Lorraine Hansberry wrote the award winning play" A Raisin in the Sun." It is set in Chicago's Southside in the late 1940's. The story reflects her own experience of racial harassment when her successful family moved into a white neighborhood. She got her title from a line in a Langston Hughes poem named," Harlem (A Dream Deferred) (534) -What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? (1-3) This title is in reference to one of the main characters. He has a dream but racial tension going on at the time and his family's opinion and interference does not help his dream come true. .
Walter Lee Younger is a man in his mid 30's. He is a chauffer. He lives with his wife Ruth, his son Travis, his mother Lena, and his sister Benetha. Walter has a serious conflict with his wife. They are talking about a plan that he and his friend have to open a liquor store. He has it all figured out but his wife shuns him because she things his partner, Willy Harris is "a good-for-nothing loud mouth"(1.1.992). He sarcastically reminds her about the last "good-for-nothing loud mouth" she didn't like-"Charlie Atkins was just a good-for-nothing loud mouth too, wasn't he! When he wanted me to go into the dry cleaning business with him. And now he is grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thousand dollars a year! And you still call him a loud mouth!" (1.1.992). Walter is very upset and bitter with his wife over the fact that they could have been getting this money and been successful. He also feels that she isn't being supportive of him. Everything he tries to do she talks down upon him. He tries to explain that he and Willie have everything figured out she stops him and shows no interest in what he has to say-" Walter leave me alone! Eat your eggs they gonna get cold " (1.1.993) his point of why he thinks she is not supporting him proves itself with her comment.