A Raisin in the Sun

Ambition can inspire, corrupt, and disappoint. For fear of the latter two, people stop dreaming and take life as it appears, never aspiring for anything more than what they can acquire with average effort, leading to a half fulfilled life. Of course, a select few view the world in a different light, take into consideration the far-reaching possibilities, and use ambition in order to attain greatness, perceiving that failure would come lower than the longing they presently harbor. These risk takers have the potential of achieving, but when they become blinded with the journey it takes to travel toward their goal and they get in the way of others' endeavors, the dream turns distorted and becomes a burden. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun conjures both aspects, the dream and its defilement, but also the realization that leads to a better understanding of what one's meaning of life can amount to.

From the opening of the play, one finds the description of the worn furniture in the state of fatigue the characters wake up to, especially Ruth who seems unattached from all of Walter's spouting. In regular circumstances, one would not react in such a violent manner so early in the morning, signaling that he holds something darker than just annoyance of his disenchanted wife. The concern with "the check" becomes evident from all the characters, especially Walter, who puts emphasis on attaining it to reach his dreams of providing for the family in a way that exceeds all other methods of labor, in his eyes. During this time period, his want for a better life mirrors that of most African American men who see that their kind is still oppressed to live in a limited sense, to not possess the amenities entitled to whites, subjugated to work jobs underneath a people and tortured to realize that, in almost complete certainty, there would not be a rising up from the circumstances dealt to a majority of them.

Beneatha, who carries the same amount of ambition as her brother, sees all of the struggles her family goes through and craves a more traditional way of life, to get back to her ancestral African roots and practice as a doctor. From the influence of her African boyfriend Angai, she sees assimilation as sinful, like Mama's view of her children's obsession with money. Her goal of becoming a doctor is uncommon during this time, prior to the Black power movement of the 60's, when the woman's position was still expected to stay at home while the father worked.

The thought of never escaping mediocrity enrages Walter, and he grows to become the source of both distress and strength for the family during his transformation into manhood, and in his engrossment to get rich through the liquor business with Willy Harris. With the fulfillment of the funds he and the family needs to invest, their mentality changes to hopeful, but from the pride that Walter experiences, he does not realize how