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Baker
Nicholas Baker
Dr. LeCoeur
American Literature
21 April 2009
play that touches on subjects that range from racism to family to poverty. The play is
appropriate both thematically and for the fact that the play’s name is taken from the third
line in the poem. The thematic appropriateness of referencing this poem stems from the
struggles (internal or otherwise) within the play. These struggles come as a result of the
characters having their dreams deferred by racism. Hansberry uses the play’s characters
to answer the questions asked in Hughes’ poem. She does this to transmit the pain of
being black in the fifties in a way that the reader cannot easily dismiss.
understanding of this play requires knowledge of both the time in which the play was
written and the playwright who wrote it. The parallels between Lorraine’s life and the
While Lorraine grew up in a family that was much closer to George Murchison’s class
level, her family fought the same struggle with racial discrimination that the Younger’s
did. Lorraine Hansberry was born May 1930 in Chicago, Illinois to prominent real estate
broker Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nannie Louise Perry. She grew up on the south side
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constant harassment as a result of being black while living in this location. Another
source of hostility directed at Lorraine came from the fact that her father, as a black real
estate agent, was involved in fighting racial discrimination in the housing industry. When
Lorraine was nine years old, her father Carl Hansberry took a case against
neighborhood’s “racial covenants” all the way to the United States Supreme Court. This
famous case known as Hansberry v. Lee, which Carl Hansberry won, added to the
which she lived. She described where she lived as a “hellishly hostile white
neighborhood” where “howling mobs” surrounded her home. She was almost killed
when a cement slab was hurled through a window of her family’s home. The
neighborhood was so dangerous that Hansberry’s mother patrolled the house at night with
The play begins by setting the stage both literally and figuratively. The
instructions for the set, when read (or seen, as the case may be), form a visual metaphor
for the state of the family and their deferred dreams. The description of the stage starts
out by describing the “center” of the Younger’s life, the living room:
This point is driven home to a further extent with the outright declaration that “Weariness
has, in fact, won this room” which directly parallels the state of the Younger family at the
start of the play (Hansberry 436). Ruth is perhaps the best example of this weariness and
there are direct parallels between her and the room in the opening description. Both are
described as once having been “new” but are being worn down by time; “The furnishings
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of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope...That was a long
time ago...everything has been sat on, used, scrubbed too often” (Hansberry 436). Ruth is
similarly described, “We can see that she was a pretty girl, even exceptionally so...
disappointment has begun to hang in her face...In a few years, before thirty-five even, she
The intended effect of the opening sequence is to move the reader or viewer into
the Younger’s mindset of tired struggle, resignation, and mild - but inescapable - poverty.
The sense of a tired struggle is further highlighted in the beginning of the play by having
everyone (except Ruth) sleeping and then having Ruth wake them. The struggle that Ruth
has in waking her family is symbolic of Ruth’s role as a both a martyr and driving force in
the family. It is also has the practical effect of showing that each member of the family is
worn out. Hansberry’s ability to immerse the audience within the Younger’s sense of
hopelessness is very obvious in the opening of the play thanks to this effective stage
the inspiration for the title of A Raisin in the Sun. The title is taken from the third line of
the Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem, (A Dream Deferred)”. The poem asks a series of
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Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
The play answers many of the questions stated in the poem by using the Youngers as a
medium to show the result of deferring one’s dream. Each character has a dream that
they have either deferred as a result their own actions or have had deferred through no
Ruth is the best example of a dream deferred “sagging like a heavy load.” The
dream she has had deferred is life outside of the ghetto (for herself and for her family).
Her dream of a better life has been replaced by tired resignation. She has resigned herself
to living out her life in the apartment that she calls a “rat trap” (Hansberry 447). This
resignation can be seen clearly in the dialogue between her and Walter during breakfast at
the start of the play. In this scene, Walter tells Ruth his about dream of owning a liquor
store so that the family can be financially independent. This independence, of course,
would give Ruth with the ability to leave the ghetto (her dream). Ruth, in her state of
hopeless resignation, ignores him by telling him to eat his eggs. Ruth says the phrase “eat
your eggs” 5 times in rapid succession (Hansberry 437). This phrase is used to show
Ruth’s internalization of what society has been telling her. “Eat your eggs” is really “stay
in your place.” She has internalized this and is regurgitating it to Walter, who resents her
for not supporting him: “Walter: That’s it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got
me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs” (Hansberry 441). Ruth’s “heavy load” also
manifests itself in her willingness to have an abortion, an extreme act for the 1950s since
both the mother and abortionist could be jailed. She has become desperate because of the
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Walter is a good example of what happens when a dream deferred runs away.
