A Raisin in the Sun, Essay Example

The play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry is set during the turbulent time period of the late 1940s to 1950s. This was an era of rampant racism and segregation, present even in northern cities such as Chicago, where the play is set. Having achieved the goal of freedom, a new generation of blacks was seeking to insert themselves into American society as equals in their own right. Some sought to assimilate, believing that to be the easiest, fastest, and most successful route. Others, such as Beneatha’s character, sought to bring key elements of their culture into white society right along with them. Either way, they carried inside them the same goals and aspirations as any other walking in this great continent, that of the American dream. The American Dream is one of the most important themes in A Raisin in the Sun. Three of the main characters in the play express individual hopes and aspirations we can explore this theme through. Walter Lee has a dream of investing in business, Beneatha hopes to study and become a doctor, and Mama (Lena) dreams of owning her own home. The dreams of Walter, Beneatha, and Mama, as well as the way those dreams clash against each other, tell a lot about black Americans during this time.

Problems arise within the lives of the Younger family when different people’s dreams conflict. Walter’s dream of becoming a business man conflicts with Beneatha’s dream of going to medical school. Beneatha’s dream of becoming a black, female doctor conflicts with George Murchison’s dream of an appropriate black woman and wife. Lena’s dream of owning her own home conflicts with Walter’s dream of becoming a businessman. The Younger family’s collective dream of achieving finer living circumstances, of having a sunny house with a garden in back to call home, conflicts with the Clybourne Park Improvement Committee’s image of a perfect neighborhood. The idea of the American dream and Langston Hughes poem –“Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” can be used to understand the actions and emotions within the play as they apply to the time period.

Lena’s children, Walter and Beneatha, are of different minds on how blacks should assert themselves in society. They are constantly arguing and fighting one another. Walter’s dream is one of a business man and entrepreneur, currently applied to running his own liquor store. He believes that if he were just given the chance, Walter could run a successful enough business to take care of all the family, become rich, even, with a chauffeur of his own. But it takes money to invest, and so conflict arises when Walter makes it known he wants the money to invest in is dream, a liquor store. Later, when Willy runs off with the money and Walter breaks down, pantomiming for the family what he will say to Mr. Lindner, we see the effect of the death of a dream. In that moment, Walter has been totally broken and we see his dream explode. Walter has also lost Beneatha’s tuition money and we see her ability to dream suffer as well. Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor was already a difficult one, since female doctors were unusual and black, female doctors unheard of. Her and Walter’s dreams were at odds because both required money; however they differed also in their opinion on how blacks should move up and into white society. While Walter wanted to dominate at the game already laid out, becoming as the rich white were, Beneatha sought to bring black heritage and culture into white society with her. Her dream was not just of being a doctor, but of being recognized for herself, an intelligent and capable black woman of African and American heritage. Her dream dies away in the same moment as Walter’s. Though it is brought back shortly with Asagai’s words, Beneatha’s own words and manner in the time immediately following Bobo’s announcement reference the second and third lines in Hughes’ poem. Beneatha is like an empty husk; all hope has been pulled out of her and she is dried up, “like a raisin in the sun.” Perhaps, even, in a state for those moments where we could see her marrying George Murchison, see her becoming the ideal black wife in his eyes; one who does not think, but simply plays the role expected without passion for anything but the role itself.

Mama’s dream is also lost in those moments of Bobo’s telling. Her decision to spend a portion of the money, though wholly hers in right, was already in conflict with Walter’s dream. Now that the remainder of the money is lost, Mama sees no alternative but to stay in their apartment. She is perhaps the sugary sweet of Hughes’ poem, as she begins to talk of ways they can coat over the gloom and failure present in the apartment. Her individual dream is to own a home, but her dream for the Younger family is for better circumstances, for sunshine and something to be proud of. When the money is lost, she sweeps past it by attempting to keep the family moving and doing something, such as unpacking the boxes. It seems as though Mama has let go of her individual dream easily until Mr. Lindner, having been called there by Walter Lee, is at the table pulling out documents to be signed. It is then, in her direction to let Travis see and hear Walter’s interaction with Mr. Lindner, that we realize Mama has no desire to let go of her dream and feels strongly that the Younger family belongs in that house, no matter what the Clybourne Park Improvement Committee feels. And there we have the crust under the sugar.

Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, tells a story of frustration for black Americans in the 1940s and 1950s in attempting to define themselves within American society and in achieving the American dream without losing aspects of their own culture. At the end of the play, it is Mama’s collective dream for her family that prevails. Their decision to move to Clybourne Park is a decision to stand together in the face of segregation and racism; representative of the decision black Americans made to preserve and insert their own culture alongside and within the then dominant white culture of America.