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Lorraine hansberry a raisin in the sun essay
Lorraine hansberry a raisin in the sun essay
Lorraine hansberry’s a raisin in the sun summary
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The human mind is the most complex thing we know of to date, as we've only been able to figure out a fraction of its many ins and outs, mainly through guess work. Maslow spent much of his time and resources learning the intricacies of human needs. The Hierarchy of Needs by Abraham Maslow is incorrect in its representation of the needs of characters within the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The ordering of the Hierarchy of needs pyramid is flawed, it fails to progress from one level to the next linearly, and the level of self-actualization is unobtainable for any character in the play. The order in which pyramid is constructed is wrong. After Walter has cleared a deal with his business partners, he starts to allow his big dreams …show more content…
Part of Maslow’s idea is that without the level before you're unable to move up the ladder of needs, yet at the end of the play, as the family is moving into their new house that Mama bought, which is located in a white neighborhood. Walter who has just lost all of the money he was given to put in a bank, is approached by a rep from the white neighborhood who is trying to buy out the house from the family. Given the family's current situation Walter almost agrees to the deal but before he does he looks at his mother, his son, and this leads him to look at himself, where he starts to regain his self-respect by refusing the deal. He says, “And we have decided to move into our house because my father – my father – he earned it for us brick by brick.” (Hansberry 148). This is where Walter learns how to respect himself and to not selfishness pursue one's own life goals. This shows how the progression for Walter wasn't a linear process, but rather a piece by piece, progression, where he took pieces from each level of the pyramid. The nonlinear path Walter takes is shown by his inability to complete the second tier of the Hierarchy, but completing the fourth tier by earning the respect of his
He struggles every day to achieve his dream of getting more money. When the $10,000 check came in, it was his shot at success. His mother gave him a big chunk of it and he invested it in a liquor store and lost the money. After that, Walter became very depressed. He had lost the trust and respect of his family.
Lorraine Hansberry, in her play A Raisin in the Sun, tells the story of the Youngers, a poverty-stricken family of five. The author uses a large sum of inherited life insurance money to symbolize the downfall of two of the characters, Beneatha and Walter, due to their dreams.
The issue is whether Walter can distinguish between a fantasy of reality and a dream deferred. Essentially this play can be regarded as the mid-life crisis of Walter Lee Younger, passionate about his family, ambitious, and bursting with energy and dreams. Walter cares about his family, and he hopes that buying the liquor store will be a brighter future for Travis. ? And-and I?ll say, all right son-it?s your seventeenth birthday, what is it you?ve decided?.Just tell me where you want to go to school and you?ll go. Just tell me, what it is you want to be?
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....
In the book A Raisin in the Sun, the time period is set in 1955. A time in America where African Americans still dealt with a constant struggle between them and the rest of the country. It touches on subjects that were very sensitive especially at the time the work was released. Even though the setting of the book was in the north, Lorraine Hansberry seemed to want to show that things weren’t that much better in the north than they were in the south at that time. Segregation was still being implemented in the law system, and there was a missing sense of equality among everyone. It shows that Lorraine Hansberry took what was going on around her environment and portrayed those situations into her work. The three events listed include Rosa Parks
Maslow’s original theory talked about a pyramid shape of achievements that every person unknowingly is striving to achieve. The bottom level is physiological needs such as food, water, shelter, and warmth. As we move up the pyramid next is safety which is security (money), stability, and freedom of fear. These two bottom sections of the pyramid are known as the basic needs because everyone on earth requires these basic needs to move to the next level of the pyramid. The next level is belonging/ love needs consisting of friends, family, spouse, or lover. From here on up your base needs are very helpful in reaching your next needs, Self-esteem which includes achievement, mastery, recognition, and respect. Lastly is your self-actualization need where ...
