BB #3
The 1950s was a time were a lot of woman came back home from the war being more independent. During this time The Civil Right Movement was going on and there was a lot of discrimination against African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Park were the most influential people during this time because they were against discrimination. They were the ones that stood up to try and stop discrimination. The author Lorrain Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 while discrimination was still going on. The play Raisin in the Sun showed how woman were gaining rights during that time.
Mama younger was a progressive force that was both holding the family together and helping it to move forward. Throughout the play Mama Younger was a strong woman that was the head of her family since her husband died. Her priority was her family, everything she would do was
…show more content…
Ruth play the role of a typical wife during that time: she would clean, cook, and support her husband. Even though she took the role of a woman during that time she was also gaining the rights that woman were earning in the 1950s. Ruth would go out and work to help her husband out economically because poverty was a big problem in her family. She also wanted to provide her family with a little extra money and avoid problems with her husband because they did not have money. Ruth was Walter’s biggest supporter because even though they always had problems because of money. She stayed with Walter and help him as much as she could. One of the biggest problems that Ruth had was losing control when she found out that she was pregnant. Her first option when she found out that she was pregnant was to get an abortion. During that time getting an abortion was illegal and woman were judged. Ruth considered not having her baby because of the economic problems they had. At the end she did not get an abortion because things in her house got
Ruth was being prevented from having a baby because of money problems, Walter was bringing him self down by trying to make the liquor store idea work. Once Mama decided to buy the house with the money she had received, Walter figured that he should further go on with the liquor store idea. Then, when Walter lost the money, he lost his dignity and tried to get some money from the “welcome party” of Cylborne Park. Mama forced him to realize how far he went by making him show himself to his son how low he would go. But he showed that he wasn’t susceptible to the ways the racism created.
...the show Ruth discovers that she is pregnant, and because of her economic hardships, she is determining whether or not to keep the baby. This puts her stress level higher than ever. Ruth also starts off the show as a wife who doesn’t believe in Walter’s dream of owning a liquor store, But in the end, Ruth decides to keep the child and finds hope for her, Walter and the Younger family.
To women and some men, she is a hero, and to anti-feminists she is a villain. Moreover, there are still many people who do not applaud Ruth on the wonderful changes Ruth has made to American society. For growing up in the mid 90s, it is shocking to some that Ruth is not against abortion. After fighting for women to have the freedom to decide for themselves, Ruth said, “Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise.” However, Ruth is not against nor for abortion rather she is wants people to be able to make their own choices. She said, “The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.” Also, Ruth is an advocate of same sex marriage. She wants freedom for everyone and for every one to be allowed to make their own decisions. She said, “In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door
Ruth has an intriguing personality. She is very loving towards her family. She will do all in her power to improve the lifestyle of her family. When it appears that the deal for the house in Clybourne Park will fall through, she promises to dedicate all of her time to make the investment work. “Lena-I’ll work… I’ll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago…I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors and wash all the sheets in America if I have to-but we have to MOVE!” she pleads to her mother-in-law (Hansberry140). Her plan is unrealistic and idealistic, but the well being of her family is more important to her than anything. Ruth is also witty and sarcastic at times. She cracks jokes to lighten the mood of her family when they’re worried. “Well that’s the way the cracker crumbles. Joke. (121)” When Beneatha and Mama are stressing over the neighborhood they are moving into, Ruth makes a witty joke to improve the mood. Ruth supervises the daily routine and well being of her family. She makes sure that everyone does what they are supposed to and stays on track. ...
In comparing the two novels A Raisin in the Sun and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents had various similarities like gender role, family conflict, racism and economic hardships. Therefore, first in exploring components of each character with their dreams and reality the first issue observed is gender roles. Beneatha, the youngest of the generation in A Raisin in the Sun attends college, with hopes of becoming a doctor it destroys the gender role of housework and motherhood is the only ambition for women evidence of this is with a conversation with Ruth. She informs her to “Listen I’m going to be a doctor I’m not worried about who I’m going to get marry to yet – if I ever get married” (Hansberry, 2011 p.50). Another gender role analyzed in this story is Ruth, who only wanted to fix her relationship with her companion. Walter exhibits a display of sex role stating why their relationship is not working “That is what wrong with the colored woman in this world Don’t understand about building a man up and making them feel as if they are
Mama is a good example of an extremely optimistic character in the play. She always sees the best of every situation. At times the situation may seem completely hopeless to the audience. Yet, she never gives up. Mama has always dreamed of owning a house, she has always wanted to move her family out of the “ghetto”. Finally, she gets the chance to do so; she gets an important amount of money from the insurance company. She decides to use that money to make a down payment on a house. But her dreams are rapidly crushed; her son, Walter, has lost all of the money in an investment. Although she is extremely angry at first she does not give up. She decides that perhaps they can clean up the place they currently live in. They can add new furniture and perhaps even new curtains. The following quote perfectly illustrative Mama’s optimism: “I sees things differently now. Been thinking ‘bout some things we could do to fix this place up some. […] Why this place be looking fine. Cheer us all up so that we forget trouble ever come… […] Sometimes you just got to know when to give up some things… and hold on to what you got …” (p140) Mama is a really strong and important character in the play. Due to her hopefulness she is able to hold her family together till the end.
