Since the idea first emerged in 1931 the idea of the American Dream has been explored in many works of literature. The concept has been interpreted in many ways and the concept has taken on a new life separate from its creator’s original intentions. But it is still fulfilling that we recognize the original iteration of the American Dream and is endlessly interesting to use it as a lens to analyze American literature and its relationship to goals, recognition, community, and dreams. The 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry delves deep into each of these concepts, experimenting with their relationship to race, class, and gender in a grounded yet heartfelt production.

While the idea of the American Dream has been interpreted in countless different ways the phrase was first coined by writer and historian James Truslow Adams in his 1931 novel An American Epic. His novel expressed similar ideas throughout, but the American Dream was defined later in the book in a short paragraph that described it with a few key characteristics. Adams’ idea of the American Dream is as follows,

“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunities for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper class to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” (Adams, The Epic of America)

The excerpt contains many key points but at the center of it is an emphasis on succeeding as a community. The excerpt seldom refers to its ideals as an individual goal, rather the passage expresses that the American Dream is a common good that must be achieved by distributing opportunity evenly between all people without discrimination. There is also a direct condemnation of materialistic desires, explicitly ruling them out as part of the dream. The only sentence that expresses an individual desire as part of the dream is towards the end when it is stated that a desire to be recognized as oneself by their community is part of the dream. Otherwise, the entire dream is designed to encourage selfless community-oriented desires in its reader.

The play A Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry conveys the same message to the reader as the American Dream however the characters far from encapsulate its virtues until the conclusion. The characters struggle with their desire to be seen by each other for most of the play and all the while they rarely look past themselves to see that they could all reach their goals if they let themselves trust and rely on each other. A Raisin in the Sun follows a poor black family living in a run-down kitchenette. This family is called the Youngers, there are five living members of the family, but the family member who defines their journey most is the family member whose death happens before the play begins.

The members of the family make up almost the entire cast, very few side characters appear in this play, and the entire story stays in the family’s tiny apartment, creating a sense of claustrophobia that puts us in the character’s shoes immediately. Every character is defined in some way by a sense of ennui, some stronger than others but all feeling unsatisfied with themselves or their circumstances in some capacity. The most vocal about this feeling is Walter Lee Younger, the eldest child of the family. Walter is named after his late father “Big Walter” who despite being dead is a felt present through his family for the entire scene. Walter is married to Ruth Younger, who married into the family about 11 years ago, the two have a son named Travis. The other of the Younger siblings is Walter Lee’s sister Beneatha, who is a lot younger than Walter Lee and is attending Doctor school, Walter Lee and Beneatha are nearly constantly arguing, but they have more in common with each other than any other characters do. And lastly is Big Walter’s wife simply called Mama, who despite sometimes maintaining the demeanor of a harmless observer holds more power in the family than anyone else.

At the start of the play, no characters have achieved the American dream, but all of them have their ideas of what “success” is and how they should get to it. Throughout the play their ideas of success change as they learn to understand each other. One of the biggest hurdles keeping them from achieving the American Dream is the lack of real recognition they give each other. Every one of them is isolated in different ways. And a big part of this is their relationship with Big Walter.

Big Walter was a factory worker who cared very deeply for his family when he was alive, he worked hard his entire life to give his children the life he felt they deserved, and it broke him. Mama quotes Big Walter early in the play, “Seems like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams-but he did give us children to make those dreams seem worthwhile.” (Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun 45-46) Through his statement, we know why Big Walter pushed himself the way he did and how it taught his children to behave. Before the events of the play Big Walter died because of complications from his life of labor, he worked himself to death for his family, trying to give them a good life no matter the cost. This is of course a tragic course of events, but within the family it is aspirational. After Big Walter’s death Mama is sent an insurance check for ten thousand dollars, even after he dies Big Walter is still taking care of the family more than anyone else.

