raisin in the sun
In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, four major characters struggle to hang onto their quest for the American Dream. Cramped in an apartment in the slums of Southside Chicago, the Younger family have discovered that the idea that hard work will purchase a house, a safe neighborhood, and a future for their children, is not working. Despite their perseverance as domestics or as a chauffeur, their chance for growth seems as dismal as the only natural light which "fights its way through" a single window in the kitchen(Hansberry 24). The author uses Langston Hughes' poem "A Dream Deferred" as a preface for her play. It captures the effect of each character's battle wit the dreams held up too long. In the first line of Langston Hughes' poem, it asks the question, "What happens to a dream deferred?
Throughout the story, Walter shows his immaturity and selfishness, which is the result of the destruction of Mama's dream. Her dream is deferred, and denied, as she faces many obstacles on her way to accomplishing that dream. In the second and third line of the poem, "does it dry up like a raisin in the sun," relates to mama because her dream dries up. Her plant that she has is a very important symbol of the garden that refers to her thought of the American Dream. (Hansberry Scene I, Act II, 82) While Mama tries to deal with his constant attitude and mouthing off, he continues to make her dreams become an unreal fantasy that she must work twice as hard than when she didn't have these problems to worry about. She keeps it healthy and growing because as the plant grows, so does her hope to carry out her dream. "What we got to drink is this house" portrays Walter as the childish drunk that he seems to be in most of the story. Hadn't been married but two weeks, and wasn't planning on living here no more than a year. " (Hansberry Scene I, Act I, 53) This depicts that she desires things to return to the way that they used to be when she had her husband there to support her. " In A Raisin in the Sun, Mama's dream was to be able to move into a bigger apartment or house to fit the needs of herself as well as the rest of her family members.
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