Everyone has a Dream
By Karina Angeles
ENG 1430
Everyone has a dream they want to pursue in life. Ever since you are a child you grow up to have a dream in which you are focused on and set goals in order to make it come true. Sometime it is like a fairy tale in which we live day by day until the day we achieve it. However, not everyone achieves their dreams and goals; because some people do not rely on themselves…they rely on others.
In the story “A Raisin in the Sun” each person in the Younger family has their own version of the American dream. For example, Mama dreams about having a nice house with two floors with a yard where she can grow her own flowers and Travis can play around in. Walter dreams about having his own liquor store and being able to buy his wife a necklace of pearls. Ruth dreams about moving out of the house, because the kitchen is small and old, and Beneatha wants to be a doctor and independent.
Yet these dreams are destroyed because Walter uses the money to make his dream come true. The check! It is obvious how every one was relying on a check: The check for which none of them worked. For example, Walter preferred to rely on a check instead of achieving his dream with his own money. He wanted the easy way out. He never thought about setting a goal for himself, working hard and little by little achieving it. He thought that it would not be possible. When Walter makes fun of George and tells him that he is going to school just to get his head filled up, he meant that he does not believe that school would be a good way to attain his dream.
The Younger family was waiting for that check to make each one of their dreams come true. Beneatha refers to her dream of becoming a doctor being taken away from her. Nonetheless it was all based on a lie that was ruined by Walter. She blames him and refers to him as, “small, puny, and selfish is her brother, Walter”. She calls him these names because he ruined her future and she feels no hope.
Humans are such dreamers because we rely on something else to make it reality. However, what if we strived for our dreams to be real instead of depending on someone or something; we would accomplish everything we have ever dreamed of. Yet we yearn for the American dream. This is why we have to work hard to make our own dreams come true because if we do not we will always depend on others and we will never achieve our dreams. Everyone has their own version of their American dream but the most common one is like a stereotype which is the idea of having a nice house with a white fence, a little dog running around, good job, money, and having the latest editions of everything and raising a nice family.
In the story, Walter depends on his best friend to do all the work to start their business, yet he disappears with all of the Younger’s money. Walter relies so much on his partner that he gives away the money so they can start a liquor store, which Mama was against all the time. Yet her advice and suggestions weren’t sufficient for him to open his eyes until his friend ran away with the money. It was then he realized how valuable his mom was to him.
Mom seemed to be the one person least interested and the least reliant on that check. She was willing to give it all to her children especially Walter. She gave it to Walter trusting him to put some money in the bank for Beneatha and use the rest as he thought best. She loved him so much that there is only one thing that makes her happy which is her children’s happiness.
This is what I meant by the American dream. Everyone is able to dream; yet we need to learn how to achieve them and make them come true. We want to live it, yet we do not strive for it. We can conclude that the Younger family had many dreams because some of them thought about what they wanted to do with the money but it was through the failure of one of them that made them a united family again. On the other hand, this shows us how the lack can one day hit us where it most hurts so that we can open our eyes and learn how to rely on ourselves.