Essay Comparing The Loman And A Raisin In The Sun

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Struggling to survive and living in a society that is antagonistic to one’s dreams are common themes in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Each family has forces, both internal and external, driving the characters towards success or failure. The forces acting on the families also affect the reader’s judgments of each family. The Lomans and Youngers are in similar situations and have many negative forces directed at them, but the strength of the family will determine if the families achieve their dreams and influence readers’ opinions of the families. Each member of the Loman and Younger families, aside from Travis Younger, express specific dreams. The Loman family seemingly has more unrealistic dreams than the dreams…show more content…
The first is the selfishness of family members – specifically Walter Lee and Beneatha. Walter Lee only wants the money to open a liquor store with his friend. Beneatha wants the money for her education, which is seemingly unselfish, but when she takes classes on horseback riding and guitar – not anything near relatable to medicine – it is selfish because the family is not very well off and Beneatha is burning money on classes that are not connected to her dream of becoming a doctor. Another internal force acting on the Younger family is the lack of unity within the family. Marital discord is pushing Ruth and Walter Lee away from each other. The sibling rivalry between Walter Lee and Beneatha is causing them to drift away from each other – in a time that they should probably be closer – and Lena is caught between all of it. On top of these strong forces, the abortion that Ruth put a down payment on is looming over everyone’s heads. It is not something that Ruth really wants to do but they do not have room in their current apartment for another
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    a lot of what we do. In the drama, The Death of a Salesman and A Raisin the Sun, this strain couldn’t be more apparent. These stories bear the lives of two classic American families who lived during the 1940’s. Their everyday activities showcase a very average life, in addition to the many trials that encompass it. The book Death of a Salesman tells the story of an every-day white family living in New York, while A Raisin in the Sun is the tale of an archetypal black family living in Chicago. While

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