“What happens to a dream deferred?” The first line of Langston Hughes’ poem puts a lot of thoughts into a person’s mind. Hughes answers it with questions in the form of similes such as, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?,” “Or fester like a sore – and then run?,” and “Or does it explode?” Lorraine Hansberry made a play based off Hughes’ poem titled A Raisin in the Sun. In the play, the Younger family has dreams that are deferred.
In the movie, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Younger’s mother was waiting for insurance money on her husband’s death. The check was for $10,000 which was an extremely large amount of money for the Younger family. When Mama got the check she bought a house for $3,500 and ended up trusting Walter with the rest to put some in a bank account for his sister’s, Benethea, college tuition and the rest to use wisely on the family. Walter ended up investing it all on buying a liquor store. He gave all $6,500 to his friend Willy trusting him with it. When Walter’s friend Bobo told Walter that Willy ran off with all the money and that it was all gone, Walter broke down. In Hughes’ poem the line “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” relates to this incidence. All of that money was going towards a new life for the Younger family. Then Walter made a mistake and lost it all, causing it to “dry up.”
Another thing that dries up is Ruth’s, Walter’s wife, happiness. As soon as the movie starts, you can tell that there is something wrong with Ruth and Walter’s marriage. Ruth just tells Walter to “eat his eggs” when he gets on topics she doesn’t want to discuss. When Ruth finds out that she’s pregnant with another child, she plans to get an abortion because she’s worried about the happiness of her and Walter. Ruth is the house wife of the family that agrees with what everyone says but at the same time sticks up for everyone. It’s obvious to tell that she’s unhappy with her life.
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Benethea and Mama have an argument about God in the movie. Benethea says she doesn’t believe in God and that everything that we have in this world is by the power of man. Mama gets so offended that she smacks Benethea across her face and makes her say, “There is still God in my mother’s house.” “Or does it fester like a sore – and then run?” is like Benethea letting it all out on what she felt about her beliefs on God when she was being disrespectful.
The sore that festers up and runs is also like Willy running off with the money. With Willie running off with the money it makes Walter and his family upset and Bobo who lost all his money too. It ruins their lives and is like a sore that’s going to stay with them for a long time and sometimes fester up and bring back the pain.
When Mama comes home after buying a new house, Walter becomes very upset. So upset that he smashes the glass that he’s holding in his hand when he hears what Mama says about the house. The glass in his hand explodes just like “Or does it explode?” The glass exploding was the symbol of Walter’s dream being deferred. He wanted that money to invest on a liquor store, but all hope of that at that moment was lost.
Benethea’s argument with Mama was also another explosion. Benethea most likely knew better than to talk about God the way she was to her mother who is such a strong believer in Him. Benethea basically exploded by saying everything that she did. And Mama exploded back by smacking her and telling her to say, “There is still God in my mother’s house.”
There are a number of things that Walter’s family struggles against in trying to make their dreams come true. Some of those things are gender, race, and socioeconomics. Lorraine Hansberry chose to show their dreams being deferred by using the words of Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem.” Luckily for the Younger family, they still got to leave the south side of Chicago while keeping their pride. Both authors put across the point that dreams will waste away if you don’t pursue them enough and make the right choices for them.
