A Generation Gap in a Raisin in the Sun
There is a big generation gap in the book A Raisin in the Sun. There are three different generations all living in the same old cramped apartment. The family has been living in the apartment for at least forty years and has never been able to own their home.
With this generation gap there is quite a lot of arguments and complaining. Walter and Ruth get into conflicts all of the time, and then there is Walter and Mama with their struggle for the money. These are just some of the conflicts in this story. The generation gap poses problems between Mama, Walter, and Beneatha.
Mama has stuck to her same values ever since she was a child. She is the oldest women in the apartment, and is the wisest. She
…show more content…
Beneatha is a woman a little younger than Walter. She has a feud with mama about how she likes to try a lot of things, because she wants to learn how to express herself in many different ways to see which way is right for her. She is more educated than the rest of the people in her family, so she is pretty smart. She wants to become a doctor because she once saw a kids face get split open, and a
A delayed dream can be tough or sweet at the moment, but can overall benefit one in some way. In the play, Raisin in the Sun the Younger’s family is seen with various dreams being handled in different ways. The opening scene starts off with a poem by Hughes Langston called Harlem which brings out the certain problems the family faces with dreams. This poem relates to the characters dream in such cases, Walter relating to the line of festering like a sore, Mama relating to the line raisin in the sun, and Beneatha relating to the line crust and sugar over.
However, her dream is opposed to, as her family does not have the money. Ruth and Walter, have tension among themselves too. Ruth wants to speak to Walter about her pregnancy news, however, Walter does not want to speak to her as he is fixated on the insurance check. “Mama: Son-I think you ought to talk to your wife.” “Walter: I can talk to her later” (Hansberry, 1994, p. 70).
She is the daughter of Lena (mama), and the sister of Walter. She is a determined woman that wants to peruse a career as a doctor which makes her a smart woman. In A Raisin in the Sun Beneatha is struggling to find out in who she truly is, this is a reason in why she has many experimentations with forms of art. She relied on the insurance money from her father’s death and investments that made by her brother to realize her dream of becoming a doctor this very much influenced her, this gives her a new perspective of her dreams and new ways of fulfillment. Even though she and Walter didn’t have a fantastic relationship because of investments and Walters manhood, it brings Beneatha closer to him and sees his true potential of strength, which indicates
The younger family needs money they are getting money from a insurance check for the death of mama's husband (Walters father). In the Younger family there is a lot of hate toward each other is because Walter is totally hates his life. He hates it because he doesn't want to disappoint his family by not having money, he also feel like he's not a man because he has to look his son in the face and say no we can't give you money or no in general. The only time Walter seems to get happy is when the money is coming and in his mind he is going to get his dream but in reality it's mama's money and she can do what she wants. For example Mama says “Mama: “Son, how come you talk so much ‘bout money?” Walter: “Because it is life, Mama!” Mama: “Oh—so now its life. Money is
Beneatha really wants to go college, but they don’t have enough money to send her college. Beneatha’s dream is to go to medical school and become a doctor, but Walter doesn’t want to use the money for that. Walter knows that Beneatha really wants to go to medical school and become a doctor, but he doesn’t think it would be a smart use of the money. It is very expensive for her to do that, and it would use a large amount of money. He wants her to know that it’s Mama’s money not theirs.“Who the hell told you to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messin ‘round with sick people then go be a nurse like other women or
The play A Raisin in the Sun, begins with the introduction of the Younger family who lived on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950’s. During this time period, there was segregation around different areas in the United States, which caused problems for families who wanted to find better neighborhoods for their loved ones. Therefore, when the Younger family desired to move to Clybourne Park, a predominantly white neighborhood, they were faced with issues such as cultural identity. Throughout the play, Beneatha the youngest daughter of the Younger family, shows that she struggles with cultural identity because she refused to become an assimilationist, wants to express herself and find her own identity.
