The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...ghtful and inspirational to many. Realizing that each member of a family has his own issues that he is dealing with on top of keeping his family together can alter his reasoning and decision-making. Becoming less self-obsessed and demonstrating empathy for family members during difficult circumstances can be essential in keeping a family strong. Building and fortifying a foundation of family unity can be pivotal distinction between a family who stands together and one who crumbles apart. Works Cited Ardolino, Frank. "Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN." Explicator 63.3 (2005): 181. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 6 Feb. 2012. Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011. 950-1023. Print. Hewes, Henry. “ A Plant Grows in Chicago,” in Saturday Review, Vol. XLII, No. 14, April 4, 1959, p. 28.
Walter wants nothing more than to be a wealthy entrepreneur that can provide for his family, while Beneatha plans to go to medical school and become a doctor. Both characters are opposed to the others’ dreams. This opposition creates serious conflict within the Younger household, and specifically among Walter, Beneatha, and Mama. 	During the course of the play, conflicts between Beneath and her brother Walter are revealed. Walter thinks that his sister should be a mainstream woman and not have great dreams and ambitions for her life. Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?
While Mama and Beneatha are the furthest apart in age and seem to have the most conflict within the women of the house, they still have common values and characteristics. The most prominent example within the play is their respect and pride for the past. Beneatha does not have so much pride for generational family values as she does for her deep roots in Africa. Within a heated conversation she has with George after he has seen her in traditional African robes, she states that George is an “assimilationist” (1153). By saying this she is implying that George does not care about his heritage and just wants to conform to the current white world they live in. She sees this as betrayal and ignorance. Mama, on the other hand, came from a famil...
The play, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, follows the story of the Youngers, who is an African American family that lives in the suburbs of Chicago during the 1950’s. Together they live a hard life and have to face the harsh reality that African Americans do. Most of the characters follow tradition since they work in low-income jobs, face racism, and limitations that do not allow them to progress. However, one family member steps outside of one tradition in their life, being the character of Beneatha Younger.
...ues and ideals that the characters have due to the socio-political context of society at the time, then lead to the intergenerational conflict between Walter and Mama, particularly around the question of ‘what is life?’
In the beginning of the movie, Beneatha gets irritated easily for having to share a bathroom with her family. Walter tells her that she needs to get up earlier, "when do you suggest at dawn?" she states in a sarcastic voice. A mixture of irritation and saracasm, intiates to Walter that his sister doesnt take his su...
Throughout history, African Americans were striving for access to their American Dreams. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is the story of an lower-class African American family, the Youngers, who struggle to decide whether to attain their goals or to achieve their family needs. Lorraine Hansberry uses Mama’s plant to demonstrate her belief that one should keep their dreams alive, but at the same time trying to consummate their family needs.
“A Raisin in the Sun” written by Lorraine Hansberry is about an African American family struggling to survive in Southside Chicago during the 1930’s. The main characters, Walter, Ruth Mama, and Bennie all have different relationships towards one another. However the three women all shape Walter Lee’s actions, relationships and values throughout the story.
The award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry focuses on characters that are challenged by the reality of their dreams and the harsh society around them. Walter Lee Younger, a working man with a small family, is someone who has high hopes for his future, but, during the book, he repeatedly had doubts about the outcome of his goals. As the play progressed, Walter’s dream plays a large role in his character development because he starts off as a man who felt as if all of his family members neglected his dreams, and transitioned into a person who is willing to do whatever it takes for his family’s dreams to flourish, instead of purely his own.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun” invokes the idea of “anger” and early feminism by expressing the struggles of grasping the American dream during the late 1950s. Characters like Walter Lee and Beneatha Younger symbolize these themes throughout the play. Walter, a husband, and a businessman is struggling to grasp that idea of the American Dream by conveying his authority in the household. However, characters like Beneatha expresses her ideas of becoming a doctor by providing her role of being self-orientated and independent. In many ways, this play initially reads off as an “angry” deposit of the working class family that is struggling to make it in Southside Chicago. Walter often shows what it's like to overcome class inequality, his character is often positioned as an “angry”
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.
Mama wanted a new house, Walter wanted to follow his dreams and open a liquor store, Beneatha wanted it to pay for her college, and Ruth wanted it to a way out of her present situation and take care of her family. All the members of the family believed that their motivations for spending the money were just and that made it more difficult for the family to decide. Mama took initiative and used $3500 to make a down payment on a house because it was a dream of hers ever since she first got married and she knew that raising their standard of living would, in turn, inspire the family to begin the process of moving up in society. Walter viewed the family’s socioeconomic status as a weakness and his rash decision to give all of his leftover money to Willy despite Ruth’s warning not to trust him to cost the family $6500 and all the money that they would have made with the liquor store. His impulse decision to give up the money failed because he did not follow Mama, the matriarch’s, orders. She was trying to give him some power back, but he went on his own and tried to decide for himself and not for his
Each day Walter has to continue working as a servant, his internal frustration and anger build, and he eventually releases his anger against Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama. "Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?" (1838) he demands of Beneatha. "If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people&emdash;then go be a nurse like other women&emdash;or just ...
After the death of her husband, Mother struggles to keep her family together by providing the support and guidance they need, and encouraging them to use good judgment and think of the family as a whole before making their decisions. As the family faces various obstacles, each seemingly more severe t...
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play revolved around the idea of dreams. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry displayed the idea that dreams can either save or destroy a family and the importance of its values and morals. As Walter's dream began to grow greater in want, he seemed to have left things such as his family behind. The displacement away from his family showed how blinded he had become from his family morals an values. Unlike his father who would have been content being a worker for someone and putting his family first. Walter is not the only family member who had been so focused on their own selfish dreams but like Walter, everyone learns that the ultimate dream to fulfill in life is the dream of having a united
Authors sometimes influence the theme of a work by initiating conflicts between a parent and child to intrigue the audience and advance the plot. In her play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry conveys an ambivalent relationship between a mother and her son. Although “mama” will always love Walter and do anything for her family, the strenuous pressure put on the Younger’s as they share a two-bedroom “apartment” with three other people will begin to cause a rift in their relationship. Hansberry’s play takes place in Southside Chicago during the 1950s, a time period overwhelmed with economic struggle, racial thoughts, and segregation between African- American and Caucasian ethnicities. The reader will discover on their journey around the Younger apartment that the economic struggles that have been occuring is the driving force behind the many quarrels and arguments between Walter and Mama.