The struggle for financial security and success has always been important in American culture. The idea of ​​the American Dream captures the hearts of so many people, yet leaves nearly all of them enslaved to the never-ending economic struggle to achieve high status, wealth, and a house with a white picket fence. In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman we see how difficult it is for Willy Loman and his sons to realize the so-called American dream. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, she examines an African-American family's struggle to climb out of poverty that prevents them from achieving some sort of financial stability, or in other words the American dream. Both works explore the desire for wealth, the driving forces that encourage the continued struggle for dreams, and how these dreams can lead to the downfall of the patriarchal figure. However, the plays contain small differences, which have a common underlying factor, which leads A Raisin in the Sun to have a much more positive outcome than Death of a Salesman. We know that both of our protagonist's dreams involve wealth, which is the basis for almost all elements of the standard American dream, but what specifically are Walter and Willy aiming for? For Walter, the American dream involves becoming a successful entrepreneur. This dream is largely based on the idea of ​​wealth, because Walter needs both money to finance his liquor store business, but also because with the profits from his business he will be able to support his family on his own. The exchange between Mom and Walter “Oh, so it's life now. Money is life. Once freedom was life, now it is money. I imagine the world really changes. . . No, it was always money, Mom. We're j... halfway through the paper... as if both Walter and Willy seem to think it is. Rather, both demonstrate that the aspiration for wealth and the American dream leads to the downfall of their protagonists. They have similarities, but while Miller shows Willy's final and absolute downfall through his suicide, Hansberry allows for a redemption for Walter. He allows family to be a saving grace that can pull him back from the brink. Regardless of the ending, both authors have successfully written a play that makes us question the validity of this so-called "American Dream", showing the desire for wealth, the driving forces behind that dream, and the ultimate downfall that can be a consequence of having an unrealistic dream. Work cited Hansberry, Lorraine. A raisin in the sun. 10th ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.Miller, Arthur. Death of a salesman. 7th ed. New York: Penguin Group, 19