Pride In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

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In the play, Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the insurance check first symbolises the greed within Mama’s children Walter and Beneatha, but then develops to help bring out the overall message of pride within their family over their own impractical dreams. The check also brings out the importance of how the persistence of dreams can break family pride. Walter and Beneatha are the two main character who interact with the symbol of the check throughout the play. Beneatha wants the check to be used for her medical school so that she can pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, but also believes that the check should be for Mama to decide how it is used. For example Hansberry writes, “ That money belongs to Mama, Walter, and its for her …show more content…

All of it… It’s all gone... (Pg 129). This portrays how Walter’s dream of having his own liquor store took over his life. He had never thought of anything else for his family, nor did he think about any bad outcomes that could of happened, like one of his friends taking all the money and running. This connects to the message of how Walter's persistence of his dream kept him from having pride or thought in his family. At the end Hansberry writes, “ Yeah what I mean is that we come from people who had a lot of pride. And we have decided to still move into our house because my father--my father--he earned it for us brick by brick.( Mama has her eyes close and rocking back and forth as if she were in church, with her head nodding mean yes) (pg 149). This last quote explains how walter overcame his dream and even though he lost all the money, he didn’t sell the house Mama had bought because his family pride within the check prevailed throughout

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