Jazo 1

David Jazo
Mrs. Storer
English 3 Honors
March 13th 2020
A Raisin in the Sun Biggest Takeaway
In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the reader is taken through the roller coaster
of a life the Youngers are living. A few weeks of the African American family’s life is laid out
before the reader as Walter Younger chases his ideal of the American Dream and the rest of the
family does the same for their what they portray as the American Dream. The biggest takeaway I
had from reading Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is no matter how much blood, sweat,
and tears someone puts into a dream of theirs, prejudices and life in general will make it so that
sometimes, reaching the summit of that dream is not a possibility.
I am not in the greatest position in life financially or socially, but I am in a comfortable
one that I can say I am very grateful for and content with. I’ve been taught from a young age that
with hard work and determination, everything I want can become a reality; that whatever I put
every follicle of my mind into can be attained after some time. This mindset has been working
for me so far. When I was in elementary school, my older brother earned an award basically
saying he was the best all around student in his class. Looking up to my brother, I wanted badly
to win that award when my time came. Although I was not as responsible socially like my
brother was, nor as academically proficient, I managed to impress my teachers and principal
enough with all the hard work and leadership that I showed throughout my time at Las Palmas,
that I was able to earn the award. This is just one of many times in my life where the work I put
in gave me the result I wanted or dreamed for.
However, after reading A Raisin in the Sun I was exposed to a world where the
philosophy I’ve been taught from a young age doesn’t always apply. The Youngers are a hard-
working family of African Americans. They live in Chicago during the 1950s, a time when
African Americans had to face prejudices beyond their capacity. The late Walter Younger
worked himself to death to accumulate $10 thousand in savings for his offspring to thrive off of
Walter Younger, the family patriarch, has a dream of opening up his own liquor store using his
dad’s money. After his mom gives him said money, he gives it to Willy to do the deal in
springfield deal. Unfortunately, Walter exclaims, “Willy!... Willy… don’t do it… Please don’t
do it… Man, not with that money… Man, please, not with that money… Oh, God” (Hansberry
128). Walter Younger has fought against life’s prejudices. Him and the rest of the negro society
have experienced prejudices unlike any other group of people in America, placed upon them by
the white demographic. Just when he thinks life’s about to go his way after all the hard work he’s
put in as a valet, life spits on him and takes the only thing that made his dream possible in Big
Walter’s life savings.
This play opened my eyes to the real world; a world where one must assume the worst so
as to not end in disappointment if the dream they are chasing never comes true. I’m not saying
I’m not going to chase my dreams and aspirations because Walter’s dream did not come true.
Walter’s predicament is quite unfortunate, however it is important to note that he did still move
into his dream home in spite of not knowing how he was going to pay for it. Perhaps he was
going to pay for it using the same motto me and him have been using our entire live, by working
hard until he pays it off. In that sense, me and Walter Younger are alike. We both live by the
mantra that hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.