Posted by Tatyana LAzukova (24.23.55.15) on June 22, 2005 at 10:24:39 p.m.:
In Reply to: Re: A Raisin in the Sun and posted by Katie Hartman on June 22, 2005 at 12:03:35 p.m.:
Hello Katie,
You have interesting ideas in your response.You correctly understand the meaning of both the play and the poem. I agree with you that there is a direct connection between Hughes’ poem and Hansberry’s play. I thought that raisin was a symbol. I thought that the author wanted to call the family a raisin, because they dried out in the fight for their survival. I also saw their dream about a better future being a raisin, because their dream faded .
There is no escape for the family from the poverty and discrimination.
I also agree with your observation that dreams of the family members become altered throughout the story and lives of the characters. YOu provided a very intersting answer. Thanks.
>Langston Hughes’ “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” discusses what happens to dreams that go off the planned path. There is a direct connection between Hughes’ poem and Hansberry’s story. Hughes asks if they dry up like a raisin in the sun. The title of Lorraines Hansberry’s story happens to be “ A Raisin in the Sun”. Her story talks about dreams that become altered throughout the story and lives of the characters. Hansberry apparently decided that a dream deferred was like a raisin in the sun since that was her story title. “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”(Hughes, 1371). Its seems that all the characters dreams seen to have faded away and just left out in the sun to wither. Then mama gets her insurance check in the mail and everyone sees his or her dreams come back to life. It seems that a dream deferred wilts away in the sun to Hansberry. Hansberry answers Hughes question he proposes throughout his poem. Hansberry takes Hughes’ idea of what a dream deferred and uses it to explain how her characters dreams become deferred.