Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, the positive and negative effects of chasing the American Dream are explored. A Raisin in the Sun examines the dreams of the Younger family, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives and impede their respective dreams. Hansberry expresses different views of the American Dream through the characters as she portrays the daily struggles of a 1960’s African American family living in Chicago. Hansberry displays the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream. In A Raisin in the Sun, mental health is interconnected to this dream through the failures and successes of the Younger family. Hansberry also uses the deep and complex impact of structural racism on mental health. As mental health is a prevalent subject in in A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry uses the characterization of the Younger family, specifically Walter Younger to demonstrate how the pursuit of American Dream has an effect on the mental health of the individual. Through instances of depression, anxiety, and personality disorder, Hansberry shows indications how failure of attaining one’s corresponding American Dream can be detrimental to the mental health of the individual, and how stigmas surrounding mental health impede that dream.
To demonstrate the claim that the mental health of members of the Younger family correlates to the response of attaining or failure of their versions of the American Dream, analysis of the American Dream must be present to show how it might not apply or uphold to all American citizens, regardless of race or personal background. Additionally, analysis of mental health characteristics and surrounding stigmas and how they apply to A Raisin in the Sun characters’ journey throughout the play will largely display how mental health plays into the succession of the American Dream.
In the U.S., all citizens are supposedly able to attain the American dream. However as discussed in class, the American Dream is a set of falsely constructed ideals. Some of those constructs, “This is the land of equal opportunity, you have the right to pursue personal happiness and filament, and it’s the governments job to protect this right, and upward mobility is possible through hard work,” are simply unattainable. In fact, there are several obstacles that some Americans face on their pursuit of happiness or the coupled American Dream. Specifically, non-white Americans face one of the biggest struggles in attaining that happiness. In A Raisin in the Sun, two of the main characters in this story Mama and her son Walter, directly reflect the shift from tradition to a focus on success and capital and the struggles they face in regard to racism and prejudice. Mama and Walter’s contrasting values about the American dream and the way in which they pursue their own dreams while facing racism exemplifies the shift from valuing tradition like in previous generations, to valuing success and prosperity like in Walter’s more current generation.
Walter’s pursuit of his American Dream has shown to be a letdown throughout much of the play. From the death of his father, his unhappiness at his job as a chauffer driving a white man around Chicago, not being able to provide for his family and give his son Travis a better life than him, to his failed investment in a liquor store, Walter has seen many roadblocks in his attaining happiness. These failures have led to the decrease in his mental health. Throughout the play, Walter shows evidence of mental health disparities after failed dreams or damming events within the family. Specifically, Walter’s failed investment in the liquor store with his friend Willy Harris. After Walter gives the investment money to Harris so that he can put money down on a liquor store, Walter is over the moon, excited for the future, “You trust me like that Mama [with the money] …? There gonna be a whole lot of offices after tonight… a whole lottta money, (546-547). Following this investment opportunity courtesy of Mama giving Walter $3,500 for the liquor store, Walter is in a state of euphoria. He tells himself hysterically that after the liquor store is up and running, he’s going to buy a Cadillac for Ruth, the school of choice for his son Travis, and a beautiful home for his family. However, in the following scene, Hansberry reveals to her readers that these dreams of going from rags to riches will not be attainable, as Willy Harris ran off with the investment money. This brings Walter into a state of despair, misery, and depression. Walter cries, “oh god don’t let it be true…the money it’s all gone…THAT MONEY WAS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH,” (560-561). Seemingly in the blink of an eye, Walter’s dream of lifting his family from rags to riches has been obliterated. No longer will he have the opportunity to provide serenity for his family. Upon this realization, his prevalent characteristics of a mental health disorder come back to haunt him. Among the most notable are depression, personality disorder, and anxiety disorder. Walter believes he is more of a burden and failure to his family and late father than anything.
During the setting of the play, around the 1960’s, mental illness was hampered by an overwhelming stigma and discrimination. Illnesses such as depression, personality disorder, and anxiety disorder, all of which Walter displays throughout the play, interfere with social, work, and interpersonal relationships. However, many of these illnesses are overlooked and discriminated against due to the social stigma’s that impede the individuals who suffer from the psychiatric complications, (Corrigan & Penn, 1997). This occurs throughout the text as Walter constantly hinders his relationship with his family and friends due to failure of his American Dream.
Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun does not directly mention mental health anywhere throughout the text. This speaks to the point that mental health was a social blemish, and those with mental health did not receive proper treatment or respect, especially in the 1950’s and 1960’s. With respect to the individuals who lived during those times like Hansberry, they thought that many other things were to be worried about, rather than focusing on and giving attention to those who suffered from a mental illness. In fact, many who suffered from mental illness, especially African Americans, were though of to be lost causes and were routinely incarcerated or experimented on with electrotherapy or brain surgery, (Connier, Yu, & Jackson 2001). Since mental health awareness was pushed to the background, other notable events of the era. In a speech given at the American Society of African Culture, First Conference of Negro Writers, Hansberry says, “I was born in a depression after one world war and came into adolescence during another. While I was still in my teens, the first atom bombs were dropped on human beings and by the time I was twenty-three years old my government and that of the Soviet Union had entered actively into the worst conflict of nerves in history—the Cold War… there was little time [for other issues].” While not mentioned directly, the time in which the play was written, little attention was given to mental health. It goes so far that Hansberry overlooks the subject completely throughout her writing.
The evidence that displays how the pursuit of American Dream has an effect on the mental health of the individual, evident through Walter in A Raisin in the Sun can be connected to “How to Be Black,” by Baratunde Thurston. Throughout the book, Thurston references his upbringing and discusses the stereotypes of African Americans and their social identities. The connection to black men and how they are supposed to be “tough… and speak blackly,” (204-205), all while adhering to the structured image of being a person that isn’t phased by anything. This speaks to the obvious misconception about mental health and its relation to non-whites. As put my Thurston, black people are supposed to be the guys from the “hood” who aren’t affected by problems, especially something like mental health. Just as Hansberry did not mention mental health and its direct relation to the American dream, there is a social stigma surrounding the subject, specifically when it comes to African American individuals.
To address the idea of what A Raisin in the Sun has to say about ways we perform ideas of race in America is a complicated and unsettled question. The open acceptance of race in America has yet to come and very well may never be fully understood. There are obvious ways in which many individuals do not understand the concept of race, and the social constructs of the term. The meaning of race in the U.S. has been and probably always will be fluid and subject to multiple determinations. Race can’t be seen simply as an objective fact, nor treated as an independent variable. Additionally, the relationship between race and racism and how that relationship plays a role in the institutions in society is significant and often times radicalized, creating a disadvantage for non-whites based on skin color. As evident throughout A Raisin in the Sun, there are many instances of racial discrimination, segregation, and stereotyping. While the play was written over five decades ago, these obstacles still openly and strongly exist today, and play apart in performing ideas of race. Additionally, many of the themes explored throughout the play, including mental health disparities are just as relevant today, as they surround the attainment of the American Dream. In an interview with Keli Gof from “The Root” for a recent production of the play, director Kenny Leon said, “many of the themes explored in the play remain just as relevant today. ‘The fact that this woman at 27 years old wrote this play in 1959 and it keeps on teaching us tells me we’re not where we should be,’” he stated. Although not present in known reproductions of A Raisin in the Sun, various tactics such as whitewashing in film and color-blind casting still plague the performance of race in America today, making the claim that the ways we perform race in America are unjust and will be for at least the foreseeable future, (Goff, 2017).
Overall, it may be said that mental health disparities absolutely exist when it comes to acknowledgement and discussion, especially in the African American community. The so-called failure of the American Dream is just one way that these disparities exist in A Raisin in the Sun. Throughout the play, Hansberry affirms that the American Dream is constantly morphed, and people will take different actions according to their beliefs, but different factors including the unspoken matter of mental health will alter those actions and dreams, as it did with Walter and concurrently with his family. The unjust treatment and inattentiveness toward individuals who suffer from a kind of mental health disorder can go a long way towards further hindering their happiness and acceptance with their life and future endeavors.