Lorraine Hansberry and the American Dream
“A Raisin in the Sun” was written by Lorraine Hansberry. It's about a black family in the 1950s living in a small apartment on the Southside of Chicago, who struggles with family, money, racism, sexism, and the American dream. Beneatha is the daughter of Lena (Mama) and sister of Walter. In “A Raisin in the Sun” Lorraine Hansberry shows the obstacles involved in achieving the American dream, involves Struggling with family and money as well as overcoming racial and gender prejudices.
Beneatha has the dream of becoming a doctor so she can cure what ails mankind. Beneatha is talking to Asagai about what Walter did and how it’s going to affect her and her dreams: “I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know-and make them whole again. This was truly being god . . .”(III.i.1598). Beneatha is a kind young women who wants to help people, to cure people, to make them feel better and will do anything to achieve her dream to help others. Beneatha clearly wants to be a doctor, but runs into obstacles along the way.
…show more content…
The sexism Beneatha has to deal with is clearly seen when Walter tells Beneatha. “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people-then go be a nurse like other women-or just get married and be quiet . . .”(II.iii.1549). Walter’s word’s show how he thinks Beneatha should stick to more womanly careers and just how strong Beneatha really is because this sexist negative energy is around her all the time and she still finds the strength to get up in the morning and make her dreams come true. Sexisum isin’t the only opstical Beneatha has to deal with she also has to deal with
After all of this argument that they had, George finally left from Beneatha house and meets up with Mama. When Mama entered, she asked Beneatha “... What’s the matter?”then Beneatha responds, “Mama, George is a fool honest.”(Hansberry1495).Also, Beneatha ended the relationship with George to continue with her schooling on the medical field to become a doctor. This all demonstrates that Beneatha was going out to have fun and being prideful. Beneatha also has a restless personality trait because Beneatha is trying to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor and her brother Walter doesn’t support her instead he tells her to become a nurse. To demonstrate that Beneatha is restless is that after an argument that Beneatha and Walter had about how the insurance money is going to be spent, Beneatha told Walter…”What do you want from me, Brother- that I quit school or just drop dead, which!” (Hansberry1465). Then after a couple of more argument about Walter and Beneatha discussing how Beneatha is not supporting the family, Walter tells her “…If you are so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people- then go be a nurse…or just get married and be
A Raisin in the Sun is a set in 1950s after the Second World War which was an age of great racism and materialistic in America. It is about a black family living in south side of Chicago and struggling through family and economic hardships, facing the issues of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The family consists of Lena Younger known as Mama; Walter Lee Younger who is an intense man, Ruth Younger who is wife of Walter Lee, Travis Younger who is son of Ruth and Walter, and Beneatha Younger who is Walter’s younger sister. The whole family lives in a two bed room apartment and don’t have money to live a better life. youngers are tired from their struggle to ...
Walter and Beneatha’s relationship is very complex. The spiraling tension between the two siblings causes confrontation to form and creep into the Younger household. Walter needs his family to respect him as the man of the family, but his sister is constantly belittling him in front of his mother, wife, and son. This denigrating treatment taints Walter’s view of himself as a man, which carries into his decisions and actions. Beneatha also subconsciously deals with the dysfunctional relationship with her brother. She desires to have her brother’s support for her dream of becoming a doctor, yet Walter tends to taunt her aspiration and condemns her for having such a selfish dream. Mama as the head of the family is heartbroken by the juvenile hostility of her adult children, so in hopes to keep her family together she makes the brave move of purchasing a house. Mama’s reasoning for the bold purchase was,“ I—I just seen my family falling apart….just falling to pieces in front of my eyes…We couldn’t have gone on like we was today. We was going backwards ‘stead of forw...
When Walter loses his "sister's school money," the consequences are widespread and Beneatha sees that dream diminish before her eyes. She sees her slipping through Walter's fingers and finds her lifelong goals changing. From the days of her childhood, she has longed "to be a doctor" and "fix up the sick." While her family and friends do not understand Beneatha's dream, she continues longing for the education she needs to create a successful life she desires rather than one where she is waiting "to get married.
