I have never read a play, but reading A raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry definitely came to be a favorite. The play was based on a singular low-income black family that is trying to improve their life and status during the 1950’s. The play follows Walter Lee Younger, a father who is awaiting his mother's insurance check for $10,000 to use it for a liquor store investment. Even though he has plans for this investment, his mother does not let him have it. The whole play revolves around that check and whether it will draw them apart or bring them together. Hansberry orders the play in which we see who these characters are and how they respond to the check coming in. Hansberry does so by using dramatic elements throughout the whole play. The whole play is based on the question of will the family come together or will the $10,000 insurance check drive them apart. Throughout the whole …show more content…
Each person serves a purpose for the conflict and are affected by it. Walter provides the attitude of being stubborn and wanting that insurance check for the investment. This attitude drives him away from his family. Lena is the head of the household who wants a house for her family. She is adamant on not giving the money to Walter. This conflict causes her to become more tiresome physically and emotionally. Beneatha has always thought of herself as superior to others like her name my show. She is a non-traditionalist and doesn’t think like her family. She wants that money to help her with school although she doesn’t portray this like Walter. Lastly, Ruth is the quiet one who hardly shows her emotions. She is the one who tries to keep the family together without it falling apart. She is affected by this conflict by also making her tired physically and emotionally. All characters provide a sense of to what people felt in the 1950’s and come to make up a great ending of the
The play depicts the feelings and thoughts of the people of their time. Their feelings are different then what we see today in our lives. The family had to deal with poverty and racism. Not having enough money and always being put down because of the color of their skin held them back from having a lot of self-respect and dignity. I think that Mama was the one who had the most pride and held the family together.
Mama has her own American Dream that she chases after, which heavily affects the family, she just wants a better life for her family, a life where her children can be happy, not really ever wanting anything for herself. Mama has to go through many struggles and
1. Walter - His dreams of owning a licquor store conflict religiously with Mama's value system. The conflict between Mama and Walter is amplified by the fact that it is Mama's apartment in which the family lives and Walter is unable/unwilling to make decisions because Mama is so domineering. Ironically, it is the one decision that she eventually lets Walter make which nearly destroys the family.
The Younger’s, an African American family living on the south-side of Chicago in the 1950s, live in an undersized apartment for their family of five. Lena Younger, the mother of the house, receives a check of ten thousand dollars and dreams of owning her own house in a white neighborhood. Beneatha’s brother, Walter, has high hopes of investing the money in a liquor store. Walter’s wife, Ruth does all she can to support his ideas while caring for their son, Travis. But, to become a doctor, Beneatha wants and needs the money to pay for her schooling. Walter and Beneatha’s wants for the money cause disputes throughout the house.
The civil rights movement brought enlightenment towards the abolishment of segregation laws. Although the laws are gone does segregation still exist in fact? “What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?'; said, in a poem by Langston Huges. The story, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry showed segregation and its affects upon all races. This essay will show how Assimilationists and New Negroes fought for their own identity in the mid twentieth century. Whether they were being true to themselves or creating carbon copies of oppression was determined by one’s view upon society.
Walter and Beneatha’s relationship is very complex. The spiraling tension between the two siblings causes confrontation to form and creep into the Younger household. Walter needs his family to respect him as the man of the family, but his sister is constantly belittling him in front of his mother, wife, and son. This denigrating treatment taints Walter’s view of himself as a man, which carries into his decisions and actions. Beneatha also subconsciously deals with the dysfunctional relationship with her brother. She desires to have her brother’s support for her dream of becoming a doctor, yet Walter tends to taunt her aspiration and condemns her for having such a selfish dream. Mama as the head of the family is heartbroken by the juvenile hostility of her adult children, so in hopes to keep her family together she makes the brave move of purchasing a house. Mama’s reasoning for the bold purchase was,“ I—I just seen my family falling apart….just falling to pieces in front of my eyes…We couldn’t have gone on like we was today. We was going backwards ‘stead of forw...
Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.
...as the support of the family as oppose to Walter. Each family member has a dream to improve the family situation; however, all of those dreams are depending on one insurance check which begins to cause trouble and tensions within the family (Bloom 18). However, all these dreams are counting on one insurance check to be funded.
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).
These woman in Walter’s life has a strong presence and give Walter a reality check when he needs it. When Walter’s father passed away, Mama assumed head of the house and kept the family together. This proves that women can be in charge of and take care of the entire family. Walter’s belief that men should be in control of the household is debunked by Mama and her status in their family. Beneath, as the outspoken woman she is, argues with her brother on the topic of her education and her career.
Ruth is Walter's wife. Her dream is to have a happy family but she also wants to be wealthy.
Essentially this play can be regarded as the mid-life crisis of Walter Lee Younger, passionate for his family, ambitious, and bursting with energy and dreams. Walter cares about his family, and he hopes that buying the liquor store will being a brighter future to 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 ? and you?ll be it.?(Hansberry 109). Walter Lee, shackled by poverty and prejudice, and obsessed with his own sense of success, which he felt, would be the end of all of his social and economic problems. The dreams he had gave him a great sense of pride and self-satisfaction. Unfortunately Walter had to learn a hard lesson in life; pride and greed will eventually lead to unhappiness.
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...
Playwrights use various techniques to create a comprehensive tale that isn’t in the traditional novel format. Plays are cooked up with a variety of specialized ingredients such as acts and scenes to establish setting, dialogue to showcase character interactions, stage directions to declare the tones and physical reactions of characters to situations, and comparable and contrasting characters to emphasize certain motifs and themes. Lorraine Hansberry uses all of these accompanied with her plot inspired by her own life experiences to paint a picture of the African Americans’ struggles in the mid-1900s in a notable play she titled A Raisin in the Sun. The easiest technique common in plays is the use of dialogue.
Walter wants the insurance money so that he can prove that he is capable of making a future for his family. By doing well in business, Walter thinks that he can buy his family happiness. Mama cares for Walter deeply and hates seeing him suffer so she gave into his idea. Mama gives Walter the rest of the money and tells him to put half in a bank for his sister's schooling and he could do whatever he wanted with the other half.