A Raisin in the Sun
Blog Post 1
Before the introduction even begins, the reader is shown a poem that is written by Langston Hughes. This is a very famous poem written by him, and it’s called “A Dream Deferred”. It is shown because it is an inspiration to the book, “A Raisin in the Sun”, and various connections can be made between the two. After reading the first Act, even just the first scene, the reader can infer and understand that every character in the book has a dream. For instance, Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor. In this time that’s unusual because of her gender and her race. Walter dreams of living a better life, and he believes that opening up a liquor store with Bobo and Willy Harris will bring him the riches he needs in order to live better. Everyone in the family believes this is sketchy and not worth it. Mama and Big Walter want / wanted to buy a house for their family. Everyone has dreams and wants to accomplish them. However, a dream can become deferred because of many things; love, work, or just life in general.
Langston Hughes’ poem is a brief examination of what happens to these deferred dreams. In the case of , “A Raisin in the Sun”, Mama’s dream is the biggest dream as well as the one that has been deferred the longest. For years she has been putting this dream aside, just trying to keep her family together and put food on the table for them. Mama puts everyone else’s dreams before her own, which is why her’s has been postponed. Hughes poem states, “..or crust and sugar over – like a syrupy sweet?”. Mama’s dream has been deferred over and over because she has been managing the circumstances she has been faced with. She is “the rock” of the family and prioritizes the family over herself.
Walter’s dream has also been deferred, but in a sense that is more realistic. His dream is to live a better life, leave the South Side of Chicago and become a wealthy family. That can be classified as “The American Dream” , and most people/Americans want that. Walter’s dream is always deferred by an economic problem, money issue and / or his lack of social status. He is a chauffeur for a rich white man and his job makes him feel like a failure. He is in his thirties and can barely supply for his family. He has the right intentions in life, but the wrong mindset. Walter is a nasty, short tempered, drunkard who wants to be his own man and run the household. He believes the ten thousand dollar check and the liquor store investment can turn his life around and he finally become the man he wants to be; his own boss who can supply for his wife and kids. Walter’s dream can be related to Hughes’ poem, because his dream “fester(s) like a sore-”. His dream and the reality behind it become more and more harder to reach as his life goes on. In a not-so-maniacal way, he is getting old and really is not going be able to provide the basic fundamentals for his family.
Beneatha is the complete opposite of most of her family. She is a well rounded, smart individual and knows what she wants to do in life. She goes to college and has a higher education than everyone else in her family. However, this sometimes creates feuds in the family. Her dreams and beliefs collide and disagree with that of Mama’s, which sometimes creates problems. Hughes’ last line of his poem can relate to Beneatha and her dream. When I read the poem, the stanza lists negative things that can happen to dreams. But when I read the last line, “Or does it explode?”, I took this as a dream exploding and becoming a reality, and connected Beneatha’s dream to it.
- How do the character’s personalities / characteristics relate and influence their own individual dream?
- How does the setting and time period affect the character’s dreams and how they try to accomplish them?
I like how you explained a few of the characters dreams and then used a specific line from the poem to illustrate that connection for each. The one I liked the most is the connection you made between the poem and Beneatha’s dream. You explain her dream of becoming a doctor by saying, “She is a well rounded, smart individual and knows what she wants to do in life. She goes to college and has a higher education than everyone else in her family,” and I like that you used the line, “Or does it explode?” to connect to Beneatha’s dream because everyone has a dream, yet it seems as though Beneatha is the only one actually making hers a reality.
I think that because Beneatha is so driven and believes in herself so much without caring what others think; because Mama puts her family before herself; and because Walter is so focused on money without really doing anything to earn money besides waiting for Mama’s check to come, that it effects how each one of them are able to go about achieving their dreams. Also, because they live in the South side of Chicago, in a time period of recession caused by WWII yet also a time period before the Women’s Liberation Movement, I think it makes it difficult for Walter and Mama to achieve their dreams whereas it’s amazing that Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor despite being a woman of color.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your blog post. I think it’s straightforward and concise, maybe a bit simple, but I think you analyzed the reading well and your blog post effectively gets your thoughts across. Great job!
In your blog, you explained well how the different characters personalities create tension among the family. I also like how you incorporated the poem into the story. When you mentioned “Walter’s dream has also been deferred, but in a sense that is more realistic. His dream is to live a better life, leave the South Side of Chicago and become a wealthy family. That can be classified as “The American Dream”, and most people/Americans want that.” it demonstrates how he believes money will buy happiness. Walter believes that The American dream is something few black people achieve and he wants to no longer be in poverty. I enjoyed your blog post because you connected all the characters together in an orderly fashion. Good Work!
This blog was extremely helpful because it cleared up any possible confusion as to the main characteristics and their ambitions in life. Also, connecting the different lines of the poem to individual characters really helps to establish the importance of the introduction to the rest of the play. I liked how you interpreted the line “Or does it explode?” when connecting Beneatha to the poem, because initially I thought of “explode” having a negative connotation, but it representing her career taking off seems to be a better way of thinking about that specific line.
There seems to be a clear influence on the characters characteristics based on their individual dreams. For example, you mentioned Walter’s dream as the classic “American Dream,” and also that he has a drinking problem. It makes sense that he cannot achieve his goal of providing for his family if he cannot even care for his own health. The setting and time period may be the most influential part of the characters success. It was rare during the time for women to go out and pursue careers outside of domestic work, or “easy” work, such as nursing which was predominantly women. Therefore, I agree with Lacey’s comment that Beneatha’s drive for success is amazing. Great job on this blog post!! 🙂
I think the setting of A Raisin in the Sun largely impacts the individual dreams. The apartment has the five people living in it, with Travis using the living room as his bed room. Walters obsession with money most likely stems from the lack of it growing up. He grew up where he is now trying to support his family, and Travis is beginning to revolve his mind around money just like his father. The small cramped space causes tension. Mama wants to move them into a better place but they had to set finances to support that prior to the check. I’m thinking the story takes place in the 1950’s, when not much progress was made concerning race issues. Racial barriers were still persistent which impact the characters achieving their dreams. Also, the area of Southside Chicago was a poor and mainly black neighborhood at the time due to the migration from the South. This made it exceptionally difficult to find good work or decent apartments. Beneatha is strong willed and believes in her roots. She is determined to be a successful woman despite the clap backs about her race and gender from even her own brother. Really good blog post!
