Introduction
A Raisin in the Sun is a dramatic domestic play by Lorraine Hansberry, performed in 1959. The scripter analyzes and depicts the story of a black family from a low-income household struggling to be accepted by the society dominated by the middle-class people The family consisted of four members headed by Mama, 60 years of age, and mother to Beneatha and Walter, who had a wife named Ruth (Hansberry, 1). The family lives in the same setting but possesses different dreams and expectations of life. Consequently, all the characters have an objective to fulfill their dreams.
Breakdown of the Dreams
Mama dreamt of having a more extensive and spacious house with a happy family. In addition, she hoped that her children would live happy life. In the play, she proves to be determined to help her children accomplish their dreams. However, her dreams were cut short when they moved to a smaller house which they habituated throughout the rest of the play. At this time, she became swamped that she could not concentrate on achieving her dreams and did not have enough funds to facilitate the dream’s achievement. It became more disappointing when her husband died. Nevertheless, there was a turn of events when she was accorded a compensation fee for his death.
Ruth was Walters’s wife and dreamt of having a happy family, same as Mama. She also wished to be wealthy. It was difficult for her to achieve her dreams since she did not have any money and depended entirely on her husband. It was difficult for her to help the family financially, even if she was willing. The movement to a smaller house shattered her dream giving her zero hopes for its fulfillment.
Beneatha, daughter to Mama, hoped to become a doctor when she completed her studies at the college level. The lady also had a deep concern for the black race’s degradation and mistreatment of their culture, which seemed to be dominated by the whites. She dreamt of saving the black people from oppression and enabling equal rights and fair distribution of resources. From her perspective, she did not believe that it will never happen in actual life since her dream became impossible when she was born a female from the black community. She proved determinant as she struggles to embrace education and strives to join the medical school for career development. She confirmed that her dream was impossible after her brother could not get the required funds to enroll in a medical school.
Walter, the oldest son of Mama, has a dream, just like her mother and wife, to be wealthy and provide the basic needs for the family. Additionally, he hoped to open a liquor store to help him generate income to feed the family and accomplish his dreams. Like others, moving to a smaller house lessened the hope of ever getting rich and catering to the family’s needs. This is because his only source of money to help him open the liquor store would come from Mama.
The dominating dream among the family members was to be wealthy and be able to feed themselves and their loved ones. The drama is based on how they would use the 10,000 dollars gained after the father’s death. Walter was desperate to be the breadwinner though he did not have a well-paying job. Therefore, he wanted to use all the insurance money to start the business, although his mother was against the idea as it is was unethical. Mama opted to use a portion of the money as a down payment for a house located in a white neighborhood and gave the rest to the son, who opened a liquor store secretly.
Suggestions and Conclusions
The dreams could have come to pass if the mother had opted to invest in a lucrative business that would employ the family members. Most families start up family businesses and end up becoming successful and independent. It would be advantageous since every person would have the ability to work on their dreams as they would have a strong foundation and capital. Ruth would get her own money to go to medical school and would not have to depend on her brother, who finally got conned by his business partner. She would also get more information and have resources to achieve her dream of freeing the black from oppression.
Mama could not have opted to pay for the house in the neighborhood even though she wished her family to live a good and comfortable. Lack of a constant regular income would make her experience challenges maintaining the house in the future. Making investments would be a better option because it would finally help her buy her own house instead of making down payments. The strategies would help the whole family would help them achieve their dreams efficiently without facing adverse barriers.
Dreams sometimes help one to work hard and strive to attain the goal, since it breeds a spirit of hard work and great energy to make a dream come true (Alford). However, it is essential to note that dreams may be hard or impossible to accomplish; therefore, it is essential to have attainable dreams. For example, Ruth and Mama dream of being wealthy but do not have any source of income or money. Conclusively, the play was spectacular and relatable to the day-to-day activities of individuals of today and at the time of its composition.
Work Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Modern Library, 1995.
Alford, C. “11 reasons why it’s important to follow your dreams.” Lifehack, 4 July 2019, www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/11-reasons-why-its-important-follow-your-dreams.html.
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