A Raisin in the Sun – Mama
Mama has dreams for her family to rise from poverty and live in a better and bigger place and also for them to continue to grow together as a family. Mama has a plant that she also cares for. She takes care of this plant as if it was one of her own children. Mama's children also have their own dreams and their own plans on how to attain those dreams. The family's competing dreams are emphasized by Hansberry's recurring use of the motif--Mama's plant.
In the opening scene of the play Mama goes to her plant and nurtures it. Mama tries to instill the value of family importance to her children as she struggles to keep them together and functioning (Kohorn). The plant symbolizes Mama's dreams of owning her own house. She uses part of the money to put a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood.
Beneatha is Mama's youngest child. She aspires to become a doctor. Mama wants Beneatha to become what she wants so she decided to put aside some of the insurance money for Beneatha's schooling. Beneatha struggles as a young independent woman who has yet to find her identity. She finds herself trying new hobbies and dating two very different men. During a conversation with one of those men, Asagai, Beneatha is forced by Asagai to realize that she is not very independent at all. In fact she has been depending on the insurance money to get her through school. After this realization, Beneatha gains thoughts on how to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor (Kohorn). She presents her mother with her decision of getting married and how she "plans to find her roots in Africa" with Asagai (Silver).
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.
Mama wants to keep her dreams alive and keep her family close to her heart. Mama’s plant that she cares for represents this dream by “looking at her plant and spraying water on it” (52) in a small way showing she will try to keep her plant and their dreams alive. She takes care of this plant as if it was one of her own children. Mama's children also have their own dreams and their own plans on how to attain those dreams. The family's competing dreams are emphasized in using a symbol to represent these dreams in this case-Mama's plant. Lorraine Hansberry describes each of the family’s dreams and how they are deferred. In the beginning of the play Lorraine Hansberry chose Langston Hughes’s poem to try describe what the play is about and how, in life, dreams can sometimes...
...ccomplish this if they all understand what is important in life. All of Mama’s dreams are eventually recognized, although they certainly appear hazy throughout the play. The question about whether or not they should keep the house forms inside Mama’s head near the end of the play, but she quickly changes her mind. Mama never lost sight of her goals, no matter how hard nature attacked them.
-In the end, Jackson had the popular vote, and the Electoral vote, yet another runner, Henry Clay threw his support to Adams, and Adams won the election over the popular Jackson.
Quincy Adams, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun emerged as Clay’s strongest competitors for the presidency. Later in 1822, General Andrew Jackson was elected by the Tennessee legislature to the senate. Although Clay did not take him seriously at first, Jackson began to threaten Clay’s presidential chances because the both had strong support in the western states. In 1823, Crawford had suffered a major stroke, and John C. Calhoun withdrew from the running when Jackson won support from the Pennsylvania legislature. This brought the 1824 election down to four major candidates. The four major candidates, Adams, Crawford, Jackson and Clay were all Democratic-Republicans. Clay assumed that with all four of them in the running, no candidate would win the majority of the electoral votes. This would then require the House of Representatives to decide the election. The top three electoral vote receives would go to a runoff in the House where each state receives one vote. Clay felt that if it came down to this, he would be able to win because of his power as Speaker of the House. Clay was correct in his assumption that no
During his administration Jackson was faced with many key issues, of which the Nullification crisis is an example. This was a crisis over the doctrine of nullification, which was being strongly pushed by South Carolina. According to this doctrine, the state had the right to nullify government legislature that was inconsistent with its own. This doctrine was not used until 1832 when a new tariff was imposed that would reduce some duties but retain high taxes on many imports. The south felt this tariff would make them pay for northern industrialism, and they did not want to succumb to the will of the North. Jackson was against this theory of Nullification because he was a strong supporter of the Union. He took action against this by publicly 'nullifying nullification' and by moving troops into South Carolina to help the federal marshals collect the unpaid duties. Finally a compromise tariff was passed in 1833 which increased the number of duty free items and reduced other duties. Jackson's decisive actions in the Nullification crisis helped define the powers of the central government more clearly, they made it clear to the states that he would not suffer their tyranny, which might break up the Republic, just as the States would not tolerate a tyrannical central government.
Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay were the candidates. Clay couldn’t possibly win, but he could, as Speaker of the House, vote for any candidate. He voted for Adams. When Adams became President, he chose Clay for Secretary of State. People though t that it was a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay so that Adams would win and Clay could be Secretary of State. The 1828 election ended up being an “Adams-Jackson rematch.” (Keesee, Sidwell, 197) Jackson’s running mate was John C. Calhoun. Adams said that “The reign of King Mob seemed triumphant,” meaning that the mob had chosen
presidential election of 1836, Martin Van Buren, to victory and his Jacksonian Democracy and polices will forever be remembered.
Living in a society where the fulfillment of dreams is based upon material wealth, the Younger family strives to overcome their hardships as they search for happiness. As money has never been a way of life for the family, the insurance check's arrival brings each person to see the chance that their own dreams can become reality. Whether in taking a risk through buying a "little liquor store" as Walter wishes to do or in -"[wanting] to cure" as Beneatha dreams, the desires of the family depend upon the fate of Mama's check. In the mind of Walter Lee Younger, the check is the pinnacle of all, dominating his thoughts, as he does not wait a second before "asking about money "without" a Christian greeting." He cannot see beyond the fact that he "[wants] so many things" and that only their recently acquired money can bring them about. The idea of money and being able to hold it "in [his] hands" blinds him from the evils of society, as he cannot see that the Willy Harris's of the world will steal a person's "life" without a word to anyone. When money becomes nothing but an illusion, Walter is forced to rethink his values and his family's future, realizing that there is more to living that possessing material riches.
A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.
Their main concern was keeping the National Bank, but weren’t united in much else. Members of the Whig Party held extremely varying views on several topics, but they all rallied against Jackson and the Democrats. Their goal was to fight the Bank War and also Jackson’s almost complete ignorance of the Constitution, Indian rights treaties, and the decisions of the Supreme Court. It is true that Jackson treated Congress and the Supreme Court as inferior branches of government, which even though he did for “the common good” could’ve been dangerous. For instance, when Georgians began to move into Cherokee lands, the Supreme Court decided it was unconstitutional, but Jackson held the belief that the federal government had no responsibility to protect other sovereign nations, and therefore didn't enforce the decision of the Court. Jackson then proposed the idea of complete Indian removal, which Congress accepted. The relocation treaties were often quite generous to the Indians, but Jackson’s effort to remain faithful to the state governments sometimes undermined the federal efforts to protect Indians while being relocated. The most infamous example of this was “The Trail of Tears” under Martin Van Buren in 1838, though it was caused by the actions of Andrew Jackson during his
...ssly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object to which it was formed. Jackson also pushed through Congress a force bill that authorized the use of federal troops to collect the tariff. The crisis was eased when, through the efforts of Henry Clay, Congress passed a compromise tariff in 1833 along with the force bill. As a last defiant gesture, South Carolina accepted the tariff but nullified the force bill. Jackson had preserved the Union, but nullification remained a great question.
Walter is Mama’s oldest son. His dreams are to be wealth but at the same time wanting to provide for his family. His own personal dream is to open liquor store with his money he receives from Mama.
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.
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...
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...