What is one to do when one’s dream is deferred? How does one cope and move on with the several emotions that have been built because of this delay? In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, many characters’ dreams are deferred. From Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor to Walter’s dream of opening his own liquor store, dreams in the Younger family are genuinely abundant. A Raisin in the Sun portrays the life of the Younger’s, an African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the setting of sometime between WWII to the 1950s. As the play opens, Mama is expecting an insurance check of $10,000 that comes from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy. Each of the adult members of the family has their own ideas as to how to what he or she would like to do with this money; Mama wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with Walter Sr. while Walter, Mama’s son, would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store. And, Ruth, Walter’s wife, agrees with Mama and hopes that she and Walter will be able to provide a better lifestyle for their son Travis. Finally, Beneatha, Mama’s daughter thus Walter’s sister, wants to use the money for her academics. As the play progresses, the Younger’s clash over their competing dreams. Ruth soon discovers that she is pregnant and considers abortion as an option to keep their lifestyle from getting “harder” than it already is. When Walter finds out about Ruth’s pregnancy and abortion option, but has nothing to say, Mama puts a down payment on a house for the whole family. Everyone except Walter is ecstatic about their new home. When Walter is near to accepting Mama’s decision she tells them the house is located at Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood; this kind of changes things for them. The Younger’s future neighbors find out that the Younger’s are moving in and so they send Mr. Lindner, chairman of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, to offer the Younger’s money in return for staying away. In the end, the Younger’s refuse the deal; even after the mishap Walter has with the money. The Younger’s eventually move out of the apartment and although their future is uncertain and slightly dangerous, they are determined to live a better life. The Younger family overcame the harmful effects of a deferred dream with the love of family and perseverance. First, as the reader moves throughout the novel, the depiction of love can easily be spotted. Love is the foundation to the Younger family. Mama, the character whom withholds the most love of all, uses her love to overcome the damaging emotional effects of the family’s deferred dreams. There comes a time when Walter does something very awful and what was left of the insurance money is no longer in his hands. This misfortune, for awhile, was close to fully preventing the Younger’s from moving out of their rusty apartment into their new house. Beneatha gets frustrated but more importantly becomes disappointed in Walter that it even causes Beneatha to say something that urges Mama to teach her a lesson; open her eyes. BENEATHA. He’s no brother of mine. MAMA. What you say? BENEATHA. I said that that individual in that room is no brother of mine. MAMA. That’s what I thought you said…What you tell him a minute ago? That he wasn’t a man…Well, who give you the privilege? BENEATHA. Be on my side for once! You saw what he just did, Mama! MAMA. …But I thought I taught you something else too…I thought I taught you to love him. BENEATHA. Love him? There is nothing left to love. MAMA. There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing…Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning‒because that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in hisself ’cause the world done whipped him so? When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right…(145)
Mama scolds Beneatha and teaches her to stand by her brother. It’s like Mama’s telling Beneatha to be realistic; to support a loved one because it is love that helps the Younger family stand. To love Walter, her brother, at his time of need. It is this love that builds the family’s strength to turn down Mr. Lindner’s offer. When Ruth refers to the apartment as a “rat trap”, Mama deeply thinks about that word “rat trap” and recalls about life with Walter Sr.: “We was going to set away, little by little, don’t you know, and buy a little place out in Morgan Park. We had even picked out the house…and didn’t none of it happen” (45). Mama talks about the dream she shared with Walter Sr. and how it, too, got deferred. What’s more, Mama states that:
Crazy ’bout his children! God knows there was plenty wrong with Walter Younger‒hard-headed, mean, kind of wild with women‒plenty wrong with him. But 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 used to say…Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams‒but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while. (45-46) Walter Sr. loved his children so much that he was always working; trying to give them something, help them be something. His love strengthened his family, taught them to trust in each other, and allowed them to dream. Mama says that “when I lost that baby‒little Claude‒I almost thought I was going to lose Big Walter too” (45). This also displays the love Walter Sr. felt for his children. His children were basically his life, as we can see from what Mama said, she was sure Big Walter would go as well. Secondly, as much as love has the strength to overcome the effects of a deferred dream, perseverance does as well. Every character, from Travis to Beneatha work hard to get far in life. It was one morning when Travis told his mom, Ruth, he was supposed to bring fifty cents to school. Ruth said she didn’t have any so Travis asks, “Could I maybe go carry some groceries in front of the supermarket for a little while after school then” (29). Though it may not seem like there’s a huge reason for him wanting to work, little Travis certainly portrays it. Unlike the rest of the family, he doesn’t have a deferred dream; he just wants to work to earn those fifty cents. He may not be frustrated like his dad but he is building up to be something. Beneatha, a unique character that has been trying to “find” herself is an aspiring doctor. Mama asks: “Why you got to flit so from one thing to another, baby” (47). Beneatha “flits” and this shows how she is indecisive with maybe a bit of frustration that she simply doesn’t show. She overcomes her dream deferred by working really hard to become a greater person. Her perseverance to get far in life truly shows. Beneatha is a smart girl who obviously likes learning new things from guitar to acting. It’s also a way of expression as she does say that “People have to express themselves one way or another” (48). Indeed, one can overcome the effects, such as frustration, disappointment, and despair, of deferred dreams with the love of one’s family and perseverance. Langston Hughes poem begins with an innocent question: “What happens to a dream deferred?” (Hughes 1). The reader is left to contemplate the numerous amounts of possible outcomes to this simple question. This dream isn’t one that is experienced while sleeping; it’s the goal of a human being that is vital to what makes a human a valuable member of society and life. The emotions one feels while waiting for that dream to come true can be unbearable. It can affect someone and make them hurt those dear to them. In A Raisin in the Sun the Younger family went through a variety of these effects of emotions. The Younger family overcame these detrimental effects with perseverance and when they were all losing that little bit of hope, love helped them regain it.