Family Over Ambition: An Analysis of 'A Raisin in the Sun'

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Would you sacrifice your family for money? Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, is about a family named the Youngers. They aren’t that wealthy, the main character Walter has a dream of owning a liquor store but, he doesn’t have the money for it. So Mama (his mom) is getting a check for 10,000 dollars after the death of Big Walter (his dad) and wants to use that money for a liquor store. She doesn’t want to use that money on a liquor store. Mama ends up buying the whole family one big house, Walter isn’t too pleased with that. He is so angry and really wanted to pursue his ambition of owning a liquor store but, Mama had gotten the whole family a house. She knows that he is angry that she “crushed” his dream, she feels as if she has So he asks his wife, Ruth, to try and convince Mama to give Walter the money for the liquor store. “ Mama would listen to you. You know she listen to you more than she do me and Bennie” (Walter 32). This evidence show’s Walter trying to get Ruth to ask Mama for the money and this connects to the theme one’s family is more important than money by showing that at this moment Walter hasn’t realized that his family is more important than money. He hasn’t quite got the idea that maybe getting the liquor store isn’t such a good investment and maybe he should use it for Travis when he wants to go to college, or if he wants to buy a nice gift for Mama, or And at the end, he tries to sell the house back for more money than what the Younger family had originally bought it for. But has an “ Ah Ha” moment and eventually realizes that his family has and always will be more important than money. Hansberry developed this theme because she felt that throughout this whole story that family was the most important even though the family was having money problems. It matters that people read the play and discover the theme because they can get a deeper connection if they actually read the story and understand all the hardships that the Younger family is

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