In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry the Younger family lives in Chicago’s south side, between World War II and the present. Mama ,which is the head of the household, has one son that is married and one daughter that is not, she also has a grandson. Her husband has recently died to a cause not listed in the play, because of his death, there is a life insurance check that she is going to receive. Her son’s name is Walter and her daughter’s name is Beneatha, Walter is married to Ruth and they have a son named Travis. Mr. Walter has many ideas that he thinks could make him rich, Beneatha wants to become a doctor and Mrs. Ruth is a maid. Mama has grown up during slavery and she does not want her family to live like she had to. Throughout the play, the American Dream is presented by the Younger family wanting to become more than what they are destined to be by society. Mr. Walter is not very smart when it comes to business and making good decisions with money. Walter’s dream is to become a very successful and rich businessman, he also wants Travis’ life to be better than his. During the play a check is mentioned by every member in the Younger family, this check means a lot to the family especially Mama. This check has come from the death of Mama’s husband and Walter and Beneatha’s father. When the check comes, Mama gets upset and cares more about her husband’s death than the money, Walter cares more about the money because he wants to own a liquor store.
Mama, “ Son how
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
Walter believes that money will solve all of their problems and he speaks about money constantly "because it is life [. . .]"(1010). Walter's selfishness can be seen at the climax of the play when the family finds out that Willy has ran away with the money: "I never. . . went to the bank at all. . ."(1032). Consequently, Walter used the money to begin his own business.
The drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, shows the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living on the Southside of Chicago in the 1950s. In the beginning, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy. Each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to what he or she would like to do with this money. Mama, wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with her husband. Mama’s son, Walter Lee, would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. He believes that the investment will solve the family’s financial problems forever. Beneatha, Walter’s sister and Mama’s daughter, wants to use the money for her medical school tuition. Ruth, Walter’s wife, discovers that she is pregnant, but
“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is a Drama about a generous insurance check that could mean either a profit-making gain for the younger family or destroy the already suffering family. “The Younger family comprises of Mama, Beneatha, her son Walter and his significant other Ruth, and her grandson Travis.” (Synopsis) “The family has lived in the same cramped Chicago dump for quite a long time”.(Synopsis)Walter is a taxi driver and Ruth fills in as low maintenance house keeper. Mother has recently resigned as she is expecting a $10,000 check from her croaked fathers allotment. There are many themes of this play, but the one that stood out most to me is the theme hopes, plans and Dreams.The Younger family is given a chance to realize
In Lorraine's Hansberry A Raisin In The Sun. Walter wants to make money to support his family. He wants money because he thinks it makes him a “man”. How ever when his money is stolen, Walter’s perceptions of manhood shifts from valuing wealth and power to valuing family and pride.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry's is play by a black family in 1959 Chicago, set in the family very crowded apartment, Walter Lee and Ruth share a room while Beneatha and Mama have the other; Travis must sleep out in the living room on the couch and they must all share a bathroom with other tenants in the building. From what we know from the lay out there is one small window in the kitchen and the apartment is scattered with worn furniture. The story focuses on the different dreams of each of the member of this family as they discuss what they can do with a $10,000 life insurance payment. The overall theme is the aspirations that make up the American dream - the idea that anyone can do well for themselves if they work hard to provide for our family.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, tries to give readers an overall look of what it feels like to be given a chance to make a difference. The play includes Mama, the stronghold of the family, her son, Walter Lee, a dreamer, Beneatha, Walter’s sister, who wants to be a doctor, his wife, Ruth, a realist, and their son, Travis. The play setting is like that of The Glass Menagerie, and is set in post WWII and tells how Mama wants to make a difference for her family. A Raisin in the Sun, unlike The Glass Menagerie, tells how Mama wants something for her entire family to enjoy, unlike Amanda, who wants her family to provide for her own enjoyment. In A Raisin in the Sun, Mama inherits ten-thousand dollars, due to her husband death, and buys a nice house in a white neighborhood. She entrusts Walter Lee, with sixty-five hundred dollars of the ten-thousand dollars, to put into the bank. Mama tells Walter Lee to divide it between him and Beneatha. Instead of putting the money where Mama told him, Walter decides to invest it with friends, in which, he ends up getting scammed. In turn, this made it difficult for the family to decide whether to move into the house or not. Mama lets Walter Lee make the decision to move into the house or to give up. He realizes at the end of the play that this was for his family more
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down
The idea of American prosperity is illustrated through materialism, to own property and live comfortably. Walter is tired of being poor; he would rather be more like his boss Mr. Arnold than to be his chauffeur (1.1). Walter breaks himself down, depressed by his lack of achievement: “I’m thirty –five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live” (1.1). He has the ideas on making money; he just lacks the startup capital and the insurance check is his chance to show everyone he can do something. This is why in the beginning of the play Walter only shows excitement when there is mention of the check. Money is everything to Walter, he goes on to tell his mother that money is life (2.1). Walter sees
In the playwright A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is about a poor African-American family named the Younger. This family live in a poor one bedroom apartment in the Southside of Chicago. In the play this family suffer and struggle a lot and they were always praying and wish to live in a very big house of their own. In the beginning of the play this family knows that they going to get Walter Lee Sr insurance worth 10,000 dollars that he left behind after his death for Lena ( mama). In the play this family was waiting on the check so that they share it to themselves. In the playwright Walter Lee wants to open his own type of business which is liquor store, in the other hand Lena ( mama) has always wanted to buy a big nice house with a backyard where her grandson Travis can been playing everyday. The three characters that are in the playwright are Walter Lee Younger Junior, Lena Younger (mama), and Ruth Younger this are three characters.
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” written by Lorraine Hansberry, she is able to take us to place to see what it was like for an African American family to survive in the mid-twentieth century. The play details how the main characters are going through an evolving social and economic position, as well as the evolving gender roles. Hansberry uses the characterization of Beneatha, Ruth, and Walter in order to show the expectations and assigned gender roles for the characters in the story. In short, Beneatha is depicted as a woman who is challenging gender norms and expectations upheld by her family, whereas Ruth is seen as an example of a submissive housewife fulfilling her expected duties. Using “A Raisin in the Sun,” as well as “Marxists
In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter Younger wants to be a “real man”. His dream is to become successful in business and make his family rich. However, when all his money is stolen, he becomes very pessimistic, abandoning the ideas of morality and dignity. At the end of the play, his son Travis inspires him to value his family’s pride over materialism. Over the course of the play, Walter’s view of manhood changes from someone wealthy and successful to a person who has pride and believes in human dignity.
Suddenly, things changed, and Walter and his family came into quite a bit of money. Walter’s mama got a check for ten thousand dollars from her husbands life insurance after he passed away, which was a lot of money in that period of time. A nice house or a liquor store could easily be bought with half of the money from the check. Since the check was actually written out to mama, the money was all technically hers, so all that she wanted to do with it was buy her new house for her family, but stubborn Walter, he wanted his liquor store, and would stop at nothing to get it. When he finally realized that his mama was never going to give him the money to get the liquor store, he took it upon himself to get it himself. He eventually stole a portion of his mama’s money to get the store, but he was taken for a fool when the other person that he was making a deal with, stole all of his money. Now he had nothing, and mama had only some of her money.
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
What makes a person make a good choice or a bad choice? What influences that person? Is it the people around that person? These are all questions to wonder about, and in the end of the script it is all answered. Walter in “A Raisin in The Sun,” by Lorraine Hansbery, is a character surrounded by women who do not understand him. Over the course of the story, Walter makes many choices that change their lives in the story, because of Ruth, Beneatha, and Mama.