Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

She often doesn’t like conflict and is often the peacemaker in the house. Mama is known for her modesty and not caring what she does and does not have. “You must not dislike people ‘cause they well off, honey.” Even though it’s shown that Mama is more of a peacekeeper, she doesn’t take disrespect. “Mama absorbs this speech, studies her daughter and rises slowly and crosses to Beneatha and slaps her powerfully across the face.” Mama is the type of person that will put someone into place if it seems like they are getting out of place, which makes her impactful to the characters in the house. Lena’s humbleness, kindness, and judgement makes her an influence on the characters and the plot of A Raisin in the Sun.

Characteristics and Thematic Significance Walter is Lena’s oldest child and is married to Ruth. As the ambitious man that he is, he still caused everyone in his family lots of trouble. With

The play, A Raisin in the Sun, is written by Lorraine Hansberry. The setting of the play is in Chicago’s Southside and the time is in the 1950s. Walter and Mama are the two characters that influence the plot the most. The characters are involved in a series of conflicts which issue this. One of those conflicts include the family fighting over money and who are falling apart without even realizing it.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “ A Raisin in the sun” a constant theme of money, morality and hoping for a better and a new life kept coming into play. To demonstrate this theme is best shown through Ruth. Ruth Younger is wife of Walter Lee Younger a lady that works as a maidher family's poor financial situation, she has to double as a housewife and a working mother... She finds hope when the family decides to move into a better home in a white neighborhood, and decides to keep her child. In the play Ruth shows she will do anything to make her family. We came across some example in the play that show it. Ruth loves her family and shows she doesn't care about money and just cares about family. Showing she has morals, because she wants to get a house

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.

"A Rasin In The Sun" is written by Lorraine Hansberry. Most of Hansberry's work is about the struggle of African American's during 1950's. Hanberry was the first African-American women to have her play played on Broadway. "Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile" as said by Lorraine. A Raisin in the sun is about a family who is facing economic hardship and racial prejudice. The theme of the play is Dream; American dream for the colored family.

Mama’s comment at him proves he has lost his pride by walking out. Another way Walter’s dreams compromise his pride is when he wants to accept Mr. Lindner ’s offer. Mr. Lindner’s offer is very tempting to Walter once they lose the money, and Walter decides the money is more important than his family’s pride. Beneatha doesn’t believe Walter will go through with the plan until he says, “We going to do business with him”

Lena Younger (Mama) Mama is the matriarc of the family Walter's and Bennie's soft and sensitive mother. Mama wants to buy a house in a "White neighberhood" using the money from her late husbands life insurance check. She loves gardening and one day hopes for a garden of her

A Raisin in the Sun portrays many valuable lessons. Written by Lorraine Hansberry, in A Raisin in the Sun, a black family is trying to gain acceptance in the world. Way too many people focus on the material things, instead of just loving the people around them. The characters each pursue their own individual dream, but by the end put their individual dreams aside to pursue a collective dream that they recognise is vital for their unity and survival as a family.

Lena, Walter, Ruth, and Benaetha all live under one roof, but they all have different dreams. As Lena dreams that the dreams of her children should come true by using the money of their father’s life insurance and her family must be united in whatever economic and social circumstances they have to face. Walter Lee dreams of a liquor store. He thinks that having a liquor store; he can make his family’s economic condition good. Ruth dreams to have a wealthy and fine family, so that they don’t have to be worry for minor things. Beneatha

Beneatha is referring to the fact that Walter plots and schemes get more ridiculous as time goes on. She wonders however, if there will be a limit to just how far he will go to attempt to provide a better life. He plans to go into business with his friends and buy a liquor store. However, furthermore, Mama will not allow him to spend obtained insurance check for 10,000 dollars, and instead plans to give most of her money to Beneatha for medical school. Walter, in a way, is jealous of his sister, for she will be able to fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor. He, however, will have to keep living a monotonous life, not being able to support his family the way that he would like. He is also angry because Beneatha will get a large sum of Mama’s insurance money, and he will not receive a penny. This dispute leads to general hostility and overall anger in the household. Because of this animosity, there is much verbal abuse that takes place within the household, and also leads to the Walter’s alcohol abuse. Throughout the play, Lorraine Hansberry displays conflict through the lives of her characters.

Gender Roles in A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry, in her play A Raisin in the Sun, uses several themes and motifs and terrific imagery to portray an accurate representation of how society was in 1959. One such way she achieved such a profound social commentary is through her monumentally depicted gender roles of the mid-twentieth century. Throughout her play, Hansberry substantiates the, at the time, traditional gender roles in which, men assert total and absolute power over the women. Moreover, women were meant to be in the home assisting the man, which can discernibly be perceived through her immense characters as well as their development.

Lena, who is in her early thirties, becomes the default head of the household upon the passing of her husband, Walter Sr. Walter's wife, Ruth, is in her early thirties. She is different from Lena in that she vocalizes her frustrations with her spouse, Walter Jr. Beneatha, a young feminist college student, is the least tolerant of society's unequal treatment and expectations of women. Beneatha constantly challenges Walter's chauvinism, who does not respect her ideas.

She works as a domestic maid to help support the family. She has lost a husband and a baby, but still stands proud. Lena inherits insurance money ($10,000) from her husband’s death. Her dream is to buy a house to fulfil her and her husband’s past dream and move her family up another economical step. She sees that house as a thing to pass to later generations. She says, "'seem like God didn't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams - but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile'" She was against Walter investing in a liquor store because she believed it was sinful, as she was Christian. However, giving her son a chance, she gives him $6500, the rest of the money. She tells him to put $3000 in a band account for Beneatha’s medical school tuition to again pass down to later generations, and the rest he can use for his own purposes. However, Walter blows all of the money on the investment, caught in the moment of his dream, putting in all $6500 dollars for the investment. That is the point in which Lena’s dream starts to “rot” and “stink like rotten

In addition to scenery, the props strategically placed around the housed illustrated the family’s cares and values. Throughout the room, the audience could see many picture frames. However, the two that were predominately displayed were a picture of Christ hanging over the front door, and a picture of Lena’s deceased husband that stayed on a table in the living room. These props emphasized importance the Younger’s placed on family and religion, which came up many times throughout the production. The entire family lived under one roof, looking after one another and making ends meet, together as a whole. In addition, the plot centered around a life-insurance check from the death of Lena’s husband. This kept the element of religion present since he was deceased and in the eyes of Lena, watching over the family. Both the design of the apartment and the detail of the props within it gave the audience a greater understanding of the deep-rooted values and conflicts of the family.