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As it happens, however, the events of the third act indicate that the Youngers have further to fall. Walter, who begins Act III in a state of shock, eventually emerges from this state with a new scheme.
1 contributor. One of the most famous poems penned by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. Written in 1951, this poem was the inspiration for Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in...
The title, taken from Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” (which is also sometimes called “A Dream Deferred”) suggests the central question of the play: What happens to a dream that is deferred or postponed?
- Setting
- Act One, Scene One
- Plot Points
- Famiy Ties
- "In My Mother's House There Is Still God"
A Raisin in the Suntakes place during the late 1950s. Act One is set in the crowded apartment of the Younger Family, an African-American family comprised of Mama (early 60s), her son Walter (mid-30s), her daughter-in-law Ruth (early 30s), her intellectual daughter Beneatha (early 20s), and her grandson Travis (age 10 or 11). In her stage directions...
The play begins with the Younger family's early morning ritual, a fatigued routine of waking up and preparing for the working day. Ruth wakes up her son, Travis. Then, she wakes up her groggy husband, Walter. He is obviously not thrilled to awaken and begin another dismal day working as a chauffeur. Tension boils between the husband and wife charac...
The Younger family has been waiting for an insurance check to arrive. The check promises to be ten-thousand dollars, made out to the matriarch of the family, Lena Young (usually known as "Mama"). Her husband passed away after a life of struggle and disappointment, and now the check in some ways symbolizes his last gift to his family. Walter wants t...
After Travis and Walter have left the apartment, Mama enters. Lena Younger is soft spoken most of the time, but not afraid to raise her voice. Hopeful for her family's future, she believes in traditional Christian values. She often does not understand how Walter is so fixated on money. Mama and Ruth have a delicate friendship based upon mutual resp...
Beneatha re-enters the scene. Ruth and Mama chide Beneatha because she has been "flitting" from one interest to the next: guitar lesson, drama class, horse-back riding. They also poke fun at Beneatha's resistance toward a rich young man (George) whom she has been dating. Beneatha wants to focus on becoming a doctor before she even considers marriag...
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By Langston Hughes. What happens to a dream deferred? 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? Langston Hughes, "Harlem" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes.
A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on the fulfillment of an African-American family’s dreams. The play centers on the Youngers, a working-class family that lives in Chicago’s South Side during the mid-twentieth century.
by Lorraine Hansberry. A Raisin in the Sun Analysis. The poem's title is an allusion to Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem," which asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?" The speaker offers...
