A Deferred Dream In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

In the poem Harlem, by Langston Hughes, Langston references a deferred dream which over time, either dies or flourishes. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the main characters, Walter, Beneatha, Mama, and Ruth are all experiencing a deferred dream. While Walter and Beneatha are willing to take any means necessary to fulfill their dreams, Mama and Ruth aren’t so ambitious. Mama (Walter and Beneatha’s mother) dreams of one day owning her own home, in a beautiful neighborhood, big enough for her family to live comfortably. Mama finally has the finances needed to buy her dream home, but faces the possibility of breaking up her family. In order to keep her family together, she decides to give up on her dreams so that her children …show more content…
Some of the stereotypes Hansberry challenges in this play are that Africans Americans are poor, uneducated, and lazy. The younger family is represented as a poor black family that lives in an apartment too small to comfortably house each family member, they are barely making ends meet because of their poor income, they are unable to find decent jobs given their lack of education, and are looking to become rich the easiest way possible. Although more African Americans are living better lives and are offered better opportunities than that of the Younger family, most of these stereotypes referenced in the play are still believed today. Many people outside of the African American culture see most African American men as a Walter, the uneducated poor black man looking to start a business with known scam artists. A lot of people still believe that African Americans live in the poorest neighborhoods, lack higher education, and hold less than decent jobs. Many people still believe the reason African American men and women live less than favorable lives are because they choose to. But that is not the case, African American’s are known to have to work extremely hard to come out of poverty. In some case poverty is a person only option, furthering their education to obtain a better job is impossible. Many African American families living in poverty are …show more content…
The deferment of each characters dream because of their circumstances is still seen today. While many people are becoming more successful because of change, many things still need to change. For example, Beneatha dreamed of becoming a doctor. While today more women doctors are noticed, being a Doctor is still seen as a prominently male occupation. Another example is, Walter dreamed of becoming a business owner, but given his lack of opportunity, that dream would take exceptionally long to become a reality. Lack of opportunity is known to be the biggest cause of a deferred dream in today’s society, as in Walter’s case. On the plus side, the typical women are no longer a Ruth or Mama, more so a Beneatha. Women of today’s society are expected to spend most of their time focusing on their goals, such as going to school and obtaining a well-paying job rather than being a