Dreams Deferred: Aspirations and Realities in A Raisin in the Sun
Dreams and Aspirations in A Raisin in the Sun
A dream is a wish, an aspiration, or a hope. Younger people have dreams for their future, and their parents have dreams for their children’s future. Mama, Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha all live under the same roof and have completely different dreams. Some affect only one person, while others have a bigger impact on many other people. Through the characters’ dreams, the author presents different points of view.
Mama’s Dream: A Home for the Family
Mama’s dream of moving into a new house benefits the whole family, not only her. She is conscious that Travis doesn’t even have a room to sleep in. The inheritance money her husband left after his death was perfect to buy a new house, and all except Walter were excited. Mama wants to do the right thing, and although she couldn’t provide Walter with everything he needed for the liquor store, she tried her best. Mama wanting to buy a new house emphasizes the theme of the story, which is that the dreams that benefit more people are the ones that will become true and succeed. This also emphasizes that family unity is the most important thing, and she believes that moving to a new house, which belongs to them, will make them more united and give them a fresh start, which is something they need.
Beneatha’s Dreams: Education and Identity
Beneatha is a college student and the most educated member of the family. She hopes one day to become a doctor. In the 1900s, it was rare to find a Black woman with such a good education and high ambitions. Beneatha was devastated when she learned that the $3000 her mother kept for her medical school was taken by her father, Walter, to invest in the liquor store. This made Mama’s dream of giving a good education to her daughter fail, and made her lose all of her hope. In addition, her low status and being a Black woman made it even more difficult to achieve the career she wanted, due to the fact that society had the vision of women working at home and not elsewhere.
Beneatha also has another dream, which is to have her own identity. She does this by finding out more about her past and her culture as an African-American.
Ruth’s Dream: A Stable Family Life
Ruth sees the world very similarly to how Mama sees it. Ruth looks forward to building a family; however, her dream gets deferred due to the lack of money they have. This forces her and her husband, Walter, to live in a small, crowded apartment, where there is only one room and their son, Travis, needs to sleep on the sofa. She isn’t an egocentric character, as she’s the only one who doesn’t express an individual dream. She always thinks of her family before herself, and when she knew she was pregnant, she considered having an abortion so that the family conditions didn’t worsen because of having another mouth to feed.
Walter’s Dream: Wealth and Opportunity
Walter’s dream is to become wealthy and to provide for his family. He wants to give them things that he never had, so we can clearly see that his dream has been stopped by poverty and the inability to find a decent employment to work in, where he could earn enough money for his needs and his family’s too. He had hope in the business he opened with Willy Harris, which was a liquor store, but Willy ran off with all of the money Walter invested, resulting in a failed dream.
Conclusion: Classifying Dreams
To conclude, we can classify dreams in many categories, such as failed dreams, deferred dreams, and hopeful dreams.