Matriarchal Family In Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

On pages 141-144, in A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry shows how society and the mind of a black man is heavily affected by the structures put in place hundreds of years before he was even born. The structure of the matriarchal family in the African American community derived from slavery. This structure affects Walter Lee Younger Jr. Walter Lee’s mother, referred to as Mama in the play, is now the head of the family after her late husband, Walter Younger Sr., dies. The original structure was more of a patriarchal family, but the immaturity, and several times being chewed up by the world and spit out, Walter Lee’s mother has taking the task of leading the family. However, her dominance and roll in the family weakens her son, making him internally

He continues with assumed slave talk, because he thinks it may be more amusing and affective for Mr. Linder. He mutters, “‘Captain, Mistuh, Bossman — (groveling and grinning and wringing his hands in profoundly anguished imitation of the slow-witted movie stereotype.) A-hee-hee-hee! Oh, yassuh boss! Yasssssuh! Great white! — (Voice breaking, he forces himself to go on.) — Father, just gi ' ussen de money, fo ' God 's sake, and we 's—we 's ain 't gwine come out deh and dirty up yo ' white folk’s neighborhood ..." (He breaks down completely.) And I 'll feel fine! Fine! FINE! (He gets up and goes into the bedroom.)” (Hansberry 3.1.144). He continues with the degrading language and completely change his dialect, which is considered inferior to standard dialect. It degrades Walter as a man. Beneatha, Walter Lee’s younger sister, after his speech goes on to say, “That is not a man. That is nothing but a toothless rat” (Hansberry 3.1.144). She proclaims that Walter is not a man, further perpetrating this inferior complex towards her brother. She then compares him to a toothless rat, going back to the animalistic behavior of the black individual. The weight of the world has finally caught up with him and he is succumbing to it, if Walter is truly a man he would not falter, according to his

Both texts analyze societal problems that lead to the hindrance of these male characters, Paul D and Walter Lee, from succumbing to the predetermined way the world has set up for them to go. For Paul D, slavery affects his psyche as a man, from being property of other men, to being raped by a man and by a woman. Walter is portrayed such as a man child in a world, where he opens and close doors for other people. He breaks under the pressure of the world, because he cannot perform the duties that a man should, like providing for his family and giving them the best things. The society in which Paul D and Walter grows up in is structured for the progress of white men, however through the obstacles black men have to face, it shows that they come up short in the