A Raisin In The Sun Mama Character Analysis

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.

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

For these reasons, Mother bought the family a new house and put it in the name of Walter's son, Travis. In other words, she made an investment in Walter's future and his family. Mother saw the family falling apart and that their feelings of resentment for one another, and general discouragement in their lives, was an effect from living like sardines in their tiny dreary apartment. Walter, however, did not see it this way and felt nobody would listen to what he wanted. He wanted the same thing as his mother, to make an investment in his and his family's future, but he had his own idea of how to do it. As he tries to explain to his mother, "Sometimes I

Mama says this after Beneatha tells Mama that there is nothing left in her brother, Walter to love. Mama’s dream of a better quality of life is deferred because she has carry the responsibility of tending to a family with so much indifference and of holding together the few pieces of her family left together.

`s are Walter Lee Younger and Lena Younger. In Raisin in the Sun Mama and Walter’s American dreams conflict and impact the family through materialism and desire to be the ideal American family in society.

Walter begins to drink, stay away from home, and to constantly argue with his wife, Ruth. Walter's life is contrasted by the role of his recently widowed mother, who holds to more traditional values of acceptance of life's lot and of making the best of any situation. Walter Lee's "Mama" holds Walter's father up as an example of a man with pride and a man that, despite racial injustice in a dualistic society, worked hard to provide for his family. This adds to Walter's frustration. Walter now feels incapable and small in his mama's eyes.

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

Mama concerns herself only with the fact that she and her family will own the house, and not have to dwell in the tired, old apartment on Chicago's Southside. In a sense, Mama's dream has "crust[ed] and sugar[ed] over like a sugary sweet" (Hughes Lines 7-8). Her dream has changed to fit the circumstances she must cope with. The character of Mama represents those who do not shrivel up and die just because their dream does.

     Family values are the context of Mama’s second nurturing lesson to Beneatha. After a conflictive encounter with her brother, Beneatha expresses a lack of respect and love for Walter. Lena Younger first quickly ensures that she correctly heard her daughter. Although Mama does not come across as gentle as she has in the past, her

Family is important to live a happy, healthy life. A poor, black family, the Youngers, live together in a small house in Chicago in the 1950s. Their main focus is not getting money, but staying together and loving each other. Lena, Walter's mother, is the head of the family and live out the moral of the importance of family. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, Lena attempts to bring her plant back to life, which can be a symbol of the family struggling.

She wants a yard for her grandson to be able to play in, and a little garden of her own. She wants her children to have everything they want and for their dreams to come true. And she wants her family to stay together. But Mama sees her family crumbling in front of her. She sees Ruth, willing to have an abortion because she knows that she can’t raise another child in their environment and situation. She sees Beneatha, turning away from God and being unsatisfied with the men in her life. She sees her son Walter being worn down by a restlessness to have more and be more. Mama sees all of this eating away at them and their relationships and she wants nothing more than to stop it. She hopes that home she buys for them can bring them back together and that they will be able to live in peace in a white neighborhood even though the odds are against it. In Mama, the universal feeling of hope in human beings is manifested.

Walter struggles in understanding who he needs to be for his family. He wants to take his place as the patriarch of the family, but he feels incapable of providing them with the lifestyle they deserve. This concern is always at the forefront of his mind, and it affects his attitude and outlook. The anxiety that Walter is dealing with creates confrontation with his sister. He fears that her dream will interfere with his own agenda of making a better life for his family. The severity of the tension becomes more and more apparent with Walter’s unwise investment. Walter is dealing with the burden that he has let his family down, while Beneatha is flabbergasted by the reality that her future has been snatched away from her, and she had no control over it. While reflecting on the situation, Beneatha remarks, “ I sound like a human who just had her future taken right out of my hands! While I was sleeping….things were happening in this world that directly concerned me and nobody consulted me—they just went out and did things—and changed my life” (Hansberry 3.15). Walter and Beneatha’s individual issues with the outcome of the situation cause them to find fault with one another during a time when their family needs to pull together to get through such a financial hardship. Walter is in an emotional pit; his turning to alcohol and music instead of his family for support expands the

All of Mama’s conclusions are made because she has hope that it will help her family in the future. When she orders people to do things her reasoning is love. When Travis doesn’t do his household chores. Mama will do it, but not because she wants him to be spoiled, but for him experience a nice life. Adding to that, she does not want Travis to learn how to work at a young age because then he will never be able undergo that great life. With him not being able to have a nice live might result and his dreams getting crushed. Mama once said to Ruth “what you fix for his breakfast”(Act1 sc2). Ruth then became very defensive and made sure Mama knew she feeds Travis. In this Ruth is interpreting Mama’s intentions the wrong way. Mama is just checking in, so she knows that not only Travis is getting

There is conflict through the remainder of the play between Mama and Walter because he blames her for the loss of his dream. Walter had a dream of investing in a liquor store. He thought it would make him millions of dollars, and allow him to provide for his family. Eventually, she decides to allow Walter to have control of the remainder of the money. She gives specific instructions to set-aside a portion of the remaining money for Beneatha’s education and the rest was for him to decide (107). She does not exert this control over her children for the sake of maintaining power, rather to continue to provide for them. She willingly relinquishes her power as matriarch and tells Walter “to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (107). Putting the happiness of her children before her own is what almost any mother would do.

In the 1950’s through the 1960’s women were not respected in there everyday lives, in the job field or in general. They did not have the rights they deserved, so during this time the “women’s movement” began. Women fought for their rights and fought for the self-respect that they thought they deserved. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the character Mama, expresses her feelings of pushing or extracting a new side for a woman. Her role explains that woman can be independent and can live for themselves. Through her behavior in this play she demonstrates that women can support and guide a family. Mama is in charge of the family, which is unusual, since men are traditionally the “head of a family”. Through Mama’s wisdom