The American Dream has been visualized and pursued by nearly everyone in this nation. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play about the Younger family fighting for the American dream. Members of the Younger family shared a dream of a better tomorrow. To reach that dream, however, they each took different paths, which represented the paths taken by different black Americans. Walter Lee Younger's path, full of riskiness and impulsiveness, exemplified the path taken by blacks who had been so oppressed. who followed their dreams with blind desperation. Although Walter was the only adult male in his family, he did not take on the role of "man of the house." His mother, Lena, was the backbone of the family as well as the breadwinner. Walter therefore felt less than a man. Not only did Walter not have a dignified position in his house, but he also felt disrespected by the world. Walter didn't feel good about himself because he was so poor that he struggled to support his wife Ruth and his son Travis. Walter, even though he was unsuccessful in that struggle, wanted more from life. He said to Ruth:...I am thirty-five years old; I've been married for eleven years and I have a boyfriend who sleeps in the living room and all I can give him are stories about how rich white people live... (1015) Walter has gained the will to do anything to leave poverty, and he has developed the vision of opening your own business. "Walter... far from rejecting the system that oppresses him, embraces it wholeheartedly. He rejects the cause of social commitment and places his faith in the power of money." (Gunton 186) Attaining wealth became Walter's greatest concern, and he was willing to......middle of paper......s, 1986.Draper, James P. Black Literature Criticisms. Detroit: Gale Research Incorporated, 1992. Gunton, Sharon R. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1981. Hansberry, Lorraine. A raisin in the sun. Literature and the writing process. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996. Hansberry, Lorraine. A raisin in the sun. New York: Signet, 1988. Liukkonen, Petri. "Lorraine Hansberry." Lorraine Hansberry. Network. May 11 2012. .