The story is set in a small village on the Southside of Chicago, which is racially divided to the southern side. The Younger's, the family in the story, are a low-income family living in an apartment that is evidently too small for the five occupants that live there. The daughter, Beneatha Younger, is the only one who is privileged enough to go to college. She is proud and arrogantly determined to get out of the environment she grew up in and become a doctor. She is very determined and very different from the rest of the family, who often tease her because of her collegiate attitude. She is not only determined in her schoolwork, but everything else about her is "the best". She spends the extra time on her hair and attire, to show she is proud …show more content…
Consequently, a conflict erupts on how the money should be used. Walter wishes to invest in a liquor store, an idea opposed by his mother. Therefore, while she rejects Walter's proposal, she sets aside money for his sister's medical school. Walter is very angered by this, and in Act 1, he makes the statement "He was my father, too!" because of his frustration for not being given a chance to decide on how to spend the money (Hansberry 27). Mama later pays an installment on a house that is situated in an all-white neighborhood. For this reason, the neighbors send a representative to prevent the family from buying the house. Mr. Lindner even offers to pay them if they will refrain from moving to his neighborhood. He makes it very clear that if they do decide to move then they will not be welcomed back. Mama decides that she will entrust Walter with the rest of the money. With Walter's low paying job as a chauffeur, he is frustrated and invests the money into a liquor store with his so-called friend. He later comes to find that the friend has made off with the money. The family decides to move to the neighborhood anyway, and this is how the play …show more content…
The Women's Movement was growing strong during this period of the story. Throughout the play, Lorraine uses the characters as a way to follow the struggles and harshness of an African American family's yearning to realize the American Dream. Along this hard road comes the importance of togetherness and family harmony, which Mama is finally able to instill upon Walter. The house enables them to fulfill their father's hard work and determination. Which is the “American Dream”. They achieved his "American Dream" even after his death. The characters of Mama, Walter, and Beneatha all have their differences, but in the end, unity prevails in the family, and the struggles faced by the family are nothing if they only work together and understand each one's wants and
Dr. King speaks about having a dream that his children will one day no longer be judged just by their skin color. With the one line of “ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (King) Dr. King summarized the entire motivation behind the civil rights movement. Those fighting in the movement were doing it not just for themselves but for their children, and their children’s children. Within the play the motivations and actions of the characters of Mama and Walter are the same as those who fought in the civil right movement. In Walter he dreams of getting out of poverty and his son Travis is one of his motivations.
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
The family is faced with conflicts, particularly amongst the siblings as they seek to establish whose dream is superior. It becomes more difficult for Lena to make the right decision in the midst of the conflict because her wish is to please everyone. The play is about the black family that struggles with racial prejudice and economic hardship. The underlying importance of the play is in the way it shows the value of dreams, importance of family, and racial discrimination.
Throughout the play, many conflicts arise between the main characters; Mama, Walter, Ruth and Beneatha. An example of one conflict is poverty, which causes tension to escalate within the Younger family. Everyone in the play has different dreams, yet they have the same goal to overcome poverty. In the opening scene, Hansberry describes the living conditions of the Younger family, who live in Chicago 's South Side in a congested two-bedroom apartment with no bathroom of their own. This location is historic because during the 1950s, it was predominantly a poverty-stricken neighborhood largely populated by African Americans. As a result of “discriminatory real estate practices” and
In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry uses Mama's houseplant to symbolize the family's deferred dreams for a better future. Hansberry foreshadows deferred dreams in the beginning of the play by referencing Langston Hughes poem "A Dream Deferred" to introduce the issues surrounding the Civil Rights movement. Although the family faces many internal and external conflicts, they desperately want to improve their circumstances, and become a better family as a whole to achieve their deferred dreams. Mama Lena's plant symbolizes Walter Lee Younger's place in society. Similar to the plant, Walter is protected by Mama Lena and thrives on love and nourishment from her.
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.
Walter wants to be a businessman so he can get over the poverty that has grown on his family. Beneatha wants the money for her college so she she can have a good education to be a doctor and marry a nice man. Dreams are especially important to the Youngers family as they come from a poverty family to try live the “American Dream.”
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
(page 45-46)” In the first act alone, the audience is shown the great disparities between the American dream for a white man and the American dream for people of color. However, now with this insurance money from Big Walter’s death, there is a chance of someone their dream, the problem that the Younger’s face is which someone should get to use the money. Beneatha needs it for college to become a doctor, Walter needs it to invest in a liquor store so he can finally “be somebody.” But Mama wants to use that money to buy a house. She wants to leave their current rented apartment and she wants a nice house in the suburbs where she could have a garden and “with a yard where Travis could play in the summer. (page 44)” Mama believes that a change of scenery is what the family needs and that it will bring them back together. These three characters have the most conflicting wants for the
Each of the Youngers has a dream, moving himself or herself from the borders into the center of American culture. While being attentive on the financial setback that occurred, this keeps them from achieving the American dream. They are also confronted by racism from a white man in the neighborhood where Lena has bought the house. The Youngers disregard the naysayers by taking their place as typical
Walter dreams of owning a liquor store, and he shows this throughout the whole play. Walter feels that “don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!” Owning a liquor store is Walter’s American dream, as he believes that it will provide him and his family with a greater income so they will not have to live in poverty anymore. However, Hansberry shows through Mama how they have different views of the American dream when she tells Walter that the liquor store would be un-Christian like and that they should spend the money on a new house instead. Hansberry makes Mama more convincing by showing her carrying a Bible as she comes out of her room in the first scene. Mama also is seen asking God for help and talking about God throughout the play. This is shown when Walter admits that the money Mama gave him was gone because his partner took it and Mama says “Oh, God… look down here – and show me the strength.” Mama is very angry that Walter wasted all of Beneatha’s school money, but she doesn’t let her temper get the best of her and instead goes to God for support.
Although Walter hadn’t accomplished his dream of getting a liquor licence, or Beneatha hadn’t accomplished her dream of going to school and becoming a nurse, they were taking their first big step all together. They found a starting place for their dreams and buying the house and physically moving out signified a large change in their life for a new beginning. Walter told Lindner that their family would be moving because they earned it themselves, “We have all thought about your offer and we have decided to move into our house because my father-my father-he earned it,” (254). Walter seemed to have finally understood the intentions of Mama and that the house was something they had all come together to earn and share for the beginning of their new life. The action of the play brings the ideas to life as the author describes the reactions to the events of moving from each character, it is evident through Walter’s actions that he changes as a character to support his family along with himself and shares the same values as his
Throughout the play, many of the characters tend to revolve their lives around their dreams and lose focus on the true meaning of family, and life itself. Beneatha Younger and Walter Younger are two prime examples of this.
Beneatha dreaming to become a doctor , Walter dreaming to open a liquor store and become wealthy and Mama’s dream to have a better living. These three dream are different from each other and it is why they argued constantly. The have a check , but the money can only provide one of the dreams , not the three of them. Walter does a mistake which makes him lose the money , which gave no hope for Beneatha to pay her medical tuition. That only left Mama’s dream which was to buy a new house and they did. The Younger family bought a new house which united them together as a family. The Younger family moving into an all white neighborhood will make them counter conflicts in the future, the Clybourne Park having no interest of living with black folks will create problems with the
The plot of the play begins with the family the day before Big Walter’s insurance check comes in. The family follows a daily routine and everything is normal, except the lingering question in the air, “What will Mama do with the money?” Each adult in the family has a different idea of what to do with the money. Beneatha, Mama’s