A Dream Deferred In: A Raisin In The Sun (Work Cited)
...Hughes asks in his 1959 poem “Dream Deferred.” He suggests that it might “dry up like a raisin in the sun” (Hughes ll. 2-3) or “stink like rotten meat” (Hughes l. 6); however, at the end of the poem, Hughes offers another alternative by asking, “Or does it explode?” (Hughes l. 11) This is the view Lorraine Hansberry supports in her 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, in witch she examines an African-American’s family’s struggle to break out of the poverty that is preventing them from achieving some sort of financial stability, or the American Dream. It focuses on Walter’s attempt in “making it,” or “being somebody.” She also analyzes how race, prejudice, and economic insecurity affect a black mans role in his own family, his ability to provide, and his identity. What Hansberry is trying to illustrate is how Western civilization has conditioned society to have materialistic aspirations and how these ideals corrupt the black man's identity and his family.
Many black men have to deal with a systematic racism that affects their role in society. The frustrations that a black man has to deal with can affect the family a great deal. For example, if Walter gets upset at work or has a bad day, he can’t get irritated with his boss and risk loosing his job; instead he takes it out on his wife Ruth. He’s not even capable of providing his son Travis with some pocket change without becoming broke himself. He is unhappy with his job and he desperately seeks for an opportunity to improve his family standing. He tells his mother how he feels about his job when she wouldn’t give him the ten thousand dollars; “I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, yes sir, no sir, very good sir; shall I take the drive, sir? Mama, that ain’t no kind of job... that ain’t anything at all. Mama, I don't know if I can make you understand”...
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