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Discuss the theme of dreams in a raisin in the sun
A raisin in the sun lorraine hansberry character
Character analysis in a raisin in the sun
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Recommended: Discuss the theme of dreams in a raisin in the sun
In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the main characters have dreams in their lives. Mama dreamt of moving her family out of the ghetto, into a home with a yard where she could tend a yard and a space for the children to play. Beneatha had a dream to finish her schooling and become doctor who could save her race from ignorance and save them from dying. Walter had a dream of becoming rich like the rich people he drove around. He dreamt of becoming wealthy by owning his businesses and making more money to provide for his family as the rich people do. On the other hand, Ruth had a dream of building a happy family. She believed that, she was going to own a bigger and better place to live in as she builds a happy family. Based on her dreams, Ruth’s is the most commendable character because she opted for happiness first, then the other things could come later while her family is happy. She is the most admirable character in the play because she only cared about the love in her family and was never motivated by material things.
One of Ruth’s dreams is to have a happy family. Throughout the novel, Ruth remains a strong woman with fortified dreams. Ruth yearned for a happy family and a happy marriage. Her marriage to Walter was in regular problems, but she strived to rekindle their love and have a happy family. Even though they had a financial crisis and lived in poverty, Ruth tried to make her family contented with what they had to make them happy. In addition, she just wanted to have a family that was full of love and happy with what they could afford. This is evident when she tells mama “Something is happening between me and Walter. I don’t know what it is – but he needs something – something I can’t give him anymore” (2...
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...ught for the happiness of her family.
In conclusion, in A Raisin in the Sun every character has a dream. Mama wants a bigger house, Walter wants to be rich, and Beneatha wants to be doctor in order to heal the sick while Ruth desires a happy marriage and family. Ruth is one of the simplest characters in the story. She symbolizes a group of people living, working, and not asking much from life, people who try to get satisfaction from what life has offered them. In her dreams, she did not ask for much like the other characters, all she wanted was a happy family and marriage. The other characters wanted material things and most of their dreams were unachievable, but for her she was content with what she had and tried to make her family happy despite the financial constraints.
Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York, Vintage Books, 1994. Print.
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."
...the show Ruth discovers that she is pregnant, and because of her economic hardships, she is determining whether or not to keep the baby. This puts her stress level higher than ever. Ruth also starts off the show as a wife who doesn’t believe in Walter’s dream of owning a liquor store, But in the end, Ruth decides to keep the child and finds hope for her, Walter and the Younger family.
“Check coming today?” The Life Insurance check that Mama will soon be receiving is the source of all the dreams in the Younger family. A major argument that Lorraine Hansberry makes in her play A Raisin in the Sun is the importance of dreams. Dreams are what each member of the Younger family is driven by. Mama wants to have her own home in a nice part of town; she does not want her children growing up in a place with rats. Walter wants to have a successful business so he can surpass the poverty that has plagued his family. And Beneatha wants to get a good education, become a doctor, and marry a nice man. Dreams are especially important to the Younger family as they come from a poverty laden family and desire to live the “American Dream.” Every member of the Younger family has a dream but each one is different with a different view on what the true “American Dream” really is.
At present Ruth is the most reliable and emotionally stable one in the family and her family depends on her to keep them going. Throughout the play, as Walter and Lena go through their emotional battles, she’s the only one who’s opinions and emotions don’t change. Ruth brings a calm to the household, yet seems to the one always interfering in conversations and telling these two characters fighting and find a solution peacefully. Ruth is the mediator in the family. She doesn’t want to deal with Walter, even though she doesn’t mind speaking up when things are said she doesn’t like. Ruth doesn’t go out of her way to get what she wants. She’s the type of person who makes the best of whatever life hands her, peace and this is when we see her speak up for herself if that's what it takes. “Mama, something is happening between Walter and me. I don’t know what it is- but he needs something-something I can’t give him anymore. He needs this chance, Lena.” (111) This shows her attempt to make others happy, even in hindsight of her own morals and
In Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun,” she uses the Younger family to show that as individuals strive to reach their dreams they often ignore the aspirations of others but they may eventually learn to support each other in an attempt to better their lives. Hansberry uses each character to express the different views people may have about the American Dream. Each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream. From Momma’s dream of having a better life for her family, Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor, and Walter’s dreams of being rich, the Younger family show’s typical dreams of an African American family in the 1950’s.
The American dream has been visualized and pursued by nearly everyone in this nation. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about the Younger family that strived for the American dream. The members of the Younger family shared a dream of a better tomorrow. In order to reach that dream, however, they each took different routes, which typified the routes taken by different black Americans.
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.
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.
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.
In the exposition of the play, Walter is obsessed with the check coming in the mail, and Mama giving him the money so he can open a liquor store with two of his friends, Bobo and Willy. The liquor store is the way in which Walter plans to provide a decent life for his family and for himself. He wants the power over the white man, and he believes the liquor store will make him even, or even superior to the white man during the times of oppression. He feels undermined, because he is a chauffeur and because his son, Travis, has to sleep on the couch because they cannot afford to buy a bigger place. However, his obsession with his dream takes a negative toll on the other members of his family. The money is Mama’s and so she gets to decide what to do with it. She plans to put part of it toward her daughter, Beneatha’s, tuition to become a doctor. Beneatha and Walter’s wife, Ruth, both share the belief that the money is Mama’s to spend and she should be the one to decide what to do with it. Walter is so obsessed with his dream that he fails to notice his wife’s unhappiness that pushes her to the decision to get an abortion. His dreams of a better life actually cause h...
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth and Beneatha both have great dreams but encounter at least one barrier to their success. Ruth’s dream is to have a happy and loving family, and Walter is her barrier. Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor, but she is dependent on others to fulfill her dream.
Everyone wants their dreams to become a reality; however, the unfortunate reality is that more often than not, dreams are not achieved and become deferred. Langston Hughes let this theme ring throughout his poetic masterpiece “Harlem,” in which he posed many questions about what happens to these dreams. In “A Raisin In the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry draws so many indisputable parallels from “Harlem.” Hansberry consistently uses the dreams of Mama Younger, Big Walter, and Walter Lee to allude to Hughes poem. The intensity of the dreams coupled with the selfishness of some characters eventually adds an abundant amount of emotional strain to the family, once again demonstrating Hansberry’s dedication to Hughes poem.
Ruth is Walter's wife. Her dream is to have a happy family but she also wants to be wealthy.
In A Raisin in the Sun, desire is shown when each character has a different idea of what the American dream means to them. Mama dreams of having her own house, “…a little two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime” (Hansberry 1923). She had always dreamed of having her own house in Morgan Park, and even though her and Big Walter planned on moving there after a little while after being married it never happened. (Hansberry 1923). Ruth’s dream is similar to Mama’s, she would like to have her own house also, but the main thing on her mind is to not have to worry about money. However, Beneatha’s dream is the complete opposite of both Mama and Ruth’s. She dreams to become a doctor so she can prove that women can have the same jobs as men. That dream causes conflict because of Walter’s dream to become wealthy and to be able to provide for his family. “…You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand…baby don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay someone off” (Hansberry 1917). Walter thinks that he has a better chance than Beneatha and the money should go to him, “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor…just get married and be quiet” (Hansberry 1919). Throughout the remainder of the play Walter, Beneatha, Ruth
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.