In a Raisin in the Sun, the characters display similar personality traits. For example, Both Beneatha and Walter are restless and prideful. Even though these two characters display similar personality traits, they both have a dream which they want to achieve. In a Raisin in the Sun, the characters shows similar personality traits. For instance, Beneatha is prideful and restless because she goes to see George Murchison just for fun, and knows what is best for her without anybody telling her what does she has to do to achieve what she wants. For example, When Beneatha and George returned from their date they had an argument. One of the arguments that they had was when Beneatha tells him” Why are you angry?”(Hansberry 1494), and George responds,”…I …show more content…
don’t go out with you to discuss the nature of “quiet desperation” or to hear all about your thoughts- because the world will go on thinking what it thinks regardless”.
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 …show more content…
quiet.” Walter in this case does not support her to pursue her dream or to continue taking the medical schooling to become a doctor. This also shows that Beneatha is restless because as I have said earlier, she is trying her hardest to achieve what she has dreamed. Compared to Walter he is also restless and prideful.
Walter is restless and prideful because he wants money and a good job to be capable to support his family financially. To illustrate that Walter has been restless is when he tells his mother that he is desperate to get a good job and tired of his old job – chauffeur.--- , “…I open and close doors all day long….. that ain’t no kind of job that’s ain’t nothing at all.”(Hansberry1483). When his mother told him ...”You got a job, a nice wife, a fine boy and---“. Walter’s dream in which he wants to achieve is to become a businessman. But, he is very frustrated to achieve this dream because “opportunities for him are few…and his culture has relegated him to the servant class.”(“A Raisin in the Sun”)Another personality of Walter is prideful because he gets what he needs, for instance he prosperous and provides for the family, as well as, to be the head of the house, meaning that he controls the money that his mother gave him after his mom invested some of the money for their new home, near Northside of Chicago at Clybourne
Park. To conclude, In a Raisin in the Sun, the characters display similar personality traits. Both Beneatha and Walter are restless and prideful. Even though, these two characters have similar personalities, they have different views on how to achieve what they willing to do for their future, despite of the poverty they are living in. However they both are willing to prosper to become a better person.
People go through a change when influences are made upon them. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry published in 1959 focuses on what life was like for the Younger family during the 1950s. During this decade there was two sides, the good and the bad, like two sides of a coin, they’re different on each side but they’re one of the same kind. They faced many issues such as discrimination, unequal rights, and financial problems. Throughout the play the three characters who undergo change the most are Walter, Beneatha, and Mama.
Money is one of these prides that Walter holds dear to himself, noting that this is very important to his personal aspirations within outrageous business deals. His development is shown through the text as continuing events and pressure force change within Walter. These characteristics shape the entire theme of Walter’s understanding of money and his purpose towards the family.
Lena Younger, Walter and Beneatha's mother, was a widow in her early sixties who devoted her life to her children after her husband's death. Retired from working for the Holiday's family, she was waiting for her husband's insurance money to arrive. With the ten tho...
Beneatha on the other hand is more of a realistic character. She is optimistic some days and pessimistic on others. Beneatha is optimistic in the sense that she is a colored woman living in the ghetto and still, she strives and dreams to be a doctor.
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth and Beneatha both have great dreams but encounter at least one barrier to their success. Ruth’s dream is to have a happy and loving family, and Walter is her barrier. Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor, but she is dependent on others to fulfill her dream.
...ontrol of his personal ambitions to benefit the whole or in Walter's case the family. Certainly it would be unfair for Walter give up his aspirations. The issue is whether Walter can distinguish between a fantasy of reality and a dream deferred.
To start off, Walter’s obsession with money is going to cost him a lot since it is the only thing he cares about. In the beginning, Walter starts out by only caring only about himself, but towards the end, he starts to care for everyone else as well. This shows that Walter is a selfish person. As Walter Lee states to Ruth, “Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand, see” is the dream that Walter Lee has for himself (Hansberry 33). Walter wants the money that the Younger family is getting from the insurance company to buy the liquor store. He thinks that the liquor store will make them rich and the family would not have to struggle anymore. At the end, Walter changes his whole point of view towards the insurance money. Walter declares to Mr....
Walter Sr. was Walter and Beneathas father he died and his wife mama received ten thousand dollar for life insurance. Walter wants the whole ten thousand dollars for himself and put it down on the liquor store. But Beneatha wants to go to medical school and be a doctor. Walter thinks that it is selfish of Beneatha that she wants to attend medical school because he then wouldn't get all of the money for the liquor store. Beneatha "that money belongs to Mama, Walter, and its for her to decide how she wants to use it. I don't care if she wants to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it up somewhere and look at it. It's hers. Not ours hers." Mamas getting all the money and it is up to her if she wants the money for herself give it to Beneatha for school or give it to Walter for the liquor store. Now that it is getting closer to the date in which the money will arrive. Walter is acting more and more desperate for that money.
1. Walter - His dreams of owning a licquor store conflict religiously with Mama's value system. The conflict between Mama and Walter is amplified by the fact that it is Mama's apartment in which the family lives and Walter is unable/unwilling to make decisions because Mama is so domineering. Ironically, it is the one decision that she eventually lets Walter make which nearly destroys the family.
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 talking to Mama and Ruth in a scene about marriage, Beneatha’s opinion on this topic shocks the two other women. When she is asked about her thoughts on who she will marry, Beneatha responds by saying, “I’m not worried who I’m going to marry yet—if I ever get married” (Hansberry 50). Beneatha is not concerned about marriage at the moment because she is studying to become a doctor. Her motivation to become a doctor stems from her want to change the world. Beneatha’s motivation is parallel to her generation’s, the Baby Boomers, drive to improve the world. As the conversation leads towards the topic of religion, Beneatha tells Mama and Ruth that “God is just one of the ideas I don’t accept” (Hansberry 51). Being the youngest of the three women, Beneatha is not as religious as Mama. Instead, she believes that it is wrong that He gets all the credit of humankind. Beneatha not believing in God lines up with how the Baby Boomers are less devout than the GI Generation. Beneatha’s beliefs show how she incorporates more modern values into her
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).
There are underlying similarities between literary works that are left hidden, such as in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and Broadway play A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. There are couples in each work, Beneatha Younger with George Murchison in one and Asalamalakim with Dee Johnson in the other. They are all very alike in nature. Asalamalakim and George are both pompous and uncomfortable around people unlike themselves. Asalamalakim self importance comes from a focus on discovering his heritage. George is self oriented because of his money and pedigree. Beneatha and Dee share the characteristics of fearing in assimilation, using materialistic representation, and renaming themselves as
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.