Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Money acts as a driving force for the characters in both of the plays; their beliefs and decisions are influenced and motivated by money and the ideas surrounding what benefits money can bring people. This is exemplified when Linder tempts Walter into selling their new house back to the white committee that holds the influence in the neighborhood in Hansberry’s play. The situation with Walter is a demonstration of Creon’s point that money “seduces men away from happy homes” (Sophocles 353). Before Walter realized that the new house was the best use of their money, Walter was seriously and realistically considering reselling it for profit. He was “seduced” away from their “happy home” by the thought of monetary gains. In Antigone Creon says, “Money never makes as much as it mars” (Sophocles 353). He is telling the Leader about how money is corrupting and turns people’s good intentions into malicious ones. The alliteration with the “m” sound in the statement places emphasis on the importance of his words and the significance to Creon. Walter does not consider other uses for Mama’s money beyond his liquor store in A Raisin in the Sun, rather he chooses to spend it for himself anyway. The insurance check that is actually written to Mama “corrupts the honest heart [of Walter] to shifty ways” (Sophocles 353), as Creon would say. By making selfish decisions regarding

He thinks about Ruth, his wife, and treating her better when he thinks about becoming wealthy from the liquor store business. He talks about his dream to his son and tells him that he would buy Ruth a good car, “Rich people don’t have to be flashy…though I’ll have to get something a little sportier for Ruth—maybe a Cadillac convertible to do her shopping in…” (109). Walter is not a selfish person; he does not want to get rich only to make his own life better and buy himself a yacht, but he also cares deeply about his family. Moreover, Walter wants to improve Ruth’s job, and it is seen when Mama does not want to invest in his liquor store, he mentions Ruth: “Yeah—and tell it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else’s kids” (71). His heart aches seeing his wife work to take care of others’ kids when she should be looking after her own, and he blames it on himself and his inability. After losing the check money, he calls Lindner, a white man, to pay them money for not moving into an all-white neighborhood. Again, his behavior seems irresponsible to other people in his family, but he just wants to get as much money back as possible to make up for the money he wastes. He says that Lindner would get in their house and he would be, “able to write checks for more than [they] ever had” (143). He is not trying to be selfish after all; he just wants to put pearls around his wife’s neck: “Yes, I want to hang some real pearls ‘round my wife’s neck. Ain’t she supposed to wear no pearls?” (143). His intentions are all for a good purpose, and it is very simple, just the rest of his family does not support him and does not agree with his

After Mama tells Walter she was out taking care of business Walter replies with ”What kind of business?” This short simple reply from Walter gives the effect that he’s worried about something and wants an answer quick. Walter being in such a state of worrisome shows that he is really worried about the money and if Mama spent it or not. The insurance money was key to Walter’s plans of owning his own liquor store. After Mama isn’t quick to answer Walter’s first few questions he grows even more restless and says, “Where were you, Mama? Mama, you didn’t do something with that insurance money, something crazy?” Finally, Mama answers saying she took care of business Walter gets even more upset because he could tell she used the insurance money and could almost see his dream crumbling before his very own eyes. Lorraine Hansberry asks numerous questions when she writes as Walter in order to create a sense of urgency and worry on the whereabouts of the money. This is an example that supports the theme because Walter dreamt of having his own liquor store while Mama and much of their family dreamt of living in a nicer house, which she decided to

This proves that he doesn't care about his family and just the money. Even in the situation he and his family is in. “ because mama, money is life” ( Hansberry, pg.74). He’s saying that money runs everything and for him opening the liquor store is the best idea because he’ll get it all back. If he gets all the money back he’ll be able to give the money back. He’s explaining that he is not wrong, trying to prove that money does control everything. Because the money was on his mind out of everything. Not only that he just asked about the money he did not ask how was his family or anything money was the first thing on his mind. The money is all getting to Walters head and making him do things he usually wouldn't do. His family is in a crisis and hes just thinking about what he wants instead of what the family actually wants. This shows that he greedy and not able to handle the money that they are

“No amount of money will make you happy if you're not happy about yourself,” a self explanatory quote that explains money’s not truly people's happiness. Everyone thinks that if you're wealthy then it will solve all of your problems and you will live a very happy life. However, is not actually true. In a Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, is about an African American family in the 1950s, who live in poverty, receive a check for 10,000 from Life Insurance. The check that could possibly change everyone's lives, was given after the death of Mr. Younger. Lena Younger, who everyone calls Mama, has two kids named Walter and Beneatha. Walter is married to Ruth Younger and they both have a child named travis. Walter Younger, a greedy,

