In the poem Harlem, the author Langston Hughes discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that had dried up and now turned black. As the poem goes on, Hughes illustrates the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. This idea provides the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. The major conflict in this play results from a main characters deferred dream to be a businessman.
Walter Lee Younger, dreams of using his deceased father's insurance money to buy a liquor store …show more content…
The house was consequently located in Clybourne park: a part of Chicago where only white families lived. Mrs.Younger notices how her decision to neglect her sons dream causes him downheartedness: “ MAMA I’ve helped do it to you, haven’t I, son? Walter I been wrong”(106). In her attempt to help her son cheer up, she lets him know how bad she feels for preventing his dream from becoming a reality: “MAMA Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you. (She turns off the radio) Walter--(She stops and he looks up slowly at her and she meets his eyes pleadingly)”(106). After confessing how she feels, she gives Walter the remaining money from the insurance check and tells him to put $3,000 away for his sisters medical schooling, and the rest can be used however. Instead of using the money as it was intended to be used, he gives it to one of the friends to finish liquor store deal; furthermore, the friend (Willy) takes off with the money without notice. This creates another conflict between Mrs.Younger, her daughter Beneatha, and Walter. The money is interpreted as Walter seniors flesh and blood. Lorraine Hansberry directly says that it is their fathers flesh and blood, but given more evidence of how important this money is to the family: