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The raisin in the sun essay
Analysis a raisin in the sun
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“A strong woman isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. She knows her words are powerful and can be used to build people up or put people in their place.” In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows how a strong and independant woman helps her family through the harsh times of living on the southside of Chicago in the 1950s. Lena Younger, a resilient and wise woman, cares strongly about her children and teaching them life lessons, which brings the family closer. This play takes place on the southside of Chicago during the 1950s. The Younger family, unfortunately in poverty, lives in a one floor home that has two bedrooms for all five of them. Mama, Beneatha, Ruth and Walter all share a dream to one day have their own home. Besides
She shows that in her comments and actions. Mama has to remind Beneatha that she is no better than her, Walter, and Ruth. When walter lost the rest of the money, due to a poor decision, she disowned him as her brother. Not angry but disappointed at Beneatha, Mama says: “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself and for the family ‘cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him…” She explains to Beneatha; just because her brother made a bad choice and made things a little harder, that he is still her brother and she should show some remorse towards him. Mama wants her children to know that even when they make a mistake that family will still be there and love them.
Mama had a whole lot of patience when it came to her children but sometimes she could not quite connect with them. She felt that she did not know who they were becoming. Walter thinks life revolves only around money and Beneatha is losing faith in God. In Act 1 Scene.. Mama slaps Beneatha across the face because Beneatha was talking about how God does not exist. ..In my house there is always God.. says Mama.
Lena Younger made a bold decision by buying that house in the white neighborhood. She was not totally
Mama talks to Walter about her fears of the family falling apart. This is the reason she bought the house and she wants him to understand. Walter doesn't understand and gets angry. "What you need me to say you done right for? You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to. It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. So what you need for me to say it was all right for? So you butchered up a dream of mine - you - who always talking 'bout your children's dreams..." Walter is so obsessive over money that he yells at his mom for not giving him all of it. He doesn't know that what his mom is doing is for the family. He thinks that having money will make the family happy, when in reality the family doesn't need anymore than what they have to be happy.
The play has an example of the technique of foreshadowing when Ruth faints. This foreshadows her later announcement of her pregnancy. The unchangeable setting is considered as a motif. Although the actions that affect the family happen outside. Yet the audience never goes out of the Youngers house. Mama goes out to buy a house, Walter goes to drink and Bennie goes for dates. All these actions are not shown, but the characters go out and come back to tell what they did. By keeping the actions in their apartment only, this reinforces the idea that the family is trapped in their small house and their life is not changing. Hansberry also uses the look of the apartment to convey the situation of the family that they are worn out of this life. Especially when Hansberry says that the furniture is placed to cover worn spots in the rug (loos40).
“Mama (To Walter) Son- (She goes to him, bends down to him, talks to his bent head) Son… Is it gone? Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it gone? All of it? Beneatha’s money too?”(Act 2 Scene 3 Pg. 129). Mama told him that she did not want her late husband’s hard earned money to go into a liquor store. Walter did not listen; therefore, he was held responsible and Mama punished him by beating him( pg.129). She further makes him face the consequences by telling him that he got them into this mess, and as head of the family he needs to get the family out of this situation but not at the cost of the families pride (
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
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.
When Walter loses his "sister's school money," the consequences are widespread and Beneatha sees that dream diminish before her eyes. She sees her slipping through Walter's fingers and finds her lifelong goals changing. From the days of her childhood, she has longed "to be a doctor" and "fix up the sick." While her family and friends do not understand Beneatha's dream, she continues longing for the education she needs to create a successful life she desires rather than one where she is waiting "to get married.
Lena's husband, the family's father died and his life insurance brings the family $ 10,000. Everyone, especially the children, are waiting for the payment of life insurance in the cash. Now the question is whether the money should be invested in a medical school for the daughter, in a deal for the son or other dreams. But after the death of her husband Lena Younger gets the insurance money and buys a new house, where the whole family is going to move. It would seem that a dream came true. But soon we learn that the area, where the family purchased the house, is full of white people who do not want to see African-Americans in the neighborhood. The Youngers are trying to survive the threats or bribes, but they manage to maintain a sense of dignit...
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.
The values of the New World have caused Walter to become materialistic, emotionally insensitive, and frustrated. The first example of where this can be seen is during Walter’s argument with Mama. Mama and Walter both have different meanings on what it means to be alive. Walter, due to having become materialistic, views the meaning of life as money. Mama views the ...
Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” is a play that depicts the strong will of the Youngers, an African-American family, who overcome racial discrimination and economic hardship while living in the south side of Chicago during the 1950’s. Within the Younger household there are three generations of women who each have a distinct personality to bring to the table. Mama, who is in her sixties, is the head of the household, Ruth, who is in her thirties, is married to Mama’s son Walter and is the mother of Travis, and Beneatha, the youngest of the three in her twenties, is going to school to pursue a career as a doctor. All three of these women are beautiful and strong in their separate ways. Because they are independent and strong-willed, their personalities all complement yet contradict each other. The younger women’s diverse yet comparable personalities were shaped by popular media and events during their young adulthoods in three different generations: the 1920’s, the 1940’s and the 1950’s.
Then, Walter's sister Beneatha comes into the kitchen and begins discussing how it's their mother's money, not Walter's and it would be better to spend the money on Beneatha's college tuition instead. Talking about how his mother was going to use the insurance money on him is all Walter tried to do.
The conflict that involves Walter and Mama superficially concerns Mama's receiving an insurance check for ten thousand dollars, which she hasn't yet decided what to do with. Walter has hopes for using the money to invest in a liquor store, with the profits providing him and his family a better quality of life than what they have endured in the past. What really is at stake here, though, is more than money. Mama and Walter have different visions of what happiness is and what life is all about. For Mama, the best thing to do with the money is to make a down payment on a house. This house is to be situated within an all-white neighborhood, and represents assimilation. This is Mama's dream, and the dream ...
An Analysis of A Raisin In the Sun & nbsp; "A Raisin In The Sun" is a play written by an African-American playwright - Lorraine Hansberry. It was first produced in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's work is about a black family in the Chicago South Side. the Second World War. The family consisted of Mama(Lena Younger), Walter.
The shared values and dreams that give this family its cohesiveness are the ideas that they associate with their family. They believe that a certain level of loyalty, commitment and compassion exists just for the sack of being family. Walter feels that he should financially support his family and provide for them in every way. Ruth believes that she needs to be the mediator between the family and keep the peace. Mama believes that she needs to be the nurturing and loving one in the family. Beneatha feels that she needs to open the eyes of her family and help them see the world at face value. Each character expresses these values differently, but these values are shared among them none the less. Each of them also has a strong sense of pride
Mama is a powerful, strong witted person. She has a lot of control in this play and dominates as a woman character. This is unusual because this is usually a male’s position in life. She is a woman, “who has adjusted to many things in life and overcome many more, her face is full of strength”. In this play she is illustrated as taking over for the head of the family and controls the lives of everyone in her house. Rules are followed to Mama’s extent. She controls what is said and done in her house. After Walter yells, “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!” (70). Mama responds in a strong tone of voice saying, “I don’t ‘low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, a...