Women progressed in the 50’s in finding their freedom, such as: how to work outside the house, gaining new job opportunities, and finding their place in society. Coming from a life in 1692, where women could not express emotion, or leave the house for any reason, unless helping their husband; to now being able to help in the war is a huge accomplishment for women in this time period. Women have risen above society’s standards. Women gave faith to their families during the Great Depression, lifted the family without the husband during the times of war, and now after all the conflict and difficulties the women maintained their bravery and their position in society.
Ruth is Walter's wife. Her dream is to have a happy family but she also wants to be wealthy.
In the words of Jim Cocola and Ross Douthat, Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun to mimic how she grew up in the 1930s. Her purpose was to tell how life was for a black family living during the pre-civil rights era when segregation was still legal (spark notes). Hansberry introduces us to the Youngers’, a black family living in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s pre-civil rights movement. The Younger family consists of Mama, who is the head of the household, Walter and Beneatha, who are Mama’s children, Ruth, who is Walter’s wife, and Travis, who is Walter and Ruth’s son. Throughout the play the Youngers’ address poverty, discrimination, marital problems, and abortion. Mama is waiting on a check from the insurance company because of the recent passing of her husband. Throughout the play Walter tries to convince Mama to let him invest the money in a liquor store. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor while embracing her African heritage, and Ruth just found out that she is pregnant and is struggling to keep her marriage going. The Youngers’ live in a very small apartment that is falling apart because of the wear and tear that the place has endured over the years. Mama dreams of having her own house and ends up using part of the insurance money for a down payment on a house in an up-scale neighborhood. The Youngers’ meet Mr. Lindner, who is the head of the welcoming committee. Mr. Lindner voices the community’s concerns of the Youngers’ moving into their neighborhood. Is the play A Raisin in the Sun focused on racial or universal issues?
The 1960s was the era of the Black Arts Movement, when younger black writers wrote about their desire for race solidarity and denounced not only acts of racism but many things affiliated with white people. Due to the racial prejudice at most
Mama, as a member of an older generation, represents the suffering that has always been a part of this world. She spent her life coexisting with the struggle in some approximation to harmony. Mama knew the futility of trying to escape the pain inherent in living, she knew about "the darkness outside," but she challenged herself to survive proudly despite it all (419). Mama took on the pain in her family in order to strengthen herself as a support for those who could not cope with their own grief. Allowing her husband to cry for his dead brother gave her a strength and purpose that would have been hard to attain outside her family sphere. She was a poor black woman in Harlem, yet she was able to give her husband permission for weakness, a gift that he feared to ask for in others. She gave him the right to a secret, personal bitterness toward the white man that he could not show to anyone else. She allowed him to survive. She marveled at his strength, and acknowledged her part in it, "But if he hadn't had...
The 1950s was a time when conformity held supreme in the culture at large. Issues such as women 's rights were thrown to the back as people tried to remain in the popular form of a family. These issues being put off only caused the prolonging of the tumultuous 1960s that would soon
In the book A Raisin in the Sun, the time period is set in 1955. A time in America where African Americans still dealt with a constant struggle between them and the rest of the country. It touches on subjects that were very sensitive especially at the time the work was released. Even though the setting of the book was in the north, Lorraine Hansberry seemed to want to show that things weren’t that much better in the north than they were in the south at that time. Segregation was still being implemented in the law system, and there was a missing sense of equality among everyone. It shows that Lorraine Hansberry took what was going on around her environment and portrayed those situations into her work. The three events listed include Rosa Parks
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...
The play, A Raisin in the Sun, has a very strong view of feminism in the 1960’s. The way that the females are portrayed and talked to in this play is not only an example of how the relationship between a man and a woman in society is unequal, but reflects a particular patriarchal ideology. Throughout this play, as the characters strive to achieve their dreams, the relationships that we see can be seen as feminist and as sexual stereotypes.