"Mama: ...I'm telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be." this part of Mama's speech to Walter shows that she believes that he will become a man, and he will be able to be the head of the family. "Mama: ...My son said we was going to move and there ain't nothing left for me to say..." this statement shows that she is no longer the head of the head of the family and later on states that Walter has come into his manhood. Mama has believed in him throughout these events that lead up to Walter going into his manhood. Mama's incredible ability to believe in Walter when no one else could. This truly shoes that family will believe in you when everyone else fails to do
Bernard Rosenberg, an author who wrote books about societal issues in the 1970s, once wrote, “Generation Gap: A chasm, amorphously situated in time and space, that separates those who have grown up absurd from those who will, with luck, grow up absurd.” People grown up in different environments or times have their own morals or methods of operation that would not be politically correct today. This leads to a generation gap between young and old people. The difference between an educated twenty year old with prodigious dreams (Beneatha) and a conservative woman in her early sixties (Mama) is demonstrated In A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry with how it shows generation separates dreams, values, and cultural perspectives as shown with Beneatha and Mama.
The Youngers live in a small, rundown apartment in Chicago. Travis, who is Walter’s son, sleeps on a couch, and other family members have to share rooms in the apartment. Walter, who is Mama’s son, grew up in the apartment. In the play, Mama wants to use the money the family inherited to buy a new house in a white neighborhood. She thinks this neighborhood would be better for her family, and her family would be able to live in their own house and not an apartment. As Mama told Walter, “ Walter Lee- it makes a difference in a man when he can walk on floors that belong to him” (II.I.92). Mama is most interested in using the money the family inherits for the benefit of the family as opposed to her personal needs.
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
To start, Mama does not understand how Ruth and Walter can be so unappreciative and fail to recognize what they do have versus what they do not have. Regarding Ruth and Walter's generation, there seems to be an abundance of self-perceived shame. They hold little pride in the jobs they hold. Walter abhors his job as a chauffeur and takes little appreciation in the fact that he has a job at all, as pointed out by Mama. Because of this miniscule amount of pride, they seem to have difficulty being proud of anyone else.
Not only is she black but she’s a woman so in the 1950s the whole world was against her. “I know―because that’s what it says in all the novels that men write. But it isn’t. Go ahead and laugh―but I’m not interested in being someone’s little episode in America[...] (page 64)” Beneatha is a feminist and a resilient character but every male figure in her life treats her dream like a joke and a phase. She is belittled by her own brother who tells her to just be a nurse. She is belittled by George Murchinson her boyfriend who tells her that she’s too pretty for thoughts and that her dream is just a girlish fantasy. Even Asagai treats her as lower to himself. But Beneatha has dreams. After seeing a child named Rufus get his face split open and thinking he’d never be put back together, she saw him later all fixed up by doctors. This was a life changing moment. From then on Beneatha wanted to be a doctor and she is working as hard as she can to get there. This money is crucial for Beneatha. In order to become a doctor she needs to go to medical school but in order to go to medical school she needs money. Half of the insurance money was supposed to go towards her college education but instead her brother lost it
In return, Mrs. Young is a wonderful mother; she has suffered and sacrificed for her children. She always explains and lesson to her children instead of making them feel guilty. The Young family starts running into problems when Mrs. Young (Mama) receives about ten thousand dollars from life insurance of her husband. With a poor family likes Young, ten thousand dollars is really a dream, it is a huge amount of money that they could never get for all of their life. The children start fighting over the money; every one has his/her own reason to use that money. Mama must figures out how to keep the family in peace and together. Mama deeply believes in God and lives her life in "cultural and ethnic pride". She usually talks about how her generation has won its freedom and proud to be able no longer be slaves. At the end of the play, even she failed to convince Walter not to put the money in the liquor store but she made her commitment, she has what she has fought for all of her life, her family now all together in love, happiness and forgiveness.
Beneatha is probably one of the most independent and individual characters in the play. She does not worry about the prejudice her community has about her. She is confident in herself, her abilities, and her intellect. She tries to be independent by not allowing anybody to help her. When she first hears about the insurance money she does not want any help from it. When Walter suggest that mama could use a little bit of the money to help Beneatha out with the cost of college, Beneatha responds by saying, “I have never asked anyone around here to do anything for me” ( Hansberry 281). Beneatha refuses help from others, because she feels that doing everything on her own will make her a stronger woman. She presumes that asking for assistance for anything in life will make her weaker. She does not understand how dependent she is on others until she starts dating George Murchison and joseph Asagai.
Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun' showed the different ideas that African American families had during the Civil Rights era. Hansberry used each member of the Younger family was to portray the