Additionally Walter is continuously setting everyone’s dreams aside for his own dream of owning a liquor store. And he is always arguing with his sister beneatha and he tells her that if she is sure that she wants to be a doctor. “ Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people- then go be a nurse like other women- or just get married and be quiet. . .” ( Hansberry 38). Basically what Walter is saying is that why did his sister have to decide to be a doctor and not a nurse that way mama wouldn't have to set
That’s what Beneatha Younger began to think towards the end of the book when Walter her older brother lost Mama’s life insurance money. She began to think this for a couple of reasons. One reason is because of how she realized it would take to long too become a doctor and wouldn’t be making money for a while and the Younger family needed her to be making money now. Also George one of her boyfriends at the time wasn’t fully on board with her becoming a doctor. A reason for why he wasn’t on board with this was because of how he felt that she didn’t need to be working and when they were to have kids who would look after them, and also how it wasn’t very common for girls to work at that time. One last reason why Beneatha started to doubt herself and give up on her dream is because of how she no longer believes that she can help people and the feeling she used to have just wasn’t there anymore. Instead of feeling optimistic about demanding equality for African-Americans and freeing them from the French and English colonizers, she now frets about basic human misery. Never-ending human misery demoralizes her, and she no longer sees a reason to fight against it. Those are a couple of the reasons why Beneatha begins to doubt herself on give up her lifelong dream of becoming a
Differences in generations can cause people to have different viewpoints in life. A Raisin In The Sun is a play set in the 1950s written by Lorraine Hansberry. The Youngers are a black family who lives in a cramped apartment in the South Side of Chicago. When Mama receives a check of insurance money, members of the family are divided in their own hopes of what it will be used for. Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha are the three women of the Younger household and their generational differences clearly show through their actions. The difference between generations is why Mama is the most devout, Ruth is an agreeable person, and Beneatha is outspoken and has modern views.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a dramatic play written in 1959. The play is about an African American family that lives in the Chicago South Side in the 1950’s. Hansberry shows the struggles and difficulties that the family encounters due to discrimination. Inspired by her personal experience with discrimination, she uses the characters of the play, A Raisin In The Sun, to show how this issue affects families.
Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor. She believes that her dream was deferred when she was born since she is coloured and a female. Although she fights this, her dream is deferred even more when Walter looses the money which she needed to get into medical school.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a modern tragedy in which the protagonist, Walter Lee Younger, is unable to find the fulfilling life he wants so badly. A contrasting view of the quest for that fulfilling life is offered in the character of Beneatha (whose name seems a play on her socioeconomic status, i.e. she-who-is-beneath), who serves as a foil against which the character of Walter is defined. Both Walter and Beneatha, representing the new generation of blacks coming of age after World War Two, are in conflict with Mama, who represents the previous generation and its traditions. The character of George Murchison is also opposed to both Beneatha and Walter, since he symbolizes assimilation on the white man's terms. Walter and Beneatha are also in conflict with their environment, a society where they are marginalized and subject to daily humiliation because of what is called their race (not, in fact, a biological distinction but a cultural construct).
An Analysis of A Raisin In the Sun & nbsp; "A Raisin In The Sun" is a play written by an African-American playwright - Lorraine Hansberry. It was first produced in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's work is about a black family in the Chicago South Side. the Second World War. The family consisted of Mama(Lena Younger), Walter.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The primary focus of the play is the American Dream. The American Dream is one’s conception of a better life. Each of the main characters in the play has their own idea of what they consider to be a better life. A Raisin in the Sun emphasizes the importance of dreams regardless of the various oppressive struggles of life.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.
She is determined to find her fullness as an individual and to not be defined by the man she marries. Walter constantly criticizes Beneatha’s dream of being a doctor. He treats it as though his dream is no longer feasible. He’s portrayed by Hansberry as being fairly pathetic and helpless. It seems like he needs women to help him move into manhood.
The late 1950s was filled with racial discriminations. There was still sections living as well as public signs of Colored and Whites. Blacks and Whites were not for any change or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells a story of a black family that is struggling to gain a middle class acceptance in Chicago. The family of five, one child and four adults live in a tiny apartment that is located in a very poor area. Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals is two key parts played out throughout the whole play. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends met to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision regarding money that could have help the family and not only himself, if he would have thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to setup for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers to understand history of racial discrimination and how racial discrimination has an effect on the people in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as how that has an effect on the characters within the play.