“Mama’s dream has been deferred over and over because she has been managing the circumstances she has been faced with. She is “the rock” of the family and prioritizes the family over herself.”
Perhaps it could be argued that protecting and prioritizing the family could be one of Mama’s dreams. We sacrifice a lot for those we love, but we do not do it unwillingly. It will be interesting to see how her loyalty develops and/or comes into play.
I appreciate that the author made each character’s dreams so clear and vivid- from the very start of act one, the author sets up a clear stage for conflict to occur. I am excited to see how this will all play out.
I believe that the character’s personalities play a huge role in their dreams. Mostly because in order to achieve a dream that you may have it requires a certain attitude. For example, although Beneatha sometimes comes off as having a rude attitude, she is likely to achieve her goal of becoming a doctor because she is a go-getter. In your blog, you did a good job of showing the differences between the character’s personalities and how those make each of their dreams so different from each other.
I agree with the statement that was commented: “I think the setting of A Raisin in the Sun largely impacts the individual dreams”. Living in the Southside of Chicago wasn’t how many people chose to live, they simply moved there because it was what they could afford. There weren’t many high paying jobs in the area which made it even harder for individuals to earn the money they needed to live a better life. Also during this time period, it was unusual for women to be as successful as men were which is why Beneatha was judged for wanting to become a doctor. It’s interesting to read about how different things were during this time period as compared to how things are today.
This blog post gave detailed descriptions of many characters. It is important as we read A Rasin in the Sun to understand each character’s personalities. Thank you for the thoughtful details, good work!
The setting of the play really helps with the background of what’s going on in the play. Life during this time for families wasn’t good. Walter talks about using the check so that he can use it to start the liquor business with his friends, but Beneatha could use the money for her tuition for school. I also like how you talked about the poem at the beginning.
I like how you incorporated the introduction poem into this blog post. I think the setting of A Raisin in the Sun largely impacts the individual dreams. Life during this time for families wasn’t good. People moved to the ghettos in Chicago because they could afford it. I believe that the characters personalities play big roles in their dreams. For example, Beneatha is likely to reach her goal of becoming a doctor because she is an achiever. The connection between Bennie’s dream and the poem was spot on. You explain her dream of becoming a doctor by saying, “She is a well rounded, smart individual and knows what she wants to do in life. She goes to college and has a higher education than everyone else in her family.” Really good blog post!
Your blog was very easy to read and understand, which I enjoyed, because you explained multiple characters and their way of thinking whilst using examples and quotes from the reading. You linked multiple lines to each character you described such as ‘“Or does it explode?’, I took this as a dream exploding and becoming a reality, and connected Beneatha’s dream to it” which is a short quotation but is a great way of interpreting their concept and explaining your point of view.
This blog post makes many great insights of the introduction, and also connects the intro poem to each one of the main characters in the book. For example, connecting the end of the poem to Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor and receiving an education. The phrase “Or does it explode?” strongly foreshadows what is to come for all of the dreamers in the book. This post also highlights what is stopping these dreams. Many of the characters experience some kind of discrimination, or just the hardships of post WWII southside of Chicago which results in their dream being put aside for the time being. Some questions that still remain are, who will see their dream become a reality? Who will see it explode in their face, and finally, will these different dreams and hardships force this family to come together as a tight knit unit, or will it drive a wedge between all of them?
Some great talking points are sure to come out of this post. Personal dreams is a huge motif throughout the play, and the obstacles that stunt said dreams contribute to the play as a whole. I really liked how you connected each character’s dream to their personality. For example, you mentioned that Mama is the rock of the family, and yes, Mama is holding the family together. I’m not too sure if you realized this, but she is also the most hopeful. The irony behind this behavior is that she is also the oldest character and has been the most oppressed, yet still manages to have faith and cares for her bush like she would for the whole garden. Every other character has liven at most half the life she has and they already feel as if their life is over because of the low income that the family produces. Another talking point to come from this is how each dream reflects the personality of the characters. The garden Mama aspired to have reflects her religion, her peaceful way of life, and the bliss she once had overlooking her childhood fantasy. Furthermore, as a gardener, Mama would be the caretaker of her plants, mirroring her role in her family. This is just base level thoughts of the conversation that can be sparked from your post, and I believe you did a good job starting us off.
I loved your points Mike! It was very interesting how you brought up that there are connections between the poems Langston Hughes and the points that he made.
You set up your blog pos incredibly well and it was very clear to understand. I was slightly confused when reading the introduction and your points cleared up any confusions I had. You made very great connections and clarifications and created a very well laid out insight on the introduction.
Great blog post! I found that our posts both intertwined in main themes and I thought that was really interesting, Im glad to hear that you had the same opinion that I did upon reading the text. You really went into detail about the aspects of dreams and how everyone in this story has one. I like how you started with the importance of the introduction and the poem “A Dream Deferred”. The poem really tied together your main point with the evidence from the text, and I believe you did a really great job with helping us readers see the big picture that dreams are important to every single person in the story; and they all have their own opinion on their and the others dreams. Fantastic job, I really enjoyed reading your post. I did not see half of the messages that you pointed out and I thoroughly enjoyed finding out more from your blog.