A Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the author reveals an honest and hardworking African- American family struggling to achieve their dreams. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," illustrates what could happen if those dreams were never realized. Together, both Hansberry and Hughes show the effects on humans when a long-awaited dream is thwarted by economic and social hardship. Each of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun has a dream that they base all their happiness and livelihood on achieving. However, the character of Lena Younger, or Mama, is different from the other members of her family. Time and time again, Mom puts off her dream of owning a house and garden to perpetuate the dreams of her family members. Finally, when Mom receives the $10,000 insurance check, she feels her dream can come true and buys a house in Clybourned Park. His dream "dries up like a raisin in the sun" when he discovers that Walter has given the money to Willy Harris, who mysteriously disappears. Mom doesn't fall apart simply because her dream didn't come true. “Lena Younger’s strength of character comes from her constant resistance to hardship and her refusal to be conquered by it” (Phillips 51). Mom's financial difficulties may have killed her dream, but she didn't let them kill her. Even the social inequality encountered by the Young Man does not hinder the mother's compassion. Mr. Lindner temporarily shatters Mom's dream of owning a house when he arrives at the Youngers ready to give them money to move out of Clybourne Park. Mr. Lindner's derogatory use of "you people" has little to no effect on Mom's firm decision to move to Clybo... middle of paper... beings react when a dream dies. Edward J. Mullen notes that Hughes' poem represents the idea that "the inhabitants of this 1951 Harlem seem feverishly and desperately seeking some simple but seemingly unattainable satisfaction in life" (142). Both Hansberry's play and Hughes' poem establish a powerful and human reaction to the death of a dream. Works Cited Hansberry Lorraine. A raisin in the sun. [1959] Literature. 5th ed. Eds. James N. N. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, O. 1700-57.Hughes, Langston. "Harlem." [1951] Literature. 5th ed. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28. Mullen, Edward J. Critical Essays on Langston Hughes. Boston: GK Hall, 142.Phillips, Elizabeth C. The Works of Lorraine Hansberry. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. 48-62.