Wealth In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A The Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, accurately depicts the idea of wealth being associated with success. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, is set in Chicago where it goes through the financial struggles of an African American family known as the Youngers. The Youngers are set to receive an insurance check worth $10,000 dollars. The play is based around how the Youngers will spend the insurance check. In A Raisin in the Sun, the concept of a new life and wealth as a sign of success play hand in hand as the family struggles over how to spend the insurance check. In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter, the main character, desperately wants to use the insurance check to purchase a liquor store. Walter sees the liquor store as a new beginning for his family. Walter and his family are currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment where they are forced to share a bathroom with their neighbors. Walter describes the despair he is in saying “I’m thirty five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room- and all I got to give him is stories of how rich white people live” (Hansberry 22). Furthermore, Walter’s realization that he has made nothing of himself prompts himself to dream about a new life full of wealth and the ability to provide for his family. Walter’s fantasies of

Walter realizes that in order for him to be wealthy, he must succeed at a business first. Walter believes that a liquor store will provide him both wealth and success, and will change his family’s lives. Furthermore, Walter’s dreams of a new life are inspired by the despair he experiences throughout the play. Walter allows himself to indulge in these dreams since that is all he has left of himself. Walter concludes that if he can create a successful business; it will provide him with the opportunity to share his dream with the entire Younger family, something he has hoped so badly