It is clear throughout the play that Walter Lee takes after his father in a lot of ways, he learned to have a desire to be the provider from his father. Mama calls attention to this “he sure loved his children. Always wanted them to have something-be something. That’s where Brother gets all these notions, I reckon. Big Walter,” (Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun 45) Interestingly unlike Big Walter who dedicated his life to uplifting his family Walter Lee believes that the same family is holding him back, especially his loving wife Ruth. While Big Walter encapsulates the American dream most of any character Walter Lee strays the furthest from its ideas rejecting it in favor of independent materialism.

Walter Lee resents Ruth for being a realist about his ambitions and he resents Beneatha for going to school to become a doctor. In Walter Lee’s mind, he is supposed to be the one to lift the family out of their situation, so he resents that his mother and younger sister are filling that role successfully and he isn’t. As much as Walter Lee loves his father he is overshadowed and eclipsed by him. Even in his name is the smaller one, his father will always shadow over him. It’s only when the whole family sees him all at once flaws and all without anyone comparing him to his father. that he can step into his power and be the person he wants to be.

Beneatha also takes after her father quite a bit, but she does not get placed in his shadow as much as Walter Lee does. Instead, Beneatha tries to project herself into the role of God. Mama has a lot of love for God, and Big Walter seemingly does too, whenever something good happens in Mama’s life she credits it to God or Big Walter, and much like how Walter Lee emulates Big Walter, Beneatha emulates God. When she talks to her mother about God she denies his existence, saying human will and creation was the god she believes in. Later when Beneatha talks about why she wants to be a doctor she says “I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know- and make them whole again. This was truly being God.” (Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun 133) Of course, she does not want to be God in a literal sense, but she does want to be recognized and seen by her mother, her mother who holds two people on a pedestal.

Big Walter and God are the only ones Mama sees in the way her kids need to be seen. So, while Walter Lee emulates his father Beneatha tries to emulate God. But of course, she fails to reach the level of perfection she is going for. And because she does not have as clear a path towards her goal as Walter Lee does, she flits from hobby to hobby, or man to man trying to find the experience that can make her feel fulfilled. She gets closer when she explores African culture and Asagai sees her for who she is, but it is only when Mama decides to trust Beneatha’s judgment and sees her that Beneatha can see herself.

Mama is at the same time the living person who understands the American Dream the most, but she is also the family member who needs to start seeing her children the most. Mama sees her children as extensions of her late husband, especially Walter Lee. When Walter Lee cannot properly fit the role that Big Walter fir in the family Mama feels immense disappointment as does Walter Lee. Mama also sees herself in Ruth, and when Ruth makes plans to get an abortion Mama sees it as a reflection of when she lost a child. Mama sees the way Walter Lee reacts to the abortion and when he does not react how Big Walter would have, she is beside herself. Saying “You…you are a disgrace to your father’s memory.” (Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun 75) In these earlier parts of the play, she treats him like an extension of his father. Her relationship with her children is not mended until she sees them and trusts them to make their own choices.

The Family failed to achieve the American Dream at the start of the play because they did not recognize each other for who they were, and they did not view each other’s success as part of their own. Walter Actively sabotaged everyone else’s success with his selfish gamble. Beneatha tries to move up in the world, but she focuses on trying to get fulfillment in materialistic ways, jumping from one hobby to another, and fantasizing about a life far from her family. She also wants people to understand her mistakes and her bad decisions but refuses to give Walter Lee the same Courtesy. Mama projects her life experiences and specifically her husband onto members of her family, often not seeing them for their true selves, but rather as sources of wish fulfillment.  

Through the course of the play, they each come to realize that how they were acting was wrong. They move away from the Kitchenette freeing themselves from the tight limiting space and moving up in the world, no matter what anyone else tells them to do. But that isn't why they achieved the American dream. The American Dream in its earliest form prioritized community, mutual respect, and shared success. In deciding as a group to move and teaming up against Lindner they finally become a unit that can work together to lift each other. It does not matter what social status they made it to what house they live in, or what kinds of jobs or education they end up with. They Finally successfully lived up to Big Walter’s legacy and recognized each other’s value. That is the American dream as it was originally pictured.

Citation

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun: A Drama in Three Acts. Random House (NY), 1959.

Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. 1931.