Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin In the Sun Staci King

Lorraine Hansberry A-2 PCP

Penguin Books 10-29-99

1988 Rpt. 2

A Raisin In the Sun is a drama play that takes place “sometime between World War II and the present.” The family lived in Chicago’s Southside. The town was very “dusky” and as each day passed the nights got colder. The Younger family lived in a small old apartment with only two small rooms. The little one had to sleep on the couch every night. The house needed a great amount of fixing up; everyone was ready to move out.

Ruth Younger is about thirty years old. She is married to Walter Lee Young and they have a son named Travis. “ Ruth is a pretty girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that life has been little that she expected, and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face. In a few years, before thirty-five even, she will be known among her people as a ‘settled woman.’” Ruth tries to do everything she can to make her family happy. She just wants the best for them.

Walter Lee Younger is a “lean, intense young man in his middle thirties, inclined to quick nervous movements and erratic speech habits and always in his voice there is a quality of indictment.” He works as a chauffeur, but his dream is to one day open up a liquor store. Walter has a very bad temper and tends to say things he doesn’t mean. Walter and his wife have been getting into many fights. He has a really bad temper. Many times when Walter gets upset he goes out and gets drunk. Walter likes to spoil his son Travis.

Beneatha Younger is Walter’s smart, younger sister. She is about twenty years old and “ as slim and intense as her brother. She is not as pretty as her sister-in-law, but her lean intellectual face has a handsomeness of its own.” She also gets her bad temper from Walter. Beneatha wants to become a doctor when she gets older. She says everything that is on her mind and it never seems like she is happy. Beneatha finds most everything people say to be offensive to her some how.

Lena Younger, known as Mama, is in her early sixties. “ She is one of those women of a certain grace and beauty who wear it so unobtrusively that it takes a while to notice.