Beneatha's Dream in a Raisin in the Sun Essay Example

In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha had a desire to become educated to be able to depend on herself and become rich depending on her own. Walter's dream was to be rich in the future, and Walter was willing to illegally invest his father's hard-working money into it.  Walter discourages Beneatha to be a doctor and sacrifices Beneatha's dream through his own desires and misuse of the money which he later realized was a mistake..   

Body 1 Beneatha dream; In Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun," Beneatha is the family's sole daughter, a college student with the ambition of becoming "I'm going to be a doctor." Beneatha was an extremely ambitious lady who was the most ambitious member of her family.  And her brother Walter is jealous of Beneatha for wanting a dream and being determined.  "And forgive me for ever wishing to be anything at all!" Her brother Walter is consistently trying to remind her of what they would live in page 497.  Walter is always trying to discourage Beneatha from holding on to her dreams because he had never had dreams like her.  Walter realizes that Beneatha is determined to be a doctor while all he ever wanted to do was be rich and didn't have any other ambition in life. "She can always take a few thousand and help you through school too” page 497.   Walter is emuloused by the fact that their mother was willing to invest money into Benatha´s school. And for once he had a desire to do something with his life but he felt like his sister was blocking him.  Walter planned to use all the money for his liquor store, but his mother is unwilling to give him all the money because some had to be saved for Beneatha´s medical school.

Body 2- How Walter’s desire ;In the play by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee, the oldest son of the family, has a desire to open a liquor store. Lee realizing that he couldn't do it himself, he decided to cooperate with two of his other friends, and they made plans and sketched out how much each would need. They concluded  “[that] it would be ten thousand dollars” p-494.   Walter didn't put into consideration that his sister would also need the money for her medical school.  Walter didn´t consider that they lived in an unfair time period for black women.  And the injustice was even worse when it came to education and many young black women weren't as determined to get an education as his sister.  ¨Old Willy Harris puts everything on paper” p- 520. Walter refers to the contract brought by friend Harris for the opening of the liquor store. Walter even before his mother shared the money had already planned to use the money and forget that Beneatha was also part of the family and she also had her rights to the money.  ¨you mean that liquor store that Willy Harris wants him to invest in” page 500.  Later, Mama realizes that the liquor store is not truly what Walter desires but was more  influenced by his friends.  Walter’s dream is to be rich in the future and if the liquor store was the way to it, Walter was willing to illegally invest his father’s hard-worked money into it.   And he was willing to use all the money even though he knew that his sister would also need the money for her education.

Body 3; Misuse of money Lee is given a share of his money and his sister’s money, but Lee’s ego would not let him make the right decisions. Lee´s mother handed him a check of $6,500 for him to put $3,000 ) in a savings account for Beneatha medical schooling.¨ and the rest was his page 545. Lee’s mother knew how much Beneatha's dream meant to her, so she gave Walter money to put aside for her medical school. Lee’s mother trusted Lee and entrusted his sister’s dream to him and trusted that Walter would do as he told him. But he invested all the money in his dream. Walter gave all the checks to his friend Willy, but he ended up running away with the money. "What do you mean Willy is gone?” Lee gives the money to his friend Willy Harris, who ends up fleeing with the money page 560. Lee, without even consulting his sister before taking her share of the money, uses her money and kills almost all hopes of her becoming a doctor. Back in 1957, for a black woman to get an education was very hard and some facts included lack of funds. After Mama hears about it, she makes sure that what she heard was right and asks Walter “your sister's school money. You used that too” page 561. Lee was asked to save money for his sister because it was her dream to be a black female doctor and after Mama found out what Lee did, she asked God to “show me  strength.”. Because the money was more than just money, it was her husband’s sweat and it was  Beneatha's ticket to going to medical school. 

Conclusion; Realizing his mistake and learning from it. After the incident with Walter´s friend fleeing with the money, Walter realizes his mistake.  And Lee is finally supportive of his sister's dream of becoming ''[she's going to be] a doctor—and we are very proud” page 575. Lee finally realizes that his sister has a dream and is determined to be a doctor, though now it would be very difficult for her to be one. Beneath is still determined to become a doctor and she now has the support of his brother who realizes that he shouldn't be jealous of his sister's ambition but should support her.