Dreams and racism in A Raisin In The Sun In most cases, the American dream resembles an ideological puzzle rather than a fully achievable image . Within the confines of her fantasy and theatrical world, Lorraine Hansberry attempts to piece together some of these pieces and, in the process, ends up showing exactly how everything doesn't quite fit together. The issues in his play, A Raisin In The Sun, are primarily about the fundamental nature of human beings and their respected struggle to "make it" in America. The story, for the most part, centers on an African-American family, their dreams for the future, and an insurance check arriving for the older man's death. Mixing into the mix later is the extremely oppressive and segregationist aspect of mid-20th century America. With highly oppressive external pressures, combined with conflicting ideas of happiness, the story centers on ideological conflicts between the characters. The biggest conflicts arise between Mama Younger and her son Walter. Walter represents, it seems, everything that America instills in men; the desire to work hard and make his family's life better than he had, the inability to be compassionate towards his family, an almost ignorant refusal to vary from his dream to the dreams of others. Hansberry focuses here, it seems, on the more negative aspects of "manliness." Indeed, above all, the men in this play are horrible creatures: George is arrogant, aristocratic and braggart (mentioning the curtain call in New York to a woman who obviously has no idea about that sort of thing simply places him, in her eyes, very higher than her); Walter's friends are loudmouthed know-it-alls (one of whom walks away with all the money in...... middle of paper......r but, until the day he dies, she will be his sister, and so he will always be a little proud of her, this is an intricate human detail and proof of Hansberry's supreme ability to create characters taken from real life Dream is different for everyone; a sort of spiritual imprint of utopia. Being an African-American woman in the 40s and 50s probably had a big influence on the tone of this piece, as did being a severely reserved lesbian our respective. upbringings couldn't be more different, I fully agree with your position. America's table is not level, so the puzzle shifts and tilts uncontrollably. The pieces don't always fit and it's sad that so many people spend their whole lives trying to force them to work.