508 Hansberry, Lorraine
After leaving the Nation, Malcolm still adhered
to the philosophy of economic self-determination:
“It’s because black men don’t own and control
their own community’s retail establishments that
they can’t stabilize their own community.” He
established the Muslim Mosque, Inc., to combine
his economic outlook with the goal of ridding his
community of the vices that undermine its moral
fiber. Malcolm never forgot that economic sub-
servience fosters a desperation that leaves people
prone to lascivious exploitation. In his last chapter,
Malcolm reminds us that he was raised with Mar-
cus Garvey’s Black Nationalist teachings. Like his
father before him, Malcolm worked to instill in his
community racial dignity and the confidence to
stand for itself.
The concept of work permeates The Autobiog-
raphy of Malcolm X. His dedication page acknowl-
edges that the sacrifices and understanding of his
wife and children made his work possible. His
father’s murder, his time as a criminal, and the
enmity caused by his split with the Nation of Islam
convinced Malcolm that he would die young and
violently. Thus, he regarded his mission as urgent,
and lived every day with the knowledge that “no
man is given but so much time to accomplish what-
ever is his life’s work.”
Jeffrey Bickerstaff
HanSbErry, LorrainE A Raisin
in the Sun (1959)
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun debuted on
Broadway on March 11, 1959. The title comes from
the opening lines of “Harlem,” a poem by Langston
Hughes that catalogs what happens when dreams
are deferred. Dreams figure largely in the play, as the
Younger family struggles to achieve its dream of
economic and social freedom. The play takes place
in Chicago’s South Side sometime between World
War II and 1959, and is staged completely within
a small, dilapidated apartment over the course of a
couple of weeks.
The play centers on the Younger family: Lena,
a widow, her children, Walter, an ambitious chauf-
feur, Beneatha, a college student who wants to be
a doctor, Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son Travis.
When the play opens, the family is waiting for a
$10,000 insurance check, and each family member
has a different plan for the money. Walter dreams
of investing the money in a liquor store. Lena wants
to buy a house for the family. After Walter hounds
his mother and tells her that he wants to be the man
of the house, Lena gives him $6,500: $3,000 to put
away for Beneatha’s studies and $3,500 to start his
business. However, on the day that the family is set
to move into their new house, Walter learns that he
was scammed out of $6,500. Their troubles increase
when Karl Lindner, a representative of their new
neighborhood, tells them that they are not wanted
in all-white Clybourne Park. The play ends with the
family deciding to move into their new home.
Courtney Marshallthe american dream in A Raisin in the Sun
The Younger family, Ruth, Walter Lee, Travis,
Beneatha, and Lena, are like any other American
family: They want success, respect, and a home.
Simply stated, they are in pursuit of the American
dream. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the
Sun, written in 1958, the Younger family struggles
to realize the American dream by escaping from
ghetto life on the South Side of Chicago. Every
member of the Younger family has a separate,
unfulfilled dream—Ruth, a home for her family;
Beneatha to become a doctor; and Walter Lee
simply wants enough money to provide for his wife
and children. These dreams mostly involve money.
In the 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun takes place,
the stereotypical American dream was to have a
house with a yard, a big car, and a happy family. The
Youngers aspire to this dream, but their struggles
are different from the struggles a non-African-
American family living at the same time might
have had, simply because being middle class for the
Youngers is also a dream.
Symbolic of the American dream is the plant
Mama lovingly cares for throughout the play. For
Mama this plant symbolizes the garden she will
tend after moving into her dream house. The last
thing that happens on stage is that Mama opens
the door, comes back in, grabs her plant, and goes
out for the last time. This small potted plant is a
temporary stand-in for Mama’s much larger dream