A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry thematically represents the life of the Younger family, the conflict of their dreams and their struggle to attain these dreams either for selfishness of the individual or because of family differences. Hughes symbolically represents the idea of dreams deferred in her poem and such is a direct resemblance to the different dreams of the characters, Mama, Beneatha, Walter Lee and Ruth and the effect that their dreams begin to have on the family and them as individuals. For the Younger family ‘bread is not enough’ and with the conflict surrounding their different dreams the family begins to crumble, pushing them close to the edge. This essay therefore sets out to discuss the individual dreams that each of them aspires to and how their actions to attain their dreams or lack of impact their life as a family and as individuals.
Mr Younger (Big Walter) was the bread winner, the back bone of the family and the inspiration from which the Youngers families dreams stemmed, however through his passing his dream of creating a home, to give them something more than he had becomes nothing but a lifeless dream for the Youngers. His dream to them becomes ‘A raisin in the sun’, a dried up dream, especially since the dream was deferred for such a long time and so the Youngers now feel that there is no longer a need to carry on with this deferred dream, everyone except Mama.
Their desire to aspire to their dreams further stems from their poor, necessitous background. The Youngers despite being segregated from the white community as it was in the 1950s appear to share the same dreams as the white communities. This dream was largely centered with having lots of money and materials things, big house, money and a close knit family. The Youngers however struggle to come close to this so called “American Dream” as it was called. Their struggles through daily hardships constantly prevent them from accomplishing their dreams, which all seem to