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Gender Roles In A Raisin In The Sun And The Help

Decent Essays

The 1950s and 1906s both have social issues that can be seen throughout and are shown in the books A Raisin in the Sun and The Help. The Help takes place in the 1960s. Skeeter Phelan is a recent graduate from college with a degree in writing. Elaine Stein is a publisher in New York who Skeeter tries to launch her book idea to. Skeeter Phelan interviews the maids in Jackson, Mississippi to show the discrimination shown towards them by the families that hire them. Both the characters in The Help and A Raisin in the Sun have similar experiences in housing and gender roles due to the eras the books take place in, although education plays a different role because of opportunity for the characters in A Raisin in the Sun than The Help. Both …show more content…

She comments on how different the neighborhoods are and how she doesn’t feel welcome. “There are no streetlights so it’s hard to say who else sees me. I feel as obvious as my vehicle: large and white.” (Stockett 143). A Raisin in a Sun and The Help both take place in the 1950s and 1960s, where gender roles were very prominent in families. In A Raisin in the Sun Walter Younger became the head of the household when his father died. When Lena Younger cashes the check, sh gives Walter the money and says”It ain’t much, but it’s all I got left in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of the family from now on like you supposed to be.” (Hansberry 107). Lena Younger is very old fashioned when it comes to her family. You can also see this when Mama doesn’t understand Beneatha’s modern way of thinking about expressing herself. Mrs. Younger gives Walter the money from the insurance check to take care of the family’s finances. She does this because she believe Walter should be in charge of the house even though Lena is the oldest in the family. After Aibileen witnessed Raleigh Leefolt telling his wife, Elizabeth, what to do she remarks, “And like men do, Mister Raleigh Leefolt walk out the door where he don’t have to give nobody no explanations about nothing.” (Stockett 432). In the 1950s and 1960s, men were considered the head of the household and sole provider. Mae Mobley was caught playing a game with her

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