In the drama, "A Raisin in the Sun- by Lorraine Hansberry, the overall theme seems to be about the never ending saga of chasing the American Dream: having everything we want and the financial stability to enjoy it. Hansberry uses the civil rights aspect that most blacks fought for in the early part of the century in the background of the play. The dreams of each of the characters are also defined and seem no different than most people's dreams: Lena dreams of a house and a garden, Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor, Ruth dreams of having a place with a lot of windows and plenty of sunshine, Walter dreams of having money to start his own business, and Travis dreams of having his own room. Almost every American has, at some point, dreamed of having something that they do not have or can not afford. I know that I can relate to that myself. .
The setting is very well defined by Hansberry. She begins by describing the apartment: .
The Younger living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being. Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years "and they are tired. Still, we can see that at some time, a time probably no longer remembered by the family (except perhaps for Mama), the furnishings of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope "and brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and pride. .
It is made well apparent to the reader that the apartment is not neglected but is lived in. The two bedroom apartment houses three generations of Youngers in its small confines and is located in Chicago's Southside, quite frequently referred to as the Ghetto. Even though the apartment is apparently in a bad section of town the Youngers do not allow the inside to reflect their surroundings; they have more pride than that.
