A Dream Deterred In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry dramatizes the emotional impact of a “dream deferred,” relying on Langston Hughes’ famous poem, which she uses as an epigraph. In the poem, Hughes believes a dream deferred is a dream that a person has had since he/she was young but never could accomplish because life got in the way. In the play, Walter and Mamma suffer pain and frustration as they see their dreams of a happy and safe life being deferred. In Langston Hughes’ poem he speaks of life as if it were “a raisin in the sun”. Hughes is questioning if a life dream will just go away and die as if it were dried up like a raisin, if the dream is ignored. Hughes also questions if the dream will become bigger if

He questions if the dream would stay with you like a bad smell or if would it be forgotten. He speaks of the “sweetness” that you would feel if you didn’t care about the dream anymore. The dream deferred could stay with you and feel like the weight of the world on your shoulders. Or, the dream could “explode” and flourish and come true. Walter’s dreams of owning a liquor store and having power and money are deferred because people don’t trust him, including his family. Walter struggles with this throughout the play, but you mainly see this after Mamma refuses to give Walter the money for the liquor store, his dream. Mamma says “I’m sorry ‘bout your liquor store, son. It just wasn’t the thing for us to do. That’s what I want to tell you about-“ (72) When mamma says “It just wasn’t the thing for us to do” you can tell she doesn’t have trust in Walter and she especially wouldn’t trust him with the money to make a store that will more than likely do nothing. Later on in the play, Walter expresses his anger in a very symbolic sentence. He

Mamma and the family grapple with racism and it is a major reason for her dream being taken away. All Mamma wants is to be in a safe environment where her grandson can grow up in, but the time period and her ethnicity prevent this “dream” from coming true. When Mamma finally buys the house in Clybourne Park, she is incredibly excited with the idea of finally living her dream, but she is modest about the house. She says “’Course I don’t want to make it sound fancier than it is… it’s just a plain little old house-but it’s made good and solid- and it will be ours.” When mamma says “ours” you can tell she is already fantasizing about having a house to themselves. Mamma has worked hard her entire life, raising her children and taking care of her husband, so she deserves to have her dream come true, but it is nearly ripped away from her when Mr. Lindner says, “Our association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family.” (118) What surprised me the most in this situation was that Mamma isn’t shocked at all by Mr. Linder’s offer, but I also found it interesting that she didn’t let it stop her from trying to achieve her dream. She may have been tempted by more money, but she wants her dream and she gets it by the end of the