A happy comfortable life has always been the desire of everyone in the American culture. The Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun are two stories that bring out the struggles that come with the pursuit of this dream. The books tell a story of two American families in the 1940's time setting. These families portray the normal lifestyle and challenges faced by most families. The book A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of a black family located in Chicago, while Death of a Salesman tells the story of a white family based in New York. The two families may seem normal but they are faced with a lot of challenges that threaten to separate their family union.
In the two plays, the family has been portrayed as the field for generational conflicts. The elders who still hold on to the traditional values are in conflict with the youngsters who have complied with the changes in the world. In both plays, there is a hectic relationship between the old and the young. In Death of a Salesman , generational conflict places old Willy Loman in disagreement with his son. In Miller's play, the conflict mainly arises from misunderstandings between the old and the young due to social changes.
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Willy Loman dreams of materialistic success. Willy lives and hopes for a better tomorrow for his family, an obsession that blinds him from living in each day's reality (Miller, 1975). On the other hand, his son Biff is mainly concerned with his standard of living. His son is not the least interested in materialistic gains. The misunderstanding in their opposing social aspirations defines their relationship.
The strained relationship between the father and his son is seen in their apprehension of Willy's desire to see Biff succeed. However, Biff tells him off by saying to him" Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happen" (Miller, 1975). Later in the play, we see Willy laying down his life for the sake of a better tomorrow for his son. A move that Biff still does not seem to understand. Biff strongly believes Willy was living an illusion and that was what led him to commit suicide after failing to achieve the illusions he had set.
In " A Raisin in the Sun ", this generational conflict depicts itself in the young families. For instance, Mama Lena represents the old parents who live by traditions. Beneatha, Walter Lee and Ruth embrace the new generation's way of life. These two different views of life bring about difficulties in relations in this family. The children cannot understand the logic in their mother's response towards certain issues in life and the Mother cannot understand why her children behave the way they do.
Walter proposes to open a liquor store by using the life insurance money of his father, clearly bringing out his materialistic interests (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). This brings about a clash in his relationship with his mother. Mama Lena does not understand why Walter would want to start up a new job while he already has one. She tells her son " you got a job, a nice wife, a fine boy" (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). Lena thinks Walter does not need anything else and that he should be contented with the little he has. However, Walter is not buying any of this advice from his mother he says to her; " A job. (looks at her) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, "Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the drive, sir?" Mama, that ain't no kind of job…that ain't nothing at all. (Very quietly) Mama, I don't know if I can make you understand", (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994), an indicative reply of the misunderstanding between the two due to the generational conflict. Lena finds it difficult to cope with her family due to this generation gap.
The fact that Walter junior does not care about the unborn child Ruth wants to abort while big Walter was willing to give up his all for his family. It brings Mama Lena to a conclusion that a lot of things have changed over the years. To Walter, money is everything, but to her mother, it is the last thing in her mind. She says to Ruth " I spec if it wasn't for you all…I would just put that money away or give it to the church or something" (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). Walter tells his mother " money is life " and the response his mother gives him is "once upon a time freedom used to be life", bringing out the generational conflict in this family.
The lead characters in the two stories have goals of owning businesses. They want wealth. When Walter says to his mother, " No-it was always money, Mama, we just didn't know about it" it only serves to show how eager Walter is to make money (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). The two characters, Walter and Willy end up betraying their families in pursuit of money and wealth. For instance, Walter wants to open up a liquor store using money received from their father's life insurance. Walter plans to persuade his mother to offer him his father’s money so as to start up a liquor store business using it. His mother eventually agrees to it only on condition that he would use three thousand dollars on his sister Beneatha's school (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). Willy entrusts that his friend Willy will invest the money for him. However, Willy runs away with all the money taking Walter back to square one.
In the play Death of a Salesman , Willy betrays his family by having an affair instead of working and supporting his family. At the end of it, when life troubles him a lot, he ends up committing suicide to escape his troubles as opposed to confronting them (Miller, 1975). A similarity between the two wives in the two plays that is; Lena in Raisin in the Sun and Linda in Death of a Salesman is that they are the pillar of their families when it comes to peacemaking. Lena tries to bring an end to the sibling rivalry between Walter and Beneatha while Linda in Death of a salesman works on restoring the relationship strained between her husband and her son. Walter in A Raisin in the Sun does not give his sister the money allocated to her by their mother (Hansberry & Nemiroff, 1994). This shows disrespect and disobedience to both his mother and Beneatha, Willy in the Death of a Salesman cheat on his wife which shows disrespect for her. He also commits suicide leaving the care of the family in Linda's hands, despite the many times she stood by him. However, in the end, the women in the play overcome their predicaments as Lena gets a nice place for her children, which is all she ever wanted, while Linda manages to remain calm even in the death of her husband. This shows that despite their predicaments, the women in the two stories are strong.
The American dream is an economic opportunity for all people who work towards it irrespective of their class or race. In Hansberry's a Raisin in the Sun and Miller's Death of a Salesman , the perverted understandings of the American dream persuade Walter in a raisin in the sun and Willy in Death of a Salesman that they have a right to achieving this dream. However, the two characters are faced with challenges and end up not achieving their dreams.
In both plays, the American dream seems hard to achieve. The families in both plays prove that struggling towards achieving this dream alone is just not enough. Eventually, both families do not achieve this dream as Willy in Death of a Salesman commits suicide in pursuit of this dream while Walter ends up losing all the money he intended to invest in this dream. This brings out the pain that at times come with the American dream.
Conclusion
The family relationship in the two plays is strained by the generational conflict between the children who represent the youngsters and their parents who represent the elders. The elders want to live by the traditional values regardless of the changes in the world while the youngsters care less about traditional values. The pursuit of the American dream in the two plays by the lead characters; Walter and Willy lead to their downfall as they exalt and trust money as their getaway to achieving the dream and fail to take into consideration other factors that could help them in achieving this dream, such as family. Women have been portrayed as the pillar and backbone of their families in the two plays. Every now and then we have seen Linda in Death of a Salesman and Lena in Raisin in the Sun trying to resolve conflicts that arise in their families. Despite the families at times going behind their back and disrespecting them, these women have still come out strong and loving.
References
Hansberry, L., & Nemiroff, R. (1994). A raisin in the sun . New York: Vintage Books.
Miller, A. (1975). Death of a salesman . New York: Viking.
