“What happens to a dream deferred?
Langston Hughes in Harlem
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, first produced in 1959, is one of the greatest American plays of the century. Set in Chicago within the household of an African-American family, the play deals with themes of prejudice, racism, and hopes.
Walter, Mama, Ruth, Beneatha, and Travis all live in a cramped south-side Chicago apartment and they each have their American dream. With different ideas of what to do, they must decide how to use the $10,000 life insurance check being paid out after the death of Mama’s husband. Mama wants to realize her dreams of having a real home; Beneatha wants to go to medical school; and Walter wants to start a business with his friends. There’s so much of what they want to do, yet so little time and opportunities.
The short play is brimming with poignancy about family life and questions of assimilation, dreams, and hope. Hansberry weaves together memorable characters in Mama, her daughter Beneatha, her son Walter Lee, and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Beneatha stands as the face of the new black woman, with her aspirations to become a doctor and her enticements on her African heritage. The dreams shared by Walter Lee and Ruth are more oriented toward family but are nevertheless ambitious.
Racial prejudices are also touched upon when Mama finally buys a house located in a white neighborhood. Instead of a welcome, the Youngers are met with their white would-be neighbors doing everything in their power to prevent them from moving in—even being offered to buy their home at an increased price.
Hansberry’s portrayal of family life is poignant with relevancy and meaning. The social issues that are interwoven into the narrative feel natural, and the family’s retaliation to such problems is satisfying in their declaration of family and racial pride.
~ 5 stars.
