Portrayal of an African-American Family in Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansburry

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A Raisin in the Sun is set in the South of Chicago in the 1950’s and portrays the lives of an African-American family, the Youngers, who like many other African-American families migrated from the South to the North to leave behind the social, economic and educational oppression. Unfortunately this is no different in the North. In the play it is seen how Mama solely believes that the meaning of life is freedom and Walter, her son, believes that money is life. Both these characters have conflicting ideas on what they perceive life’s meaning to be. These ideas will be closely analysed, with evidence from the text, to illustrate why they are relevant to Mama and Walter. The function of time will be closely analysed as well to show how over the course of a few weeks it influences their particular meanings of life. I agree with Mama saying that their interpretations of life are due to intergenerational differences, and not on what Walter suggests about life always being about money. The aspect of the deferred American dream, which I feel is a central problem in the play, will also be dealt with in relation to Mama and Walter’s dreams and how time functions in relation to this. Mama, the matriarch of the Younger family, she is highly religious and completely selfless. To Mama life is freedom. She is the fifth generation from slavery in her family, so she is much more involved with the issue of slavery and is very aware of slavery and having no freedom. She is from a different generation to Walter and so her meaning of life is therefore different. Mama feels that Walter does not appreciate the struggles his family has battled and endured in order to be where they are today. Mama and Walter’s generation have different views on life becau... ... middle of paper ... ... are African-American and redlining is present, which has created exclusion zones, community areas, prevents black people from bank loans and insurance and certain areas are white-only. Through analysing the relevance for Mama and Walter’s meanings of life we can see how time has functioned in changing specifically Walter’s meaning of life and realizing life is not about money, we see the different generation times and the reasons for there being different views of life’s meaning because of the different issues Mama and Walter have faced. Time has changed the generations’ views on life and what is of importance is different. Hansberry feels that the American dream will never be true for the Younger family even though the Younger’s believe that they can achieve upward mobility, the rest of the world and Hansberry are cynical about this and don’ believe it is true.

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