Lorraine Hansberry, the author of the play- Raisin in the sun, has used Langston Hughes' poem as a preface of her 1959 play about an American black family's struggle to escape from the Chicago ghetto.

It’s a story about an American Black family, trying to realize their American dream of a better life. The main Characters of the play are Mama, Ruth, Beneatha, Travis and Walter. Mama is the strongest, being the leader of the Younger household. She has experienced a lot in her life and is viewed almost like a shepherd watching over her flock, her family. Walter is very stubborn, troubled and careless. He has dreams of bettering his family’s life, but feels a lack of support from them. Ruth, his wife, is loyal to her husband but is not going to let him chase down an unrealistic dream and drag their family through the trouble. She also bears a lot inside and is not as vocal with her discomforts. Beneatha, Walter’s sister, is from a different generation then the others, being only twenty. She has high aspirations like becoming a doctor and does not feel trapped by her poor conditions, as she tries to express herself with different expensive activities. Travis, Walter and Ruth’s son, is only ten and knows how to play with the different members of his family.

These characters have different qualities, both good and bad, yet they are a family with the same dreams of bettering their lifestyle.

The play opens as the Younger family anxiously awaits the arrival of a cheque. It is the life insurance cheque of $10,000, made payable to Lena (Mama), the matriarch of the family, because of the death of her husband.

The entire family lives within the walls of a tiny apartment and the play takes place entirely in its worn out, lived-in living room. Travis, the young son of Ruth and Walter Lee, sleeps on the couch in the living room and is constantly awoken by noise from the adults. Walter Lee and Beneatha are Lena's children.

Walter Lee is working with low-life street men, Willy Harris and Bobo, to start a liquor store. He is obsessed with money and constantly feels as if the world is against him, especially his wife and mother. Each member of the family wants to do something different with the money, and therefore, waits anxiously for his/her new life to start .

When the cheque finally does arrive, Lena has trouble dealing, for she realizes that the ten thousand dollars is a replacement for her husband. The family tells her to do what she desires with the money. Walter irrationally urges Mama to give him the money, gradually becomes irate and furious. Mama reprimands him, not understanding how he became so obsessed with money and so disinterested in his own family.

Mama tells the family that she put a down payment on a house in Clybourne Park with the insurance money, so that Travis will one day be able to grow up to become a man with property. Walter is upset and wonders why he can never be the one in charge of all actions. The entire family is concerned about the location because it is an all white neighborhood. Mama finds a nice, clean, well-built house in a white neighborhood and uses her deceased husband's insurance money to make a down payment. Is this their dream come true? Was this the dream deferred all these years? Each family member seems to have a different dream, but each yearns to satisfy a longing of the human spirit that dwells within.

Mama listens to Walter's pleas and decides to give him the rest of the money to manage, leaving a portion of it for Beneatha's medical school fund. Bobo comes to the house weeks later on moving day to inform Walter Lee that Willy Harris has absconded with their money. Walter Lee never deposited the money in the bank and has lost his father's cheque forever. The entire family is outraged and deeply hurt.

We believe this play expresses a vital and timeless message for all people to hear and feel. All human beings hope to achieve the best quality of life for their families. What is a life without hope, respect, and dignity but a mere existence, something to painfully endure? Peace, love and brotherhood are nice ideas to talk about, but we must be willing to walk the walk for any real and lasting change to occur. One may question, what happens to a dream, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Mama is a strong, compassionate matriarch determined to get them out of the "rat trap" they live in. Walter, her son, feels his manhood and dreams are slipping away through a dead-end job and a restrictive family role. Ruth is Walter's wife who has resigned herself to her lot in life -- dreaming only of the house to keep her going. Beneatha is Mama's daughter who aspires to be a doctor. She is fiercely proud, assertive and ambitious, proud of her African heritage and believing it important to preserve, a new idea for African American women in 1959 society. Travis, Walter and Ruth's son, is their reason for persevering for a better life. Lorraine Hansberry knew about disappointment, false hope, and despair. For many of her African-American ancestors who had come north for a better life only to find exploitation and frustration, the dream had become a nightmare. In contemporary terms, she chronicles their nightmare in A Raisin in the Sun, an epic story of the Younger family struggling to realize the dream by escaping ghetto life. Hansberry's screenplay not only tells the story of the Youngers, but also reveals the plight of all who have failed dreams.

It's a tragedy what sometimes happens to the human spirit when it constantly battles adversity and hardship--hope becomes hopelessness, power becomes powerlessness, and love becomes fear. Though all the characters dreamt of a better life but none really worked to achieve it, as they should had done. A family can have the best intentions to improve their lives. They may gamble on what seems to be the only road out, and whether it is self-destructive may not be a consideration. The Youngers react to their circumstances with courage, strength, desperation, and naivety, not unlike any American family. But then on the other hand we see them depending upon people and events to make their life better, like Mama depending on the cheque, her son depending upon her to give him money to open up a liquor shop and then his sister; living in her own dream world. The play could have been more provoking had it shown that they strived on their own self-initiative to change their life. Living on dreams and hoping alone cannot change life.