A Raisin in the Sun is a story about a working-class African-American family who all have dreams. They struggle to keep their dream of going from tenants to owners alive. Unfortunately they are in a bad position to accomplish these dreams because society sees them based on their race and class, but they are willing to rebel against that position in order to fulfill their dreams. Throughout the play they come to terms with the dreams that are out of reach, and strive to fulfill those that are in reach. A major theme in the play is the story of every persons struggle to reach goals that aren't always in sink with what societies thoughts and/or ideas are.
             Walter Younger is a chauffeur who wants to become wealthy and live as Mr. Arnold, his employer does. At times he feels as if he is going crazy. He tells Mama, "sometimes it's like I can see the future stretched out in front of me-just plain as day.... Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me- a big looming blank space-full of nothing.... But it don't have to be" (73-4). Although he gives up, his position in time allows for one other alternative to take his place on any one of a number of challenges, like helping to break down restricted neighborhoods which are limited because they do not threaten the basic social order. (214)
             Beneatha, Walter's sister is studying to be a doctor at a local university. She fights many of her own social battles. For example at college, she finds "a place, as her family cannot, among other petty bourgeois aspirants on the rungs of 'education'" (Baraka 240). She has a passion for discovering new information about Africa, and befriends Joseph Asaigi, a Nigerian student. She begins to straightens her previously permed hair, listens to African music, and then accuses her brother of being an "assimilationist Negro" (81). She's interested in civil rights, and Walter jokes: "I can
             ...