Deferred Dreams in a Raisin in the Sun and a Streetcar Named Desire Essay

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Deferred Dreams

The two plays A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry are two classical plays that are based on the daily struggles by families trying to live life as best as they know how. There in are several setbacks and obstructions that come their way and work against them in achieving their dreams. Some of the hindrances are from without yet some are from within the family itself. One common factor between the families however is that they are both struggling to cope with the hostile societies that they live in and optimistic that some day things will look up and better days will come.

Langston Hughes in his poem poses the question "What happens to a dream deferred?" And there after gives several suggestions in form of questions to the possibilities that can befall a deferred dream. This poem perfectly applies to these two plays that are mentioned above. Deferred dreams in the two plays refuse to 'dry up like a raisin in the sun' and this is exemplified by the continued presence of Mama's plant that she carries whenever they relocated from one place to another. It is symbolic of a dream that Mama would not let dry in the sun and disappear.
This refusal to let the dreams dry is also portrayed by Williams when in the play we see Stella giving birth towards the end of the play and the ill character that is Blanche is allowed to be raped and be sent to the asylum, an indication of a new and fresh era and generation, one that will live within the conscious of reality and morality, and not in self deceit like Blanche did.

In both plays, the authors at one point paint a picture of dreams 'that fester like a sore

And then run' just when the audience think things are working out for the god of the families. For instance in A Raisin in the Sun, just when the family gets the insurance compensation and the audience expect the family to stabilize du to the $10,000 compensation, it becomes the point of contention in the family pitching Mama against the son Walter Lee. The same is depicted in A Streetcar Named Desire when Blanche DuBois runs to New Orleans with the hope of starting a new life after losing her ancestral mansion yet she is met….....

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