Raisin in the Sun

Dream's Recovered

Everyone has dreams; everyone has goals they want to accomplish. Some know what it is instantly and some take time to realize what they want to do. But not everyone will achieve their dreams and some, because of sad circumstances lose their grip on their dream and fall into a state of disappointment. Langston Hughes poem relates to the dreams of Mama, Ruth, and Walter in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun.

Ruth has to listen to Walter's extravagant dreams of being rich and powerful all the time and know that these dreams will never happen. They are very poor and Travis must sleep on the couch because they only have a two-room apartment. Ruth's dream of having a baby seems crushed when she finds out that she's pregnant and realizes they can't support another in the household. When mama and Walter argue about Ruth getting an abortion Walter says she wouldn't do anything like that as she walks in, she says "Yes I would too Walter. I gave her a five-dollar down payment." (1.2.75). Ruth's dream of having a baby is dried up when she knows they can't support another child in the household.

Lena Younger has always dreamed of a garden with beautiful flowers in her own yard next to her own house. But she is devastated when she hears that Walter took the rest of money for the house and Beneatha's school money and gave it to Willy Harris who literally stole the Younger's dreams. After Bobo tells Walter what happened, Mama says, "Son, son ... is it gone? Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it gone? All of it? Beneatha's money too?" (2.3.129). After all of this Mama seems as if she is sagging under the heavy load of disappointment and trying to understand her children.

Walter's dream is actually the great American dream to have your own house in a good neighborhood, a job you love, a wife, and children. But sadly he's far from his dream. He is a chauffeur for a rich white man, and must drive him around in an expensive car that he could never afford. Walter's dream is also deferred when he is told that good old Willy Harris absconded with the money for his and his family's dreams. Hearing this Walter says "Willy!...Man, I put my life in your hands...Man...THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER'S FLESH." (2.3.128).