Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
A Raisin in the Sun is the play in which Samuel, Natasha's dad, is cast as the lead twice. In case the title doesn't ring a bell, A Raisin in the Sun is a real play, written by Lorraine Hansberry. Here's a Shmoopy recap of how it all goes down.
In a meta-twist, the title of the play is a nod to an iconic poem by Langston Hughes, Harlem (Dream Deferred), and—you guessed it—Shmoop has a full analysis of that poem as well.
In case anyone's wondering why Natasha's dad can't get cast in any other plays but snags the lead in A Raisin in the Sun in two countries, Samuel doesn't need to undergo a Christian Bale-esque transformation to immerse himself in the role of Walter Younger. They're nearly the same character. It's not difficult at all to imagine Samuel saying this famous line, though it's actually Walter's: "I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy."
Samuel dreams of stardom and Walter dreams of success, but both characters are in need of a serious reality check: They pursue their dreams without any regard for how much their wild goose chases are hurting their loved ones. By the end of A Raisin in the Sun, Walter is ready to put his family's dreams ahead of his own. It's not clear if Samuel ever gets to that point, but he does eventually realize that he made the right choice to marry Patricia and start a family.
This next observation may just be our analytical brains running on hyperdrive, but there's also some synergy between the title of the play and the novel itself. A dream that's put on hold shrivels up like a raisin in the sun, but the sun is also one of 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. Natasha would probably see this as confirmation that our dreams may consume our entire world, but in the grand scheme of things, we should probably get over ourselves.