Dream Dog

The page previous to the poem by Langston Hues being introduced to A Raisin in the Sun, contained a dedication "to mama: in gratitude for the dream." The following page then contains the poem in which I, at first thought, just thought was placed there because it contained the the title of the play. Although now, after a few more looks, I realized the poem is representative of the mood created by the play as a whole. The poem although it is talking about a dream, usually something that has a positive connotation, uses words such as "sore, "sags," and "rotten," to give it a negative connotation. 

I think this goes back to how Hansberry portrays "the dream" throughout the book. The dream many times brought more hardship than gratitude. Even though the dream was somewhat different for each character, it brought many hardships. For Walter it brought into appearance his inner selfishness, for Ruth it revealed her longing for a wholesome family, for Mama it made it harder for her to pick wether to buy her dream house or fulfill her children's dreams, for Beneatha it made it harder for her family to accept her, and for Travis his family's dreams restricted his own. Although the dream is written about unfavorably throughout the book and the poem, Hansberry expresses gratitude for it. I suspect that this is because the dream brought the family together through their differences and as far as the play goes it ends with all of them achieving some part of their dream. 

Diamond Pups

While reading The Diamond as Big as the Ritz when Kismine was introduced I often compared her to Daisy. She came from a well off family who was concerned with nothing but their own wealth. Furthermore, when she and John fell in love, it led to even more comparisons to The Great Gatsby. Daisy just as Kismine fell in love with men who were not born into the same lavish ways as they were. Although while reading further into the story, one major difference stood out to me. Kismine although just as caught up in her riches as Daisy did not leave the man she claimed to love just because he was not born rich. Daisy, on the other hand, did. Once she found out Gatsby had to work for his lavish ways she quickly left him and ran away with Tom.

Although they were mostly similar, they both relied on the riches of other people to make their way through life. Kismine at the end of DBR asks John, "'will father be there?" (DBR, 113) This illustrates that even though she is still faithful to John, she can't imagine a life without her father being there spoiling her with an unimaginable amount of jewels. In a similar way Daisy relied on the riches of her husband, and at one point Gatsby, to provide her with everything she would ever want. Both characters in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Great Gatsby take advantage of the riches that surround them to create a lavish lifestyle for themselves.

Gatsby's Dog

Throughout reading The Great Gatsby there were many times where I was left to simply just wonder about Jay Gatsby, but my favorite part was when he was first introduced in the novel. To expose Gatsby Nick describes him in the following way, "he smiled understandingly--much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey" (Fitzgerald, 52-53). I feel that this passage, although it is only the introduction of Gatsby, shows his true character behind his purpose before you even know his purpose. I think that by describing Gatsby as having a smile that you only encounter a few times in your life represents his dedication to Daisy. It is only but a few times in ones lifetime that you come across a man who will spend his every penny and dedicate his whole life in hope of obtaining his dream girl. Furthermore, when Nick illustrates Gatsby as looking out into the external world but then solely focusing on one thing this represents the location of his house. His house is located on the opposite side of the lake from Daisy and Tom's house, but for Gatsby he did not choose this location for the pretty view of its surroundings. Gatsby chose this location for one reason, the green light on the other side that represented his hope that he would one day end up with Daisy.