A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is realistic fiction in which the play’s title and the characters represent the play’s theme. The play focused on Black America’s struggles to reach the American Dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness during the 1950’s and the 1960’s the idea of everyone having the chance to achieve a better life should exist for all. Hansberry created her title using a line from Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”. The original poem was written in 1951 about Harlem. Hughes’ line from the poem claimed that when dreams are deferred they are stopping you from your dream, this meant they dried up and died. Hughes’ poem further suggested that when dreams and goals are denied to be pursued people act …show more content…
Her dream is to be under is to be un understood, it is deferred by her family. She was going to achieve her dream by proving she is capable, “well - I do - all right? - thank everybody and forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all!”(37). She claims that she is grateful but no one understands her passion for becoming a doctor. She then has a dream to become a doctor. Her dream is deferred when she does not have money for medical school. Beneath says, “I always thought it was the one that concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix of the sick, you know - and make them whole again... I used to care. I mean about people and how their bodies hurt.”(133). She 's talking about why she wants to be a doctor she just wants to help people with Walter losing the money it makes Beneatha feel like a dream is next to impossible. She also dreams about finding her heritage. Her dream is deferred because does everyone wants her to just marry a rich guy instead of someone in tune with her heritage, “All anyone seems to know of Africa is Tarzan.”(57). She believes her generation is ignorant and do not know a thing about their roots. All in all Beneatha is very intellectual about being one with herself, proving that she wants to be a doctor as an example of a Black American trying to reach her American …show more content…
Lena’s dream is to see her children achieve their dreams, her dream is then deferred because she makes decisions that affect both of her children 's dreams. She says, “Lena - Lena Eggleton you aims to high all the time. You needs to slow down and see life a little more like it is.”(139). She blames herself for dreaming to big which caused her children to lose sight of their dreams due to the money. Lena’s dream is also to change the family legacy. Her dream is then deferred because her children lack the resources and are being waived by money and lack of religion. She says, “Yes a fine man - just couldn 't catch up to his dreams, all.”(46). Explaining how Big Walter was never able to reach his dreams. He still had hopes though, that through his children he would achieve his dreams by having them achieve theirs. Lena’s dream is also to have a house that she could pass down to the next generations of the Youngers. Her dream is deferred by the residents of Clybourne Park when they try to buy them out of the neighborhood. She says, “ I just seen my family falling apart today… When it gets like that in life you just got to do something different.”(94). Speaking to Walter, she explains how she needed to do something to save her family and the house was the key to fixing everything, in her eyes she is the savior. Through her character, Lena, she showed how the
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.
(559) When talking about dreams the Younger family seems to have a lot, but doesn’t any normal family. Most married couple just starting out like Lena and Big Walter wants the dream life which is why most every couple says they’re going to set some money back and hopefully buy their own home and piece of land. They want to own the home and land to start a fresh life for them and their children and grandchildren and to prove they are old enough to become parents and live independently. Lena wanted to plant a garden maybe to have fresh veggies for her to prepare for her family and to show off her gardening skill by having beautiful flowers. Ruth is like Lena because she wants the house and land and better life for h...
Beneatha is a college student and is the best educated member in the family. Her education is very important to her and she hopes to one day become a doctor. Beneatha believes that education is a means to understanding and self-fulfillment. It was unheard of at this time for a poor well-educated black woman to have such high ambitions and dreams. Beneatha took a lot pride in this fact and often waved her intelligence around in her families faces. Mama, knowing how much her education meant to her, told Walter to save $3000 for Beneatha's medical schooling. When it was discovered that Walter had invested the money in his liquor store scheme and Willy had run off with all the money, Beneatha was devastated. She had lost all hope and even though her spirits may have been lifted after her talk with Asagai in act III and the chance to move into a new house, it seems that Beneatha will never realize this
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.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tells the story of the Youngers, a family of lower class blacks who are trying to move up in the world. They are given an opportunity to do so when the grandfather’s inheritance is the sent in the mail. However, each family member has a separate agenda for the money they will receive. The play gets its title from the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes. In the poem, Hughes asks what happens to a dream deferred and one of the theories he proposes says, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”. Each of the similes detailed in the poem correlate with a character from the play. Ruth is the wife of Walter Lee, the son of the man who died, and represents the simile which states, “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.” This description is most clearly
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.
