Hoop Dreams And Rasin In The Sun

– Comparison Contrast Paper Essay, Research Paper

The movie Hoop Dreams shows you the difficulties and obstacles that come in the way of dreams. Although it?s said that if you believe in a dream long enough it will come true, but in Hoop Dreams and A Raisin in the Sun you are shown the harsh realities of the falseness of that statement. And that the reality of a dream not coming true hits you like a brick wall.

Many obstacles get in the way of the road to dreams in both stories. In both stories, all families suffer from having little knowledge, and it doesn?t help that they?re all black. Also being poor and living in the ghetto makes things that much harder. Pregnancies also put big bumps in the road to success, in both instances it makes the families come together and try their hardest to make it through. However, there are also many different obstacles that come in the way for each family. In Hoop Dreams, both William and Arthur are given much support to fulfill their dreams of getting to the NBA, but Walter in A Raisin in the Sun is only given grief on getting his liquor store. This can point the young immature teens to giving them more hope that a very rare dream will come true. Also, the two ballplayers do have talent to help them start down the road to success, but that can be very misleading, all Walter has is the nagging of his buddies Bobo and Willy. The toughest of the obstacles to overcome was when William injured his knee and it affected his basketball career for a long time. He never really did get over it, he was forced to settle for a second best basketball school, but managed to receive a great education.

Family matters also plays major roles in both the play and the movie. With both Bo (Arthur?s father) and Walter?s case, they both had substance abuse problems and it much affected how well the dreams went. By the end of each story, each said they were off drugs for good. Bo had even said that if he wouldn?t have been on drugs, he would?ve been able to afford Arthur?s education at St. Joseph?s, and that possibly could have put him more in the spotlight in the basketball scene, just like Walter put all his money into the liquor store and had it robbed away. The worst part is, is that some of it wasn?t even his money. Both fathers played a role in breaking dreams with the fault of losing the money. In both stories the mothers played big factors in what happened in A Raisin in the Sun, mama was the one with the money to spend, she bought a house and trusted Walter with the rest, she was the one that gave Walter the support to do what he believed he could do. The mother in each Arthur?s and William?s families have to go through some rough stuff to just make it through life. Especially Arthur?s when he?s taken off federal support after his 18th birthday, but she still managed to get through it. Again though, each film had different effects from the family. With the Youngers (A Raisin in the Sun) having a full family, it gave all the family members support to help get through problems. With each William and Arthur?s father?s gone for some amount of time, the family has tougher living conditions to go through. And without having your father around, leaves a big void in your life. With William and Arthur receiving more support from their families to fulfill their dreams, gave them a sort of false hope that many dreams come true and things good will happen. With no support from his family, he only has his own support and hopes to get his dreams to come true. And with support from your family it will give you false hopes, and make dreams not coming true a harsh reality quickly.

The last part is the dreams themselves. All families had limited dreams because of one thing or another. Walter needed his money, and William and Arthur needed more talent to be good enough to make it the NBA. All three of them had the same attitude towards the dreams, ?No matter what this dream is going to come true.? The Worst part of it is that all of them let the dreams take over their lives. The harshest reality of all is that neither of their dreams come true. And each one of them had the chance to have their dreams come true, Walter had his money stolen, and neither William or Arthur had enough talent to make it to the NBA. The last deciding factor in making difference in dreams, William had a mature dream, in that of owning a liquor store, and it?s a normal everyday dream. But, William?s and Arthur?s dreams were immature and not very thoughtful. They both wanted to be in the NBA, and that was all they were going to do, they didn?t even care if they had their education to fall back on, they both were so certain that they were going to make it in basketball that all they had to do was play. Luckily William realized that he needed something to fall back on in case of not being good enough to make it, so when he finally realized he wasn?t going to make it to the NBA, he had an education. Arthur on the other hand, all his life was, was basketball, he ate, drank, and slept basketball, didn?t care much about school.

The difference in these two stories clearly shows that Hoop Dreams clearly showed the harsh reality of dreams, and the hurt they can bring to people, if not approached the right way.