Harlem In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, Hansberry includes an epigraph of the poem, “Harlem”, by Langston Hughes. In Harlem, the speaker contemplates what happens to a dream that is left unfulfilled. The speaker experiments with various ideas, comparing the dream to a festering sore, rotting meat and an explosion. Interestingly, these thoughts are parallels with Beneatha, Ruth, and Walter Younger’s dreams in A Raisin in the Sun. “Harlem” is appropriately placed as an epigraph to A Raisin in the Sun because it connects and foreshadows the dreams and conflicts of the characters in the play.
The Youngers reside as a struggling black family in a time of fiery segregation against minorities in America. Beneatha Younger, being the
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Walter proves that, yes, an incomplete dream can explode. Walter’s ultimate goal in the play is to make sure that his son, Travis, could lead an easier life than what he has to go throughout the play. As Walter’s mother says, “seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while” (Hansberry 503). Walter plans to use his share of money from his father’s check to invest in a liquor shop, in order to eventually make enough money to provide happiness for his family. In the momentum of risking his money, he also used his sister’s tuition money to pay for the liquor store. Regrettably, one of his business partners, Willy Harris, takes off with all of their money, leaving Walter and his sister with nothing. The dream of providing for his family does nothing but “explode” (11), sending shrapnel and death to Beneatha’s dream as well as his.
A Raisin in the Sun accurately depicts the average twentieth century black family, struggling with their dreams if happiness and success amongst segregation. In such environment, black families endured a multitude of difficulties while trying to achieve their dreams and goals. As the epigraph, “Harlem” successfully gave life to the conflicts of the Youngers’ dreams by turning them into festering sores, rotten meat, and
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