The Raisin In The Sun African-American Dream

The play we read in class was The Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It was a play about an African-American family living in an apartment in Chicago during times of segregation and diversity between the whites and blacks. All the characters in the play have dreams which we all have dreams we strive to achieve but find that we have road blocks trying to achieve them. The character I picked from the play to talk about their dreams and limitations is Beneatha Younger. Beneatha’s biggest dream in the play was to attend college as a young African-American woman. Not only did she want to go to college, but she wanted to go to become a doctor. In today’s world that would be a normal dream for an African-American woman but in their world it …show more content…
Obviously college costs money and being a colored family in Chicago at this time it wasn’t the easiest to make good money. Beneatha also wasn’t the only one living in the apartment, she lived with her brother, Walter Lee, his wife, Ruth, their son, Travis, and Her and Walter’s mother, Mama. With everyone living together the income didn’t all go to Beneatha’s college fund. The family did come into some money when Beneatha and Walter’s dad died and Mama was receiving the insurance check of $10,000. Beneatha obviously wanted some of the money to pay for medical school. I do believe that she should get some of the money because to achieve this dream would be a big deal in this time especially for a colored woman to achieve would be an even bigger deal. One of her limitations was that Walter Lee also wanted some of the money to buy a liquor store with some friends to make a living for the family. Yet, In my opinion Beneatha’s dream was even bigger than that because she was dedicated and determined and wanted this dream for a very long time and finally has the opportunity to achieve it. Mama conquers her dream and buys her family a house since