Comparing The American Dream In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Throughout the ages the concepts of dreams have been explored. Dreams have not necessarily contained the same substances but gradually changed according to the environment, beliefs, and social understandings. When America first originated, the dream of religion was brought from Europe. Puritans were the first landowning Americans to come and live in North America (Indians were the original owners). Puritans came to America to escape religious persecution; they dreamed to have religious, economic, and social freedoms. During the colonial era people were known to be pure and no evil was ever seen, heard, or said about. It was a community of peaceful ways and religious aspects. Puritans began accomplishing these dreams but the same mistakes (killing
innocent people) were being committed, this occurrence was due to superstition (Benet, 1937). Since superstition became such a factor of their every day life, other people commenced to a new a way of life. Thus, the Gothic era was born; all of the beauty that was contained in colonial era was washed away with the darkness of reality. The goal of gothic was to unravel the truth and express how evil the world was. The thing was that gothic did not want to make everything crystal clear but mysterious. Literature during this age was filled with allegories so that people could figure out the true meaning of gothic. Once this concept was overrated and perplexing people started to express themselves without all of the obscurity. This new era was known as realism, its objective was to show the truth without all of the allegories. Realism also showed the concept of war and how the human race was at the mercy of the environment. Individuals were no longer the protagonist of life but the environment was. People yearned to live and did all they could just to survive. Men were often occupied in the front line fighting for their country while women worked at home. Women became more liberal and objected to the old puritan ways. They no longer served their husbands but explored a new world of excitement; this new era became known as Modernism. The community believed in having fun all day and all night; insofar as people needed more money to obtain all of the desired riches. People began to build up a new dream that consisted of ideas such as wealth, power, and social status. This dream was not for all American citizens but just the middle and upper class white (male) American. As time transcended the dream started to revolutionize into a worldwide dream that could be accomplished by all Americans regardless of color and gender. This new genre was known as Post-Modernism which still continues today in America. The dream occupied the basis of family (as the primer key), wealth, marriage, and education. Post-modernism also believes that one must look at the past in order to save the future. This is the same situation that occurs in Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949). In this play we see Willy continually trying to relive the past because those were the days when he was popular and in charge. He ambitiously wants his son, Bif to follow in his footsteps and succeed in the world of business. Bif does not want to full fill Willy's lost dream and repeatedly causes pain in Willy's heart. Bif feels that there is no need to live a life like his fathers. He sees the anguish that his father suffers now that he is old and useless; and notices that no one even remembers his hard effort.

The American dream is continually worked hard for but when it does not benefit the family then what is it good for?
It post-modernism we see that the dream is not restricted amongst certain groups but it is universally explored. The dream is based on variables such as race, gender, social class, economics, and political interests. The dream was drastically changed and it opened its doors to a public of different races and genders. Women were now able to succeed and become part of a man's world. Women like Beneatha (who happens to be both from a different culture and gender) started to set her own dream by studying in a University and becoming more liberal (Hansberry, 1959). In Raisin in the Sun a rich African American was also introduced, George Murchison who occupied all of the variables of this redefined dream (Hansberry, 1959). Murchison was studying in a University and working towards an enriching profession. He had class and a very good education. This story was a perfect illustration on the uplifts of the African American trying to approach the new redefined dream. Economically people began to leave the depression and began to work in order to survive. Society did not spend their money the way they did back in the 1920's but started saving in fear that another depression would come. Many people were interested in political issues because they too feared an economic down fall. People changed their way of life's as well as the American
Dream.

Post-modernism also provided a different life style that was depicted in many literature plays. Most authors convey the fact of how the past tends to haunt the present. In the post-modernism we see how the parents seem to loose their minds in the past because they feel that they weren't able to accomplish something when they were young. This affects the children, insofar as the parents are often trying to force the kids to finish their dreams; thus they believe that that is the only way for them to be happy and secure. In Death of a Salesman (1949) Willy Loman is seen struggling with the past and the present. Willy no longer wants to accept what is happening in the present so he visualizes the happy stories that occurred in the past (Miller, 1949). Willy reiterates the past and sees how he believed he was going to have wealth and power. Willy's dream is to succed in the world of business and to able to make lots of money. Willy is seen fighting more for the dream of wealth after he sees his brother Ben achieve that dream in Africa (Miller, 1949). Willy is somewhat jealous because he could have been rich too but he stayed in America. Willy did not quite make as much amount of money as he yearned and believes that popularity is one factor a salesman should have. Willy's motto was that personality and presentation was all one needed to achieve in life (Miller, 1949). He wants his son, Bif, (who happens to be popular) to pickup the pieces and continue with his dream (Miller, 1949). Bif causes him pain because he does not want to accomplish his fathers lost dream. Willy becomes insane and cannot tell the difference between reality and idealism. Willy suffers more pain because he lives in the past and does not think about the future (Miller, 1949). He does not want accept the fact that he is getting old and that he cannot keep up with the future. Willy was beginning to lose his touch and he could not face it, thus he believed death was a door out of hell.

Death seems to be the only solution but besides a literal death a spiritual death occurs at the funeral.
Willy commits suicide, because he believes that the insurance money will make the family content (Miller, 1949). Willy has another reason to commit suicide, he believes that a lot of people will show up to his funeral and this will prove to Bif that he was popular. Unfortunately, no one shows up to his funeral, just family and his neighbors (Miller, 1949). Happy Loman, Willy's son never got recognition for his hard effort but was just Bif's shadow; suffered a spiritual death (Miller, 1949). Bif was the son who was liberated from Willy's lost dream. Bif said that "his father was a great man but had the wrong dreams...he didn't know he was" (Miller, 1949). Happy who just lost his spirit, defends his father saying "don't say that [Bif]" (Miller, 1949). Happy then says that "He had a good dream...I'm going to win it for him" (Miller, 1949). Happy only sets himself into a state of despair and forgets his identity. Ben decides to follow his own dream now that he is liberated and knows who he is. The generation is repeating itself Happy becomes Willy and Bif becomes
Ben.

Through Death of a Salesman (1949) one was able to depict the struggles that a family tends to grasp on when they grasp on to the past as well. The portrayal of the frailty of the human spirit is visibly seen through the Loman family. Willy was very fragile because he was often hurt by Bif's repulsive attitude on the dream. Willy wasn't able to live his life because the past was disturbing him and he couldn't face the fact that he missed an opportunity to become wealthy (Miller, 1949). Willy was pushing Bif to complete the dream because he wanted to be a proud father and to be able to show off his son. Willy wanted to be popular through Bif but Bif didn't want to be part of the dream. It is ironic that Bif was able to live after Willy died; most of the time the whole family suffers a state of desolation. Bif was able to live through his father death because he was able to express himself freely. He was no longer pushed to do things for others. He wasn't forced to do what they want at the cost of his spirit. He was uplifted and relieved at the funeral that now the family could live at peace and that mother wouldn't have to suffer his lying and disrespectful ways. Another ironic thing was the fact that Willy died because he wanted Linda to use the insurance money to pay for the rest of the house (Miller, 1949). The thing was that Linda had just paid the last payment and the house was already theirs. Willy's death was really for nothing because no one came and the house was already paid.