American Dream in "Death of a Salesman" and "A Raisin in The Sun"

Achieving the American Dream has been the ideal for people living in the United States.  This Dream is a vision held by individuals who believe success comes through hard work, and determination. However, this dream may take many different forms for many different people. This is especially true in Arthur Miller’s, “Death of A Salesman” and Lorraine Hansberry’s “Raisin in The Sun”. In the play, “Death of a Salesman”, describes the life of Willy Loman, a 60 y/o who finds himself dealing with the crushing realisation that his idea of the American Dream is unrealistic  as he submit to the weight of his own unattainable expectations. While In “A Raisin in The Sun”portray the life of a typical African-American family struggling to get out of the poverty line, which is stopping them from achieving their American Dream of being financial Stable and getting a better life. Miller and Hansberry emphasizes how one’s false perception of materialistic success can lead to a unattainable goal regardless of status or race.

Willy Loman, is portrayed as a person who is utterly blinded by his beliefs on having wealth and thinking that being well-liked is all that is necessary to a successful life. With Loman’s commitment to his misconception of what the American Dream is, is the most evident reason that perverts his idealistic vision of success and happiness. Willy main concern during his living days was to be well known, and the number of friends he has made. This is easily illustrated in one scene where Loman once claim that “The whole wealth of Alaska passes over the lunch table at the Commodore hotel, and that’s the wonder, the wonder of this country, that a man can end with diamonds here on the basis of being liked!”  (Miller 86, Act 2). He viewed that as something more important than his own family though he did wish for their happiness. Loman declares that physical characteristics are superior than hard work itself and even believes that his friend Bernard is not one to succeed due to his looks. With this idea in mind, Loman once again said 'The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want”. To simply put, Loman thinks Bernard is to awkward of a man to ever be successful in life and for that idea alone show how shallow and ignorant minded Willy Loman really is. Willy had the illusions of the American Dream when he felt he didn’t need to work hard to gain what he wanted in life. He felt like his mediocre talent was much more than it was. Willy also dreamed that money equal success in all parts of life. Unfortunately for willy, both money and success eluded him into his downfall. It wasn’t that willy was to ambitious or even wanted to be better at everything, it was the fact that his dreams were just to unrealistic which led him to make bad choices in his living days.

In Hansberry play, the author introduce walter as someone who believes the American Dream to be all about getting rich and having wealth just like Loman once thought. To simply put, in one conversation, Walter Mama ask Walter why he always seem to talk about money. With this question being asked, Walter responds that “money is life”. By this, he explains that the presence of money now defines success in his generation. For Walter, he believes that money allows people to live comfortably and have a happy life, so for him, it is everything. In response, mama says that 'Once upon a time freedom used to be life, now it’s money. I guess the world really do change” (Hansberry 74, Act 1). In this Lorraine shows how the American dream changes through generations. She exemplifies the fact that the American dream is not defined by the needs of one generation. When a person from one generation fails to achieve their goal in their time, then they may never get to it. Despite the struggles, none of the family members achieves their dreams. For instance, mama talks of her husband's saying of how black Americans never reach their goals. She states that “Big Walter used to say...Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams'. This encapsulates the entire family’s story of not reaching where they feel like they ought to be. A racial aspect is brought in showing how difficult it is for a black man to get to their American dream. At the time the play was written there existed racial prejudice which made it even more daunting for a black person to get ahead in life. For instance, the family wanted to move to a white folk neighborhood, but the residents were willing to pay them more money not to.

In the play, Ruth states that “You remember how we used to talk when Travis was born, about the way we were going to live, the kind of house. Well, it’s all starting to slip away from us” (Hansberry 89, Act 2). Walter’s lack of achieving his dream is detailed when he is unable to provide the life he promised his wife. They were to move to a better neighborhood and give their son a better life. He lacks the money to do so but has an extremely ambitious aura. Even with the setbacks, he tries to see whether he can make his family comfortable. But like most people, he gets frustrated and disheartened by how difficult life seems to be for all of them. Beneatha has to defend her reason for wanting to pursue medicine after her dreams get shattered when her brother gets conned by his business partners and lacks the money to pay for her medical training. In an argument, she says that 'Well I do all right? Thank everybody! And forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all!” (Hansberry 37, Act 1). Beneatha is a visionary and an activist and her being the best version of herself is a way to beat the stereotypes that get placed upon black people and women. Thus when she is told that she might not be able to pursue her ambitions, it becomes particularly difficult to take.

In conclusion, the American Dream should not always focus on becoming rich to get happiness in life. Wealth is not something one should focus on to provide them with a happy lie because money alone does not make one happy. What is supposed to bring people together is love and caring for one another and not about how wealthier one is or the lifestyle one is living. A lot of the people have forgotten and the reason our governments are corrupt which is because they are controlled by wealthy individuals whose main aim is to stay wealthy, that alone is helping the rich stay in control. They don’t care about others, and the on promising changes are for their benefits. Having that amount of power or money can never make one truly happy in life.