Dreams in A Raisin in the Sun

656 Words2 Pages

Dreams in A Raisin in the Sun

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 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, in 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."

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. Retired from working for the Holiday's family, she was waiting for her husband's insurance money to arrive. With the ten tho...

Show More
Related

  • The Significance of Lena Younger’s Dream Plant in A Raisin in the Sun

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story A Raisin in the Sun Lena Younger cares for a small house plant. This plant represents dreams. Mama has dreams for her family to rise from poverty and live in a better and bigger place, and also for them to continue to grow together as a family.

    Read More

  • Girls who Cried Witch in The Crucible

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.

    Read More

  • Hitler Youth

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The future of the German nation depends on its youth and the German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties”

    Read More

  • Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Curley's Wife Feminist Analysis

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Curley’s wife’s femininity may be seen as her greatest weakness or flaw to most, but she rapidly discovers that it is also her only weapon on the ranch and learns to use it to her advantage. Therefore, she puts up an alluring and sultry front in an attempt to receive attention, because she is aware that none of the men on the farm respect her because of her position as a woman. The men's blatant lack of respect for her belittles the miniscule amount of power she has acquired

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men - Curley's Wife

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    Curley’s wife is given a reputation of causing trouble between other characters from different characters in the novel. There is no evidence of her living up to all of the reputation in the novel. Candy says “Well she got the eye” which could have many meanings and then he backs that up with “I seen her give Slim the eye” and finally he says “Well I think Curley’s married…a tart.” This explains his views on Curley’s wife. And when she dies he calls her a ...

    Read More

  • A Raisin in the Sun: The Foundation of Family

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household.

    Read More

  • Comparing Dreams in Of Mice and Men and A Raisin in the Sun

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of Mice and Men and A Raisin in the Sun  Dreams Make What Life Is

    Read More

  • Raisin In The Sun Misunderstood

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ambitious. Goal-oriented. Misunderstood. When someone has a dream but their family doubts it, they still do anything in their power to achieve it. A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, tells the story of an African American family in the 1950s trying to live with the society at the time. Beneatha Younger, daughter to Lena Younger and sister to Walter Younger, is a college student in her twenties living in Chicago with her vast household. She struggles throughout the story with her family not respecting her as an adult, figuring out her ancestor’s heritage, and finding a man to marry at some point in her future. Beneatha Younger, an intelligent, open-minded, curious young woman, who happens to be the first of her family to attend college, will do anything to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. Even though Beneatha has a lot on her plate, she still shows determination when it comes to her dream.

    Read More

  • Characters Dreams Deferred in Raisin In The Sun

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between I Have A Dream And A Raisin In The Sun

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech is perhaps one of not only the greatest speeches of all time but also one of the best overall representations of what the civil rights movement was and the common beliefs and goals shared by those who were apart of and supported it. Similarly, A Raisin in the Sun is also an accurate and meaningful portrayal of the civil rights movement and the hardships endured by African American citizens who suffered at the time. The two authors of these works being Lorraine Hansberry and Martin Luther Kid Jr. In both cases these pieces aim to look at the oppressed African Americans in the United States both leading up to and during the early 1900s. The state of America had become largely racially divided and was destroying the lives of innocent people.

    Read More

  • The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Primarily, in A Raisin in the Sun Walter is an example of one struggling to achieve their dream or desire. Walter serves as the hero and villain of the play due to the actions he takes revolving his dream. “Walter, who firmly believes in the American Dream of economic independence, wants to own his own business, and a liquor store, because he despairs over what he perceives to be his inability to support the family and to provide for his son’s future” ( __ __ ). Walter’s dream is to be sole the provider for his household and give his family a better life. He plans by doing this through a liquor store investment with the insurance money given to Mama from Big Walters death. “In the play Walter loses much of the insurance money that he planned to invest on a liquor store to a con artist” ( ___ ___ ). Walter’s decision on investing in a liquor store turns out to be a horrific choice. In the play although Walter is regretfully deceived and looked down upon as a result of the liquor store ambition, he makes up for it by at the end finally reaching his manhood. During the time of the play the husband of the family is mainly the sole provider for the family. In the case of the play, Walters mother is the sole provider for the family. Walter strives to be the “man” of the house.“A job. (Looks at her) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, “Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?” Mama, that ain’t no kind of job. That ain’t nothing at all. (Very quietly) Mama, I don’t know if I can make you understand” ( Hansberry , Pg.73). “Walter minimizes the position of a car driver because to him it diminishes his manhood and his sense of individual worth.

    Read More

  • To What Extent Curley's Wife a Victim in Of Mice and Men

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ars for the fidelity of his wife as he believes there is a chance that Slim could be with her, despite his good nature. This makes the audience believe that Curley knows his wife is capable of anything, and that he would rather have her under his control. However, the poignant side to Curley’s Wife’s victimisation is when she is victimised due to the stereotypical image of women, either mother or prostitute. This adds a dark shadow over her complicated character, because the way she dresses, and the shoes she wears, especially at the ranch of all places, is unnatural. Also, her manipulative ways ironically cost her life, as she was probably toying with Lennie being mentally handicapped. Overall, I believe that the way that Curley’s Wife has cast her impression upon everyone, has eventually made her a victim of society, the ranch workers, and most importantly, herself.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of the Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Each of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun has a dream for which they base their whole happiness and livelihood on attaining. However, the character of Lena Younger, or Mama, differs from the other members of her family. 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 Clybourned 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). Mama's economic hardships may have killed her dream, but she has not allowed it to kill her.

    Read More

  • Cave Paintings: Lascaux And Chauvet Caves In Spain

    2177 Words  | 5 Pages

    In spite of this theory, many scientists and other fields looking into these cave paintings were not convinced. Therefore, disregarding this hypothesis of “art for arts’ sake,” I will look into three other scientific interpretations that have been suggested over the past century for these cave paintings found in France and in Spain. The three scientific interpretations that I will be evaluating are: the use of hallucinogens and an altered state of consciousness, cave paintings as a form of ritual, and lastly that symbols found amongst the cave art were a form of communication. These are not the only interpretations for the cave paintings out there but these three are some of the most mainstream ideas for this prehistoric

    Read More

More about Dreams in A Raisin in the Sun

Open Document