth and Beneatha both have great dreams but encounter at least one barrier to their success. Ruth’s dream is to have a happy and loving family, and Walter is her barrier. Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor, but she is dependent on others to fulfill her dream.
Everyone wants their dreams to become a reality; however, the unfortunate reality is that more often than not, dreams are not achieved and become deferred. Langston Hughes let this theme ring throughout his poetic masterpiece “Harlem,” in which he posed many questions about what happens to these dreams. In “A Raisin In the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry draws so many indisputable parallels from “Harlem.” Hansberry consistently uses the dreams of Mama Younger, Big Walter, and Walter Lee to allude to Hughes poem. The intensity of the dreams coupled with the selfishness of some characters eventually adds an abundant amount of emotional strain to the family, once again demonstrating Hansberry’s dedication to Hughes poem.
Walter is Mama’s oldest son. His dreams are to be wealth but at the same time wanting to provide for his family. His own personal dream is to open liquor store with his money he receives from Mama.
In A Raisin in the Sun, desire is shown when each character has a different idea of what the American dream means to them. Mama dreams of having her own house, “…a little two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime” (Hansberry 1923). She had always dreamed of having her own house in Morgan Park, and even though her and Big Walter planned on moving there after a little while after being married it never happened. (Hansberry 1923). Ruth’s dream is similar to Mama’s, she would like to have her own house also, but the main thing on her mind is to not have to worry about money. However, Beneatha’s dream is the complete opposite of both Mama and Ruth’s. She dreams to become a doctor so she can prove that women can have the same jobs as men. That dream causes conflict because of Walter’s dream to become wealthy and to be able to provide for his family. “…You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand…baby don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay someone off” (Hansberry 1917). Walter thinks that he has a better chance than Beneatha and the money should go to him, “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor…just get married and be quiet” (Hansberry 1919). Throughout the remainder of the play Walter, Beneatha, Ruth
What happens to a dream when it suspends in time? Does it stay suspended within a man through his lifetime, dormant, unreachable, and far away? Does its power grow and ultimately force him to act to make it happen sometime in the future-if not in his lifetime then in the future members of his kin? On the other hand, does it eat away at him, crystallizing and internally segmenting his own derived purpose and meaning of life until it is indiscernible from its original state of grandeur and grace? Those are some of the questions that Lorraine Hansberry poses for consideration in her play, A Raisin in the Sun. It is no accident that she chose Langston Hughes' poem as a gateway into the incredible experience of true life, living, dreaming and working for a better tomorrow as enacted and emoted by her play's characters, the Youngers. More specifically, she uses Mama Younger to echo the poem's style of thought-provocation to at least partially surmise an answer of whether dreams deferred do, in fact, dry up, crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet, or sag like a heavy load.
Primarily, in A Raisin in the Sun Walter is an example of one struggling to achieve their dream or desire. Walter serves as the hero and villain of the play due to the actions he takes revolving his dream. “Walter, who firmly believes in the American Dream of economic independence, wants to own his own business, and a liquor store, because he despairs over what he perceives to be his inability to support the family and to provide for his son’s future” ( __ __ ). Walter’s dream is to be sole the provider for his household and give his family a better life. He plans by doing this through a liquor store investment with the insurance money given to Mama from Big Walters death. “In the play Walter loses much of the insurance money that he planned to invest on a liquor store to a con artist” ( ___ ___ ). Walter’s decision on investing in a liquor store turns out to be a horrific choice. In the play although Walter is regretfully deceived and looked down upon as a result of the liquor store ambition, he makes up for it by at the end finally reaching his manhood. During the time of the play the husband of the family is mainly the sole provider for the family. In the case of the play, Walters mother is the sole provider for the family. Walter strives to be the “man” of the house.“A job. (Looks at her) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, “Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?” Mama, that ain’t no kind of job. That ain’t nothing at all. (Very quietly) Mama, I don’t know if I can make you understand” ( Hansberry , Pg.73). “Walter minimizes the position of a car driver because to him it diminishes his manhood and his sense of individual worth.