Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin In The Sun - Dignity and the American Dr

Dignity and the American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun The American Dream, although different for each of us, is what we all aspire to achieve. In Lorraine Hansberrys, play, A Raisin in the Sun, each instalment of the Younger family despairingly hopes for their own opportunity to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream to the Younger family is to own a home, but beyond that, to Walter Younger, it is to be accepted by white society. In the book entitled advertizement the American Dream, Roland Marchand refers to the American Dream as the belief that if you work hard and play by the rules, then you will achieve your goals (Marchand 1). In the play, Walter lee side Younger does not do either one of these things. Walter doesnt show up for work regularly and he certainly has no intentions of playing by the rules to shorten a business licenses. Walter Lee is a man stuck in a dead end job that he sees as demeaning and he becomes desperate to free himself from the bonds of po verty, oppression and racial discrimination. Walter Lee feels that with money he can change the hegemonys view of him as a poor, stupid, black servant. The hegemonys social construction of naive realism about blacks as being lesser and the hegemonys ethnocentric perception of being superior, is corroborated in an article titled The Colour Bar of Beauty from The Peak. Cristina Rodrigues, a member of the black cultural and social activist group Olodum, says In Brazil, nobody wants to be black because the mass media equates black with poor and stupid (Aujla 2). Walter has a lovely relationship with his family members, but he also has a relationship that frustrates him. Walters family frustrations are brought on by societys lack o... ...y. The Peak. 4 May 1998 1-5. accessible http//www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-2/issue1/colourbar.html Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York Signet, 1988. Johnson, Lyndon B. The American Promise. Public Papers of the Presidents of the Unite d States Lyndon Johnson, vol. 1 (1965), 281. 1-9. Available http//www.civnet.org/resoures/teach/basic/par6/40.htm Marchand, Roland. Advertising the American Dream. Los Angeles, CA. University of California Press, 1985 Margolin, Michael. Reasons in the Sun. Metro Times. 25 March 1998 1-3. Available http//www.metrotimes.com/arts/stories/18/26/RasnInSn.html U.S. Census Bureau. United States Government Bureau of Statistics. Available http//www.census.gov/prod/3/98pub/p20-509u.pd U.S. Federal Law. Cornell Law Resources. Available http//law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-156.ZS.html