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importance of dream
dreams and their meaning essays
dreams and their meaning essays
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Throughout the play, the characters’ dreams reflect something they feel that is missing in life; Benetha’s lack of identity and Walter’s lack of authority being two major points in the play. Like the continuous flow of nonsense from a desperate student’s brain through fingertips and onto a badly constructed paper, what the characters are lacking in life inspire the dreams that eventually cause their actions. In A Raisin in the Sun, the main characters’ attainment of his or her respective dream continuously affect their individual actions. Lorraine Hansberry utilizes dialogue and symbolism to portray the importance of the family unit and how individual dreams and desires affect it.
The Younger family is the focal point of the play, however, throughout A Raisin in the Sun the characters’ individual actions are what affect the family rather than decisions they make as a whole.
Walter is a constant pest throughout the play; never hesitant to make his thoughts or desires known to the family, especially to Ruth. When Ruth learns about her pregnancy, all she has in mind is for the good of her marriage and the good of her family. She understands the strains of having another child in the cramped apartment, and decides that the best decision for everyone is to abort the child. “Ruth understands Walter's frustration but is helpless to do anything about it - except, perhaps, have an abortion, which will give him one less mouth to feed.” (Freydberg) When Lena confronts Walter about his inaction and disinterest in his wife, she explains that “[w]hen the world gets ugly enough-a woman will do anything for her family. The part that’s already living,”(Hansberry) to which Walter responds violently. Ruth decides to abort the child and does not...
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...un. New York: Random House, 1994. Print.
Lund, Charles. “Teaching ‘A Raisin in the Sun’: Literature and Life.” College Teaching 37.3 (1989): 83-86. Print.
Matthews, Kristin L. “The Politics Of ”Home“ In Lorraine Hansberry’s ”A Raisin In The Sun..“ Modern Drama 51.4 (2008): 556-578. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
McGovern, Edythe M. “A Raisin In The Sun.” Masterplots II: Women’S Literature Series (1995): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Tackach, James. “A Raisin In The Sun.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Washington, Gladys J. “A Raisin In The Sun.” Masterplots II: African American Literature, Revised Edition (2008): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Wilkerson, M. B. (1986). A Raisin in the Sun: Anniversary of an American Classic. Theatre Journal, 38(4), 441-452.
In life there are always going to be ups and downs, good and bad times, because families go through extensive amounts of arguments. Within the play A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, there are a few complications that the Younger family face. Moreover, the main complications occur between Lena Younger (Mama) and Walter Lee Younger (the son of Mama). Throughout the play, the biggest complication they face is how to spend Walter Lee Senior’s life insurance money. The Younger family goes through several challenging times; however, the family shows that no matter what, everyone should stick together.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a dramatic play written in 1959. The play is about an African American family that lives in the Chicago South Side in the 1950’s. Hansberry shows the struggles and difficulties that the family encounters due to discrimination. Inspired by her personal experience with discrimination, she uses the characters of the play, A Raisin In The Sun, to show how this issue affects families.
The dominant theme in A Raisin in the Sun is the quest for home ownership. The play is about a black family living in the Southside of Chicago-a poverty-stricken, African Ame...
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.
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.
Hansberry, Lorraine. "A Raisin in the Sun." Ed. Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 1771-830. Print.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play telling the story of an African-American tragedy. The play is about the Younger family near the end of the 1950s. The Younger family lives in the ghetto and is at a crossroads after the father’s death. Mother Lena Younger and her grown up children Walter Lee and Beneatha share a cramped apartment in a poor district of Chicago, in which she and Walter Lee's wife Ruth and son Travis barely fit together inside.
A Raisin in the Sun is basically about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The Youngers struggle to attain these dreams throughout the play, and much of their happiness and depression is directly related to their attainment of, or failure to attain, these dreams. By the end of the play, they learn that the dream of a house is the most important dream because it unites the family.
Wilkerson, Margaret B. "'A Raisin in the Sun': Anniversary of an American Classic." Theatre Journal 38.4 (1986): 441-52. Print.
In ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, Lorraine Hansberry describes each of the family’s dreams and how they are deferred. In the beginning of the play Lorraine Hansberry chose Langston Hughes’s poem to try describe what the play is about and how, in life, dreams can sometimes be deferred.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Literature and Its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Eds. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997. 1829-96.
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.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. 950-1023. Print.
A Raisin in the Sun is a set in 1950s after the Second World War which was an age of great racism and materialistic in America. It is about a black family living in south side of Chicago and struggling through family and economic hardships, facing the issues of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The family consists of Lena Younger known as Mama; Walter Lee Younger who is an intense man, Ruth Younger who is wife of Walter Lee, Travis Younger who is son of Ruth and Walter, and Beneatha Younger who is Walter’s younger sister. The whole family lives in a two bed room apartment and don’t have money to live a better life. youngers are tired from their struggle to ...
Cocola, Jim and Douthat, Ross. SparkNote on A Raisin in the Sun, 16 Sep. 2008.