Raisin In The Sun

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the author explores dreams, the play shows us that race and discrimination can determine if you can achieve your dreams. The younger family all lived under the same roof but they all had different goals. The characters in the play did have dreams that needed to be worked for. The Younger family had dreams that were more self concentrated and had dreams that were more focused on family. Hansberry really made a connection with the dream the main character Lena wanted for her family to the worlds best known American Dream.

Back then being colored was hard. It was hard to reach the successes you wanted to achieve. Lena also known as (Mama) wanted the American Dream for her family. She wished that her family would rise from poverty and live and grow in a bigger and much better place. The children of Lena , Walter and Beneatha. They wanted more self designated dreams. The dreams that regular people have from day to day basis. Money was a problem for them, money for colored people in general was on a shortage. “I got to go in, we need the money.” On page 1552 Ruth younger was pregnant and ill, but she knew not going into work she wouldn’t be able to bring the income that the family needs to even get a meal. Racism you can already see in just that quotation. The income that any colored person made was never enough to achieve any dream at all.

The insurance check, the income that Mr.Younger spent his lifetime gaining. This gave them the chance, the opportunity that not a lot of colored people got. Lena went ahead and bought a house in a white wealthy community. She was starting to achieve her own American dream. “Where? Well , well its out there in Clybourne Park. Clybourne park, Mama there ain’t no colored people living out there.” The fear and rush and adrenaline on page 1577 was put into this play for a reason. The reason for this was to show that Mama did something crazy for her family to achieve something other than a small old one window apartment. She wanted to not only get her American Dream but to prove to society that colored people are worth way more than just some servants. Yes, the youngers do collide with some conflict later in the story, but they are happy. They are a group of people we can now call a family again.

Racism, Discrimation and Dreams are and always will play apart in Lorraine Hansberry’s play a Raisin In The Sun. Rising up like the youngers did is inspirational. These topics above that we went through really spoke to me. This story, this play was much more than than that. Its a timeline of colored people rising up, that I am so blessed that I got to learn about.