Dreams Theme in The Play a Raisin in The Sun

In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, the theme, dreams, is depicted through the eyes of Ruth, Mama, Walter, and Benetha. Furthermore, the play is about the members of the Younger family who oftentimes have their dreams be deferred because the wealth of the family doesn't come easy, as an example, Mama struggles to give Travis the fifty cents he needs for a classroom activity. Nonetheless, this play is about an African American family, which speaks about one's specific desire of improving their circumstances based on the costs they can afford, not only are they trying to improve the circumstances they want to look beyond the parts of segregation and disenfranchisement that is occurring in their town of Chicago in the 1950s.

In the play, Ruth’s dream is interchangeable to Mamas, due to the fact that Ruth wanted a bigger and better house for the family that she would've raised, just like Mamas where she wanted a big house with a garden to be able to have her children play and her practice her gardening skills in the back of her home, the garden symbolizes the fact that she would be nurturing plants like she would nurture her own family. Though both of their dreams are deferred due to the fact of lack of money which leads to them living in a crowded apartments with their family.

Not only is Mama's dream interchangeable with Ruth, but the dream of the big house with a garden also comes from the fact that once her husband, Big Walter Lee, was deceased, they would have the claim of $10,000 from the insurance. This insurance money would then be used to provide the happiness for the family that Walter would've wanted. Although Walter’s dream was to build a liquor store, with one of his great friends, Willy Harris, was not such a great idea because he would be the only one benefiting from it since he owned it, his family then thought that this was very selfish and self-centered of him to do so.

Last but not least, comes the dreams of Beneatha. The dreams of Benetha would be considered the most concern for others, she decides she wants to become a doctor, Walter had the intention of putting down $3,500 for the costs of Benethas medical school, but since Walter loses money in the process of getting the liquor store, her dream is then deferred.

The author of this play, Lorraine Hansberry, wrote this play in spirit of when she grew up on the South Side of Chicago and had the experiences of segregation. The side of an activist of Hansberry comes out when she adds the quote into the play, which is Walter speaking to Mama, Walter had asked Mama, “Why, Clybourne Park? Mama, there ain’t no colored people living in Clybourne Park.”, she says “Well, I guess there’s going to be some now... I just tried to find the nicest place for the least amount of money for my family... Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out always seem to cost twice as much.”, Later on in an interview, “The problem is that Negroes are just as segregated in the city of Chicago now as they were then”. This lets us know that society had not changed yet then for her to say something like that, it is as if the negroes would be standing out in a group of whites.

As also seen in the poem, Harlem, by Langston Hughes, that their dreams deferred, “shrivel up like a raisin in the sun” due to the fact that every single one of the family members that have a dream which was deferred, throughout the play they do struggle to maintain these dreams, but not only do they have individual dreams, they have one at the end of it and that is a big house for everyone to unite them like a family.