Theme Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a realistic fictional drama in which the play’s title and characters represent the play’s theme. The play focused on Black America’s struggles to reach the American Dream of life liberty and pursuit of happiness during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The idea of everyone having the chance to achieve a better life should exist for all. Hansberry created her title using a line from Langston Hughes’ poem, “ A Dream Deferred”. The original poem was written in 1951 about Harlem. Hughes’ line from the poem claimed that when dreams are deferred, they dry up like a raisin in the sun. This meant that they put their dreams aside for another time. Hughes’ poem further suggested that when dreams and goals are denied …show more content…
Beneatha’s dream was to become a doctor. She was going to achieve this dream by going to medical school. Beneatha’s dream was deferred because the money that was going to be used for her medical school got stolen by Willy Harris. Walter ended up giving Willy all of the money Mama gave him instead of depositing half of it for his sister’s medical school tuition. “ Mama: You mean… your sister’s school money… you used that too... Walter?..., Walter: Yessss! All of it … It’s all gone…” (129). Since Willy Harris ended up taking off with the money, Walter couldn’t get the liquor store and Beneatha ended up not having money to go to medical school. Beneatha also had a dream of getting out of poverty. Beneatha was going to achieve this dream by going to medical school to become a doctor. Her dream got deferred because the money got stolen and also that made Beneatha lose interest in helping aid the human race. Beneatha: “ Because it doesn’t seem deep enough, close enough to what ails mankind! It was a child’s way of seeing things--or an idealist’s” (133). When Beneatha was a child, she wanted to become someone that heals people, just like a doctor. When her brother lost all of the money, that made her lose interest in healing others. Beneatha began to believe that some people shouldn’t be saved. Beneatha also had a dream of becoming independent. She was …show more content…
In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry constructed real examples of Black America's struggles to reach the American Dream through her characters, Walter, Beneatha, and Mama. Throughout the story, the dreams of the characters in the story ended up being deferred. Walter Younger was a real example of Black America's struggles to reach the American Dream when he tried to get his family out of poverty because that dream got deferred due to the family's financial situation. Walter Younger wanted to invest into a liquor store but the money that was going to be used for that ended up being stolen. Beneatha Younger wanted wanted to become an independent woman who was trying to do good for her family. Lena Younger was portrayed as an example of Black America's struggles to reach the American Dream when she wanted a better life for her family.Throughout the story, the characters dreams ended up becoming deferred due to what was going on in their lives. Even though their dreams got deferred, they were able to move out of poverty and live a part of the American
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