August Wilson's The Piano Lesson and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun seek to dramatize the various issues that two African-American families face. Although the dramas take place in two distinct time periods, there exists a comparative and contrastive view of the various issues that arise in these two dramas. The struggle to rise from economic adversity is present in the two protagonists in these dramas, who both have dreams of achieving economic success, a central issue in these two dramas. In The Piano Lesson, the character Boy Willie seeks to obtain the family's treasured heirloom, a piano, for which he wants to sell for money. In return he wants to use the money to buy land from the Sutter family, former slave-owners of his family, the Charles's. Boy Willie intends to grow cotton and/or tobacco on this land and even hire some workers so that he can achieve his dream of economic success. On the other hand, there lies the character Walter Younger in A Raisin in the Sun. His dream is to open a liquor store and reap from the profits. However, this can't be accomplished unless his Mama gives him the money from a $10,000 insurance check she receives from her husband's death. The struggle for these characters to achieve economic success is one that all blacks, even today, can relate to, according to Thomas P. Adler, since "the economic havoc wreaked on the American Negro takes some ten to fifteen years off the life expectancy" of African-American folks (1794). The characters of Boy Willie and Walter Younger seek to rise above the oppression they have faced as blacks and instead try to transform themselves into a dream, the dream of economic stability.
             This gives rise to the moral issues that are evident by these two characters to achieve their dream. Boy Willie constantly nags and harasses his sister Berniece to sell the
             piano to him, even telling her that "you can&ap...