A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry embodies the quintessential human contradiction of dream vs. reality. As in most areas, humans are a paradox. We dare to dream, but often our dreams fail to come to fruition.

The title of this great American drama A Raisin in the Sun, is a line from a Langston Hughes poem which questions what happens to a dream deferred. Hughes and Hansberry reflect on and question what happens to dreams that don't come to fruition. Do they dry up like a raisin in the sun? Does crust over like sugary sweet? Does fester like a sore? Does it stink like rotten meat? Does it sag like a heavy load? Or does it explode?

Lorraine Hansberry explores all of these in the play A Raisin in the Sun, through the eyes of the characters and what may happen to their dreams.

The play centers around the Younger family who has the dilemma of what to do with a small amount of life insurance money that they received after the death of Big Walter. They have the perception that money is the source that will provide them with their dreams. What they do no realize is that their dreams do not mean much if they do not have each other. It takes the course of the play and many twists and turns for them to come to that realization.

Mama has spent her entire life setting her dreams aside so that her family can try to realize theirs. Her dream is to buy a house, but this is the age of segregation and prejudice and the house she picks out is in an all white neighborhood. Although she may fulfill her dream of owning a house, having the African-American Younger family move into the neighborhood is not the dream of this all white community. Mama has a dream that had dried up like a raisin in the sun. The beauty of the raisin is that it is still there even when times are hard. It can be reconstituted when the time is right.

Walter, her son, has the most significant problem with his dream. He allows his dream to stomp on the dreams of others. He feels like a failure working for someone else. He dreams of owning his own business, but finds himself hoodwinked out of his money while at the same time putting everyone's dreams at risk due to his careless behavior. His dream is the one that festers like a sore and stinks like rotten meat. His dream potentially could spoil everyone else's.

Beneatha, Walter's sister, can be self-centered too. She is struggling to find her identity. She is characterized as flying on a whim. If she decided horseback riding or photography is her interest, it soon wanes and she no longer wants those hobbies. She wants to go to college and she wants to embrace her African roots. Walter squanders her money for her education. When Beneatha learns that his mistakes could ruin her dreams too, it feels like the boiling point. Dreams are nearly ready to explode because they are not realized.

Ruth, Walter's wife, is expecting a baby. She is so disillusioned with her husband and his conduct, that she considers not having the baby. She nearly lets her dream of a baby explode as well. With this crisis, it creates a family dream problem. Even their family unit could explode because of the decisions that are being made by Walter.

In the end of the play, the family endures. Even though some of the dreams dried up like a raisin in the sun, exploded, stunk like rotten meat and were deferred, the family withstood the crisis, the harsh fact of dream vs. reality. The family thought that money would make all of their dreams come true, but in fact money just brought the problems to the surface forcing the family to face what their priorities should be. No matter what they endured, if they had each other, their dreams were fulfilled.

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