Not only does the money represent good, but also bad where its fuels more the conflict between the siblings Walter and Beneatha. As one can see, Walter seeks to use the money to invest in a new liquor store with his friends; Beneatha looks to use the money to pay for medical school. The conflict is, the money brings only parallels the thought that money can corrupt an individual and this case it corrupts the family as each of them tries to take the money for their own use. For this reason, Mama is the only individual who uses the money for the whole family purchasing the house in order to move them out of the tight, dark, and bad apartment they were living in. The money drives the family; the one individual who seems mostly mesmerized by money is Walter who portrays the average African American man who with the money symbolizes the common misuse of money especially in a society where African Americans are expected to be poor and uneducated. Mama explains the impact of the money when she said “Oh—so now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really does change . . .”

Hansberry develops this particular issue by illustrating how important success is to the second generation of the Younger family, Walter and Beneatha. After a long heritage of slavery and servitude, the Younger siblings want to take advantage of this age of social reform and break from the binding traditions that have beset their race in the past. Mama illustrated this when she says, “Son – I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers – but ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody pay ‘em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to walk the earth. We ain’t never been that poor. We ain’t never been that – dead inside” (Hansberry, 143). They view the expected income of $10,000 in insurance money as a gateway to get what they each desire and achieve success. Walter Younger feels degraded and miserable in his job as a

Walter’s believes in the beginning, of the book to be a man you have to be career oriented and making enough money to provide for your family. In the beginning of the book, Ruth is making eggs for Walter as they discuss what to do with the money from the life insurance. Ruth is focused on making breakfast while Walter is focused on how a man would respond as, “I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby!.” (37) The fact that it’s choking walter to death that he can not provide for his family and be successful without the life insurance money shows that his mainfocus is achieving for his family . Walter believes his family should not only have enough money to get by, but thinks they should have a surplus of material objects. Walter tells Mama, “sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ’bout things … sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars …”sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me.” (76) As Walter sees his opportunity start to pass he starts to see he need to start focusing on his career.

Lorraine Hansberry was a writer during the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. She was the first woman, the first black person, and the youngest person to get a show on broadway with her hit A Raisin in the Sun. The name comes from Langston Hughes’ famous poem Harlem (Dream Deferred) where Lorraine got all of her inspiration from. Harlem is about what happens when you put off a dream for too long. In A Raisin in the Sun Hansberry uses the characters Walter, Beneatha, and Momma to show the consequences of deferring your dreams.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, “Why? You want to know why? 'Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don 't know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!” (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-American community for the 1960’s, is built upon a loose ideology that is a brutal cycle that infects the lives of those who inhabit the area; tired of all the commotion from the Caucasians who, to them, miraculously achieve a life of ruling and

He was very determined and highly motivated to get his family out of the ghetto. It says “Mama: Son how come you talk so much ‘bout money? Walter: Because money is life , Mama!” (Hansberry pg.14) . This quote shows how Walter Lee is trying to adapt to the American Dream by a lot such as being obsessed with a business idea that he thinks he will solve all of his economic and social problems.

Walter urges his mother to give him the money from their father's life insurance. With this money he intended to help the family by earning all the money in the house, getting them out of poverty by buying a liquor store. “Is it all gone? Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it all gone?” and Walter replied, “Yesss! All of it… It’s all gone…” (II.ii.129), but his actions made the family get set back even more because he lost the sixty-five hundred dollars. This happened because of his selfishness. He always wanted to be the big

The struggles of being African American have been very evident throughout history. To present day many African Americans (commonly referred to as "black") endure injustice and inequality. As many racial protests and movies have been made to depict such hardships, so have books. The controversial topics of racism and gender roles are spread throughout A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry lived through such a time where racial and gender discrimination was at its highest point; which she portrays in her book. As the Younger family eventually developed into a family so do the gender issues. My goal in this paper is to identify gender injustice as it has been dominantly illustrated, whether that be where the women stand or what the men should be doing as opposed to the women having higher power.

There is no doubt that Lorraine Hansberry uses her play, A Raisin in the Sun, as a platform to give her opinions and observations on the black community and of the racism they faced in the mid-1900s. Her play is filled with commentary

Do you believe it's okay to be different? In the book Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha searches her identity throughout the play. She also wants to be different from her family. How? Beneatha tries everything in her power not to give up on her dream of becoming a doctor. Throughout this play, it shows how this African American family struggles to become successful while going through segregation and racism. Beneatha doesn’t let none of this stop her, difficult situations happen and she has to still figures out who she is. In this play you’ll see how independent Beneatha is, she doesn’t believe in God but she believes in herself and she doesn't want to follow her culture.