A Raisin In The Sun American Dream Analysis

Katelyn Hileman

Thesis

Rhetoric II

18 April 2016

The American Dream

A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the financial struggles of the 1950’s, when hit with a 10,000 dollar life insurance check, each family member had their own idea of what the money should be spent on. The family in the play, Yongers’, are an African American family who live in the 50s. The Youngest’ harbor in the same materialistic dreams as the rest of American society. The Yongers’ have a vision of their own American Dream. The American dream is based solely off of the mind set, if one works hard, one can achieve goals to the highest of its potential. Before WWII in the 1930s the American Dream had been focused on men working and providing for their families. Post WWII around 1940 consumerism and feminism started to make way. Around the 1950 the American Dream was the new idea of opportunity (Ultra Swank)

When the play opens, Walter is introduced as a dreamer. His plan for his deceased father 's insurance money is to

The whole play is centered around the idea of growth. Without growth one would not be able to achieve their ideal American dream. “A Raisin in the Sun represented the calamities that African-American workers confronted with in Chicago during the years of 1920s to the 1950s” (Nowrouzi). The growth of the American dream can be due to family, personal growth, financial growth. The play touches upon most of the ideal American dreams in the 1950s with racial divides and other obstacles that stand in their way of their ideal American dream. “The Raisin in the Sun is both “universal” American dramas and black feminist plays” (Mafe 31). Though each family member deems to have a different way of interpreting an American Dream, they can all agree that the 10,000 dollar insurance money will help them grow their American