Walter’s dream is to be able to provide for his family so that they do not have to struggle
in poverty. He wants to be able to give his wife pearls and hand down a means for
support and pride to his son. This is made very clear during an outburst he makes when
Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living-
room couch... (Turning to mama and speaking directly to her.) Yeah – and tell it
to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after
somebody else’s kids. And tell it to me, Mama, every time we need a new pair
of curtains and I have to watch you go out and work in somebody’s kitchen.
(Hansberry 461)
At the beginning of the story Walter is described as nervous and erratic. As the story
progresses he becomes even more so as he sees his only chance of prosperity become
more and more unlikely. Mama describes his state of mind with the statement,
“Something eating you up like a crazy man” (Hansberry 461). The tension in Walter that
has built up over the years finally comes to a head when he loses most of the insurance
check money to Willy. Walter becomes distraught and decides the only way he can help
his family is by selling out --both literally and figuratively-- to Mr. Lindner and the
Homeowner’s association.
Mama (Lena) shows what happens when a dream “festers like a sore.” Her first
dream was to have her own house with her husband “Big Walter.”
But I remember the first day me and Big Walter moved in here We
hadn't been married but two weeks. And we wasn't planning on living here
more than a year. We was going to set away a little by little... and buy us a little
old two-story out in Morgan Park. We'd even picked out the house. Looks right
dumpy today. But, child, you should have known all them dreams I had...about
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buying me that house and then fixing it up. And make me a little garden out in
back. But none of it happened. (Hansberry 447)
Mama, unlike the other characters in the play does not become resigned or depressed at
the deferral of her dream. She instead finds hope and joy by replacing her dead dream
with a new one that is real and happening, her family. Unfortunately for Mama, this
dream has begun to “fester like a sore” as the harsh conditions that deferred Mama’s
dreams have begun to defer the rest of the families dreams as well. The state of the
family, including Mama’s role in it, is represented by Mama’s houseplant: “Mama: Lord,
if this little plant don't start getting more sun, it ain't never going to see spring again”
(Hansberry 444). The connection between Mama, the family, and the houseplant is also
shown at the end of the play during a conversation between Bernetha and Mama:
Mama: I'm fixing my plant so it won't get hurt none on the way
Bernice: You going to take that thing with us to the new house? That ragged-
Iooking old thing?
Mama: It expresses me
(Hansberry 487)
Mama is the caretaker of the plant and family, and even though both are ragged and worn
Like a syrupy sweet” (Hughes 435). Travis, who has no knowledge of anything different,
has begun to think of life in the ghetto as a normal thing. In an earlier draft of the play,
this point is driven home in a much stronger fashion. In this version of the play (later
becoming the American Playhouse Version), Travis comes home just after Ruth reveals
the down payment to the abortionist, and tells an epic story about how he, a few friends,
and the building janitor killed some rats downstairs. At the end of the story he happily
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states, “There’s rat blood all over the street” causing Ruth clutch him to her and to clamp
her hand over his mouth (Carter 48). This underscores Travis’s adjustment to the
conditions of the ghetto, including violence. It also, as critic Stephen Carter puts it,
“Reinforces [Ruth’s] sense of ugliness of ghetto life that has forced her to consider
destroying her unborn child” (Carter 48). Another telling moment in the play comes
when Walter asks Travis what he wants to be when he grows up. Travis answers that he
wants to be a bus driver. His dreams have been stunted to the point that he “aspires” to
Bernetha is the only member of the family who seems at least partially immune to
the effects of having her dreams deferred. Her education and exposure to life outside of
the ghetto seems to have provided a partial cushion to it, and her options are nowhere as
limited as the rest of the family. In many ways Bernetha seems out of place in the story.
Her lifestyle, such as wasting fifty-five dollars on a horse riding outfit and buying a guitar
on a whim, seems quite of out sync with the family’s situation. The family is poor
enough that an argument ensues over fifty cents near the beginning of the play. It seems
like her inclusion is an excuse for Hansberry to present philosophical ideas about identity.
While this is an appropriate theme, the execution comes across to me as weak because the
character does not fit the situation of the Youngers. As a result of the poor fit, I feel her
character takes away from both the believability of the story and its thematic clarity.
