What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, or fester like a sore? This is the line from the Langston Hughes poem that served as the inspiration for the play and movie “A Raisin In The Sun.” The title is about dreams, but the story is about family; the structural and functional internal conflicts and the solid front it presents to the world. The solidarity of the Younger family is tested when the opportunity presents itself, in the form of a $10,000 life insurance payment. The way this money is viewed by the different family members illustrates some of the topics and theories we have been discussing. The questions and conflicts arise as to whose dreams must be deferred?
The mother, Lena wants the security of a home for her family. This secure home is a great part of the American Dream and something she has been working for all her life. Her daughter-in-law Ruth supports her in this. Ruth has a young son Travis who Lena is helping to parent. These women see a home of their own as necessary to provide a secure future for them all. The realization of this dream is further complicated by prejudice. After finding a home in a white neighborhood the property manager, Karl Lindner, a member of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. tries to buy them out.
Walter Younger sees business ownership as the most important way to secure the family’s fortune. He has been working for years as the primary breadwinner for the house. As such he is the patriarch. He has a low paying job with little chance for advancement, and even less chance to escape the drudgery of his existence. Now he sees the opportunity to work at his own business and build a future where hard work means advancement. An opportunity presents itself in the form of a package store and he wants to take charge and use the money to buy the store.
The next element of family that comes into play is that of the feminist prospective of the time. Benetha rejects the typical woman’s role in life. She is not sure she wants to marry, and especially marry someone who will expect her to become a conventional wife. Benetha’s dream is Medical School. She has the intelligence and grades to succeed but this is her opportunity to afford it. Lena wants to be fair to both her children, even though Benetha has a more self-centered vision.
Lena wants to see all her children realize their dreams. Using a democratic approach she first buys a home, which is what two of the four of them want. Then she acknowledges the patriarchal position of Walter and gives him the $6,500 she has after putting the deposit on a home. To balance things out and to allow for family development she tells him to use $3,500 for the package store and save $3,000 for Benetha’s schooling.
This $3,000 becomes the foundation of the next family issues that come into play These illustrate the theories of symbolic interaction between the patriarch creating conflict with the family feminist. Walter takes the money for Benetha’s schooling and gives the whole $6,500 to his friend Willie to get the package store. The friend absconds with it. In one blow he becomes the “taker and the tooken.” Losing both his dream and his sister’s with one foolish, careless act.
Now what is left is the opportunity to recover some of the loss by selling the new family home to the property manager at a profit. This would help repair their finances, and Walter’s ego, as the patriarch, but at the cost of the democratic views and Lena’s and Ruth’s dreams. No one would be happy, but there would be more money again.
Running as an undercurrent as these events unfold is the growing understanding for all the family that Ruth is not only pregnant but considering an abortion. This is a symbolic construct as well are a dramatic illustration of family development. Ruth sees an abortion as necessary because of the poverty they already live in. Lena sees it as wrong, that they should create life not destroy it. Walter is so caught up in his own discontent he does not see it at all.
The greatest theme is the solidarity of the family. Within that unit Lena acts as both the grandmother and parent to her grandson. The start of feminism and the change in how an independent woman views marriage plays out. Other topics addressed in the framework of the family are the symbolic interactions, along with the conflict and exchange that is necessary to work things out. In the end the shift from Patriarchy to Democracy is seen in Walter’s final decision about taking the money from Karl Linder, over the objection of most of his family. All those factors are involved and get worked through because no matter what else the family must be preserved.
References
A Raisin in the Sun. Dir. Daniel Pitrie. Perf. Sidney Poitier, et al. 1961.
