Section B: NON AFRICAN DRAMA LORRAINE HANSBERRY - A Raisin In The Sun To what extent are the dreams of the Younger family fulfilled in the play?

Answer Details

Dreams are the beating heart of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, whose very title, drawn from Langston Hughes's poem, asks what happens to a "dream deferred." Each member of the Younger family carries a private dream, and the play measures how far these are fulfilled by its close. The answer is: partially, and unevenly, but with real dignity.

The dreams before us. Mama (Lena) dreams of a decent house with a garden, the modest hope she shared with her late husband. Walter Lee dreams of wealth and manhood through a business, specifically a liquor store, that will lift him out of servitude as a chauffeur. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor and of discovering her African identity. Ruth simply dreams of a better, more spacious life for her family and her unborn child.

Dreams frustrated. The insurance money of ten thousand dollars, from the death of the father, seems the key to all these dreams, and it becomes the source of conflict. Walter's dream collapses catastrophically when Willy Harris cheats him and runs off with the money entrusted to him, including the portion Mama had set aside for Beneatha's medical training. This betrayal appears to deny both Walter's and Beneatha's hopes and to defer the family's dream once again.

Dreams fulfilled. Yet the play does not end in despair. Mama's dream is realised: she uses part of the money as a down-payment on a house in Clybourne Park, and the family, though the neighbourhood is white and hostile, resolves to move in. More importantly, Walter's dream is transformed rather than destroyed. When Mr. Lindner of the white neighbourhood offers to buy the family out, Walter, at the last moment, refuses the money and asserts the family's right to their home. In doing so he finally attains the manhood and self-respect he had chased through money. This is the deepest fulfilment in the play.

Partial and open dreams. Beneatha's dream of medicine is shaken but not abandoned; her relationship with Asagai reopens it and links it to her African aspirations. The family's future in Clybourne Park is uncertain and possibly dangerous.

Conclusion. To a large extent the material dreams are only partly fulfilled: the money is lost and the road ahead is hard. But the essential dream, of dignity, unity and self-respect, is fulfilled. The Youngers emerge poorer in cash but richer in pride, choosing family honour over financial safety. Hansberry suggests that the truest fulfilment lies not in wealth but in the courage to claim one's humanity.