A Raisin in the Sun: Walter and Lena's Dreams

• J. Charles Washington, an English professor, specializes in African American drama.
• The conflict between Lena and Walter highlights the tragedy of Walter's pursuit of the American Dream.
• Walter's role models have instilled in him the belief that he deserves a complete stake in the American dream.
• Walter aspires to lift his family out of poverty, however his poor judgment prevents him from doing so.
• Walter ultimately has to compromise his heroic dream, making him a realistic and tragic hero.
• The play’s dramatic tension arises from the conflict between Walter and Lena's differing worldviews.

Lena's Second-Class Dream

• Lena's experiences in the South affect her thinking.
• Lena's perspective is restricted and beliefs are limited due to her experiences with discrimination.
• Lena's version of the American Dream amounts to simply surviving, but not living in the fullest sense.

Walter, The All-American

• Walter avoids crippling inferiority.
• Walter accepts American values.
• Hansberry claims that Walter Younger is nothing else other than an American.
• Walter believes anyone can become anything in the land of opportunity.

Walter's Prophetic Voice

• Douglas Turner Ward recognizes Walter’s ultimate importance as a character due to his frustration and anger.

• Walter Lee is contradictory, irascible, impulsive, furious and, most of all, desperate.

• The traits displayed by Walter throughout the play gives the play prophetic significance.

• Walter has managed to escape almost completely, the crippling inferiority that destroys many Blacks, men in particular.

• Hansberry stated that Walter Younger is an American more than anything else.

• Central to Walter's aspirations as a businessman is the color-neutral value of the American Dream, not the particular race of the individual who attains it.

Walter's Role Models

• Walter's dream of success was nurtured by a young white man whom he saw in town and sought to emulate.
• Walter's image of his father matches that of the old stereotype of the Black male that worked himself to death.
• Walter's reliance on white models does not mean that he hates himself or his blackness rather it is a sign of his pragmatism and confirms his self-love.
• Black music, on the other hand, becomes for him a kind of drug or narcotic that lulls him into a state of listlessness which allows him to escape depression.

A Noble Dream and Bad Judgement

• Walter seeks a change in living conditions.
• Selflessness and nobility gives Walter's character its dignity and spiritual dimension.
• While the freedom America provides creates opportunities, does not guarantee success
• Walter acknowledges that The possibility of failure is also a vital part of the American success story.

A Disdain for Education

• Walter fails to see the potential value of education.
• Walter feels those who pursue education do not correspond to his conception of manhood.
• Walter's mistake lies not only in his false conception of manhood but also in his failure to see that some kind of education, formal or otherwise, is a necessary requirement for his goal.

School of Hard Knocks

• Viewers of A Raisin in the Sun can be moved by a tragic hero who is elevated by his growth from ignorance to knowledge, and deeply affected by a realistic hero whose transcendence.