The only pain that Bernetha shares with the family is that she is hurt by Walter’s loss of
the insurance money. The play does not, however, conclusively state that she will be
unable to attend medical school because of the lack of money. It is likely that it will be
harder to pay for but not impossible. She is also, near the end of the play, given the
option to marry Asagai and join him in Nigeria so that she can be a doctor there.
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The play’s conclusion partially resolves each of the characters problems and
deferred dreams. This occurs because of Mama’s decision to buy a new house and
Walter’s renewal of pride by rejecting Mr. Lindner’s offer to buy out the family’s home.
Mama and Ruth’s dreams of leaving the ghetto get fulfilled. Walter does not get a
business to hand down to his son or pearls to give to his wife, but he is able to see that his
is selling not only his own self-worth, but also his family’s pride. He also realizes what
the act he is about to commit will do to Travis’s understanding of himself in the world.
Even if he buys the family prosperity, he sees that it would not bring the satisfaction and
self-worth he wants for himself and his family. He decides would rather pass down a
sense of self worth and pride, than money. Walter’s actions also help heal the rifts that
have formed in the family over the course of the play. The family becomes whole again,
The cost of this renewal is that they will now live in a hostile white neighborhood.
The published version of the play does not focus on the danger involved with the move,
although it is foreshadowed during the scene with Mrs. Johnson showing Mama and Ruth
BOMBED” (476 Raisin). Instead, Hansberry chooses, most likely due to strong fifties
censorship, to concentrate on the hope the family has found. The published version ends
with the family excitedly moving stuff to the moving van while Mama is alone in the
house. During this final scene Mama has an emotional moment and grabs her plant to
take with her. The effect of this gives a strong, emotional conclusion that ties the ending
to the beginning by referencing the plant metaphor. It does not, however, show that the
family has effectively moved out of a fire and into a frying pan. In a older draft of the
play, this danger is made much more obvious by ending the play with the family camped
out in their new home, armed with guns and waiting to be attacked by angry white
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neighbors. This is a parallel to Hansberry’s experience of having her mother patrol the
house at night with a Luger. This deleted scene shows both the level of fear she
Mama: You understand what this new house done become, don’t you?
Walter: Yes – I think so.
Mama: We didn’t make it that – but that’s what it done become.
Walter: Yes
Mama: Brother.
Walter: Yes—
Mama: (not looking at him):
I’m proud of you my boy. (Walter is silent) ‘Cause you got get up... and you got
try again. You understand. You got to have more sense with it – and I got to be
more with you – but you got to try again. You understand?
Walter: Yes Mama. We going to be all right, Mama. You and me, I mean
Mama: (Grinning at him):
Yeah—if the crackers don’t kill us all first. (Carter, 50-51)
It is possible that Mama’s lines are meant to be directed at her father, who after winning
Hansberry vs. Lee and seeing no change, became embittered and moved to Mexico in
powerful work. The themes were well developed and thought provoking. The dialogue
and action is believable due to Hansberry’s careful story and diction choice. The only
major flaw I found while reading was Bernetha’s character feeling out of place and
strangely developed. I never really felt like she “belonged.” The play could have also
benefited from the use of some of the deleted material, though in Hansberry’s defense,
some of these scenes were removed due to censors and not her own artistic judgment
(Carter). Her use of Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” as the
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source of the play’s title helps to really tie the story and characters together in a way that
is very effective. The answers the play gives the to poem’s questions are sad.
Unfortunatly the answers are also less brutal than what some black Americans of the era
may have given. Lynching was still practiced in some areas of the United States during
this era; there were eleven recorded lynchings in the United States during the fifties
Chicago, as opposed to the extreme. Their lives, though challenging, are filled with hope.
By using the average, instead of the extreme, Hansberry succeeds in keeping the reader
from rejecting the Younger’s plight as the exception, rather than the rule that it was
(Carter). The result is the reader cannot easily avoid the pain the Younger’s experience
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Works Referenced/Cited
Gibson, Robert A. "The Negro Holocaust: Lynching and Race Riots in the United
States,1880-1950." Yale.edu. 12 Apr. 2009
<http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html>.
<http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/hansberry_larraine.html>.
Schilb, John , and Clifford, John, eds. A Raisin in the Sun. By Lorraine Hansberry.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, n.d. 433-503
Schilb, John , and Clifford, John, eds. The Lost City. Alan Ehrenhalt. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, n.d. 507-515
Schilb, John , and Clifford, John, eds. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography.
By Sidney Poitier. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, n.d. 433-503