A Raisin in the Sun, the characters’ have a dream of their own, which get in the way of the other characters’ dreams. These dreams divide the characters’, which create problems between them. The root of each of their dreams is through a ten-thousand dollar check. The dreams of three characters’, Walter, Beneath, and Mama Younger, create conflict with one another that make their dreams hard to achieve. Mama Younger, the mother of Walter and Beneath Younger, devoted her life to her children after her husband’s death and would do whatever it took to help sake her children’s dreams come true.
She was retired and waiting for her husband’s insurance money to arrive. With the ten-thousand dollar check, Mama decided to buy a house in Clubhouse Park and put some of the money in the bank for Beneath medical school. Mama Younger said, “Some of it got to be put away for Beneath and her schooling’ and anti nothing going to touch that part of it. Nothing. Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime, if we use part of the insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of pitch in. Loud maybe take on a little day work again, few days a week” (Act 1 , Scene 1, pig. 44). She expected that everyone would be happy with what she had planned to do with the money and they did, except for Walter Younger. Walter Younger, Mama’s son, set his dreams on owning a liquor store with the money he was hoping to invest from his mother. Walter was upset when he heard his mother had spent the insurance money on the house and thought it wasn’t fair that Beneath received some of it for her medical school while he received nothing for his business.
Mama, who always wanted her son to be happy, ended up giving the rest of the insurance money to Walter including the money for Beneath schooling. Mama Younger said to her son, “And from now on any penny that come out of it or that go in it is for you to look after. For you to decide. It anti much, but it’s all got in the world and I’m putting in your hands. I’m telling you to be head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (Act 2, Scene 2, Pig. 107). He appreciated the fact that his mother had enough trust in him to follow his dream.
Walter gave the money to his friend, Wily, to help him get his liquor license, but he betrayed him and ran off with the money. His dreams of owning a liquor store were destroyed and he regretted the fact that he didn’t listen to Mama or his sister Beneath. Beneath set her dreams on becoming a doctor when she got out of college. She was upset when she heard Walter didn’t put any of the money he received from Mama in the bank for her medical school. She was upset that her dream was destroyed from her brother and she gave up on becoming a doctor.
Beneath said, “Sagas, while was sleeping in that bed in there, people went out and took the future right out of my hands! And nobody asked me, nobody consulted me – they just went out and changed my life” (Act 3, Pig. 134)! But, her friend Sagas convinced her that there was still hope and that she wouldn’t have had the money if her father didn’t die. Beneath dream had returned and she also realized that she would want to marry Sagas and practice her medical career in Nigeria, Aegis’s homeland.
The ten-thousand dollar check was what got in he way of all of their dreams and caused conflict between the characters. Even though these money conflicts arose between the Younger family, it gave them a reason to fight for their dreams. They forgot about their hopelessness and moved to the new house for a new life. They knew it was going to be tough to start everything over and deal with the racist neighborhood they were moving into, but it was a new beginning for them. Through these characters, the play shows that dreams have to be held onto with determination, so that success can be achieved.