...ccomplish this if they all understand what is important in life. All of Mama’s dreams are eventually recognized, although they certainly appear hazy throughout the play. The question about whether or not they should keep the house forms inside Mama’s head near the end of the play, but she quickly changes her mind. Mama never lost sight of her goals, no matter how hard nature attacked them.
Beneatha Younger’s dreams to be a doctor often contradict what other people think is best for her, showing that she is willing to take risks. Her relationship with George becomes tense when he discovers that she aspires to become a doctor. This is shown when he says “As for myself I, want a nice... simple... sophisticated girl... not a poet, OK?” George does not like the change that Beneatha advocates for. Another instance, when he says “It’s simple. You read books, to learn facts, to get grades, to pass the course, to get a degree. That’s all,
When Walter loses his "sister's school money," the consequences are widespread and Beneatha sees that dream diminish before her eyes. She sees her slipping through Walter's fingers and finds her lifelong goals changing. From the days of her childhood, she has longed "to be a doctor" and "fix up the sick." While her family and friends do not understand Beneatha's dream, she continues longing for the education she needs to create a successful life she desires rather than one where she is waiting "to get married.
Beneatha 's American dream was to become a doctor. She was going to achieve this dream by going to a medical school. Her dream was deferred because of the money Walter lost. Mama said, “You mean your sister’s school money… You used that too… Walter?...” (129). This show that there 's no more money for Beneatha 's education. Beneatha 's American Dream of women 's rights was also deferred because Beneatha lives in a time when society expects women to build homes rather than careers. Walter said, “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy about messing around with sick people, then go be a nurse like other women or just get married and be quiet…” (38). This shows how people think during those times that women just get married and stay home cleaning. Beneatha 's American dream is that she wants a good man was also deferred, because she wants someone to love her for who she is. Beneatha 's said, “Mama George is a fool honest” (97). This demonstrate, that she wants no fool. She wants someone that is serious with her. Overall, through her character, Beneatha Younger, Hansberry created a real example of a black American dream. All her dreams are deferred of becoming a doctor, her women’s rights, and a good
Walter and Beneatha’s relationship is very complex. The spiraling tension between the two siblings causes confrontation to form and creep into the Younger household. Walter needs his family to respect him as the man of the family, but his sister is constantly belittling him in front of his mother, wife, and son. This denigrating treatment taints Walter’s view of himself as a man, which carries into his decisions and actions. Beneatha also subconsciously deals with the dysfunctional relationship with her brother. She desires to have her brother’s support for her dream of becoming a doctor, yet Walter tends to taunt her aspiration and condemns her for having such a selfish dream. Mama as the head of the family is heartbroken by the juvenile hostility of her adult children, so in hopes to keep her family together she makes the brave move of purchasing a house. Mama’s reasoning for the bold purchase was,“ I—I just seen my family falling apart….just falling to pieces in front of my eyes…We couldn’t have gone on like we was today. We was going backwards ‘stead of forw...
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.
Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor. She believes that her dream was deferred when she was born since she is coloured and a female. Although she fights this, her dream is deferred even more when Walter looses the money which she needed to get into medical school.
Time after time, Mama postpones her dream of owning a house and garden to perpetuate the dreams of her family members. Finally, when Mama receives the $10,000 insurance check, she feels that her dream can become reality, and purchases a house in Clybourne Park. Her dream "drys up like a raisin in the sun" when she learns that Walter gave the money to Willy Harris, who mysteriously disappears. Mama does not shatter simply because her dream has not been fulfilled. " Lena Younger's strength of character has come from the steadfast endurance of hardship and a refusal to be conquered by it" (Phillips 51).
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.