According to Maslow men and women have individual needs such as Biological, safety, attachment, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic, self-actualization and Transcendence . Each need must be met before moving to the next level of need. Maslow's hierarchical theory of needs is often represented as a pyramid (see attached)
Maslow believed that there was a hierarchy of five innate needs that influence people’s behaviors (Schultz & Schultz, 2013, p.246-247). In a pyramid fashion, at the base are physiological needs, followed by safety needs, then belonginess and love needs, succeeded by esteem needs, and finally the need for self-actualization. Maslow claimed that lower order needs must be at least partially satisfied before higher level needs are addressed. Furthermore, behavior is dominated by solely one need
Psychologist Abraham Maslow created the hierarchy of needs, outlining and suggesting what a person need to reach self-actualization and reveal the true potential of themselves. In the model, Maslow propose that a person has to meet basic needs in order to reach the true potential of themselves. Biological/physiological needs, safety needs, love/belonging need, esteem needs according to Maslow is the fundamental frame for reaching the peak of self. The last need to be met on the scale
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry illustrates an African American family receiving money from a deceased family member at the beginning of the play. When the Young family accepted this large amount of money, they moved into a house in an all white community in Chicago around 1950s. During this time period there were many social issues that were uprising. Some of these social issues are the following: racism, gender identity, and roles of women. These social issues are the ones which were explored in the play “A Raisin in the Sun”.
Walter's dreams are to be the head of his family, have a respectable job, and to one day own a liquor store. Throughout the play, he struggles to gain support of his dreams. "Man says to his woman says: I got me a dream. His woman says: Eat your eggs. Man says: Ive got to take hold of this here world, woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work." (Act.1 Sc.1). Walter tries to talk to Ruth about his dreams, but she doesn't pay him any mind. She doesn't, because she thinks that he would not be able to make much of his dreams a reality, so long as they are Black and poor. Walter depends on the remainder of the 10,000 dollars that mama received, to fulfill his dreams of owning the liquor store. Mama is very wise and old fashioned, and she doesn't see fit to invest he husband's money in something as harmful as liquor. Walter, who only thinks on money, the grass the reason for his mother not initially giving him the money. Not only did Beneatha show no interest in his dreams, so did his mom. To Walter, Mama " butchered up a dream of his."(act. 2 sc.2). Walter, whose dreams are oppressed from lack of both physical and financial support, ultimately causes him to lose contr...
Unlike many of his colleagues at the time who were focusing on psychopathology, or what is wrong with individuals, he focused on how individuals are motivated to fulfill their potential and what needs govern their respective behaviors (McLeod)). Maslow developed the hierarchy over time, adjusting from a rigid structure where needs must be met before being able to achieve a higher level, to where the individuals can experience and behave in ways across the hierarchy multiple times daily depending on their needs. The hierarchy is comprised of 5 levels; Physiological, Safety and Security, Love and Belonging, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. The bottom two levels are considered basic needs, or deficiency needs because once the needs are met they cease to be a driving factor, unlike psychological needs. Loving and Belonging and Esteem needs are considered psychological needs, and are different from basic needs because they don’t stem from a lack of something, but rather the desire to grow. Maslow theorizes that individual’s decisions and behavior are determined based on their current level of needs, and the ideal level to achieve full potential culminates in self-actualization; however, operating on this level cannot be achieved until the preceding levels of needs have been
Abraham Maslow wrote the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. This theory was based on fulfilling five basic needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization. Maslow believed that these needs could create internal pressures that could influence the behavior of a person. (Robbins, p.204)
Abraham Maslow did studies of the basic needs of human beings. He put these needs into a hierarchical order. This means that until the need before it has been satisfied, the following need can not be met (Encyclopedia, 2000). For example, if someone is hungry they are not thinking too much about socializing. In the order from lowest to highest the needs are psychological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. The first three are classified as lower order needs and the last two are higher order (Hierarchy, 2000). Without meeting these needs workers are not going to be as productive as they could otherwise. The first three are considered to be essential to all humans at all times. The last two have been argued but are mostly considered to be very important as well.
Similarly, Maslow's theory also reflects that humans have an internal force to reach their highest potential (Maslow, 1968). Maslow examined the hierarchy of basic human needs and developed a pyramid of requirements which motivates human beings and shapes their personality. At the bottom of his pyramid are found the basic physiological motivations which are necessary for survival such as food and shelter. The next level incorporates the need for safety, both physical and psychological. This is followed by love and belongingness which relate to receiving and giving affection. Presuming the love need is met, the next level up is the need for esteem which includes the feeling of self-esteem and self-respect. At the top of the pyramid stands the complex need for self-actualization which is a meta-need as per Maslow (1964) and we can reach it through peak experiences. It is the highest level of growth when someone reached her or his capacity to the fullest. Maslow estimated that only 1 percent of people ever really fulfil this need (Maslow,