Loraine Hansberry gives a more complicated look at dreams than John Steinbeck: some come true, while others "dry up like a raisin in the sun." In the play A Raisin in The Sun, she describes how non .
selfish dreams that effect more than one person come true, while dreams .
that are only for personal reasons, don't. In the story a lower class .
African American family tries to get by through everyday life. One day .
Momma gets a ten thousand-dollar check from her insurance company. Each .
member of the family has his or her own idea of what will be done with the.
money. Walter wants to use the money to buy a liquor store, while Beneatha wants to use the money to pay for her college. Finally Momma wants to use the money to purchase a nice house in a better neighborhood, with a small .
garden in the back yard. All of these characters have the own ideas about .
what the money could be used for, but they should make a decision that .
will benefit the entire family, and not just themselves.
Walters Younger's dream was to take the insurance money and open a .
liquor store with his friends Willie Harris and Bobo. He believes that .
by opening this liquor store he will no longer have to work for someone .
else. He can be his own boss and also he will be able to work his own .
hours. "You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy- five thousand dollars"(33). Walter believes that by opening this liquor store, he can make money for himself, and also a little bit for the family. Walter also believed that owning a liquor store, would make him feel like he had accomplished something great in his life time." I was looking in the mirror, thinking bout it, I am thirty five years old: I've been married eleven years, and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room"(34). Walter's dream however, did not come true, because the whole time he dreamt of the liquor store he thought more about himself, and how it would make him feel fulfilled.
