The Role Of Women In Raisin In The Sun And Trifles

In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, one theme shows how both men and women are pushed to fit gender expectations. The play highlights what is expected of men and women, stereotypes of both genders, and that women are often portrayed as helpless creatures that need to be provided and cared for.

In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee Younger says to Beneatha and Ruth, “The world’s most backward race of people, and that’s a fact,” (Hansberry 498) and introduces a major factor in the story and the future of their family. A Raisin in the Sun is about a family stuck in poverty who have to deal with each other’s conflicting dreams and other outward forces like racism to get through in their lives. Being an important force in the play, racism affects many things in the story, such as Walter and Ruth’s relationship, Beneatha’s view on herself and who she wants to be, and how the entire Younger family is treated by others. The Youngers being black in A Raisin in the Sun is not incidental, and the story would not be the same if they were from just any cultural background. The Tension between Walter and Ruth would be slightly different if they came from a different cultural background.

In the book, “A Raisin in the Sun”, the family is faced with many challenges. Between gender, discrimination, family, social classes, and the very unique American dream, conflictions surfaced and began to become bigger problems. At the end of the book, the Youngers moved out of their apartment. But, we did not know what the future held for this family. If the Youngers stayed in the old apartment they were living in, they would revert back to their old habits. “Who’s fighting you? Who even cares about you?” (Pg.32). In this quote, Walter talks about his wife’s importance. He shows how vulnerable he was and took out all his anger on her. This quote relates to reverting back to their old habits because Walter and Ruth would continue to complain about how they see no change coming for them to work for.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

In the book “A Raisin in the Sun”, love is defiantly a major key towards keeping the “Younger” family together as they go through thick and thin. Multiple times in the book, a character known as “Walter” apart of the Younger family screws up, whether it be, pursuing a silly addictive dream or investing family money, it never turned out well for Walter. Walter’s mom, Lena aka “mama” however, always loved Walter and although didn’t show it often, supported his drive to strive for greatness and greatly awarded him near the end of the book. Walter’s sister Beneatha however, was not impressed at his short comings and often called him out where he fell short by belittling him with insults but, that

Walter Lee Younger a 35 year old man, who lives in a house with his Wife Ruth, Son Travis, Sister Beneatha, and Mother Lena. Walter is greedy, ambitious, and shallow. He obviously shows these characteristics during the play by the way he act towards his family and outsiders. For example, since Walter is unsatisfied with his life he takes it out on Ruth when she was simply just telling him to eat his eggs because they're going to get cold, “ This morning, I was lookin’ in the mirror and thinking about it… I’m thirty - five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room and all I got to give to him is stories about how rich white people live.” Walter says selfishly to Ruth after ignoring what is saying. After Walter complains to Ruth about his life she simply says again to him again, “Eat your eggs, Walter.” He became very angry after hearing Ruth repeat this sentence a few times, jumps up, slams on the table and says, “DAMN MY EGGS-- DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS! This shows that if Walter is not happy then he will make sure that everyone in his family will know. Also, Working for a rich white man as a chauffeur, puts Walter down because he only wishes he could be the person in the back seat. “Honey, you never say nothing new. I listen to you every day, every night, and every morning, and you never say nothing new. So you would rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So-- I would rather be living in Buckingham

In a Raisin in the sun people wondered about Walter Lee’s inner journey. A Raisin in the sun is a play that explorer’s the struggles of African American people who achieve their desires. It’s about an African American family trying to pursue an American dream of owning their own home but in the process they encounter racism and they must decide what is really important in life.

Stevenson, the author observes: “In modern America the home is not the boundary of a woman’s life.” Stevenson describes the task for women, as spouses and moms, has extraordinary preferences, and the author comments how the home can empower women integrity. Essentially, Stevenson wants to advance gender balance by encouraging females, with an emphasis on recognizing and giving ladies more self-sufficiency to deal with their own lives. Gender equality does not imply that men and ladies turn into the same; an entrance to circumstances and life changes is neither subject to, nor obliged by, their gender. Stevenson realizes that gender uniformity requires ladies’ strengthening to guarantee that basic leadership at private and public levels, and access to assets are no longer weighted to support men, so that both ladies and men can completely take an interest in equivalent

A Raisin in a Sun and The Help both take place in the 1950s and 1960s, where gender roles were very prominent in families. In A Raisin in the Sun Walter Younger became the head of the household when his father died. When Lena Younger cashes the check, sh gives Walter the money and says”It ain’t much, but it’s all I got left in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of the family from now on like you supposed to be.” (Hansberry 107). Lena Younger is very old fashioned when it comes to her family. You can also see this when Mama doesn’t understand Beneatha’s modern way of thinking about expressing herself. Mrs. Younger gives Walter the money from the insurance check to take care of the family’s finances. She does this because she believe Walter should be in charge of the house even though Lena is the oldest in the family. After Aibileen witnessed Raleigh Leefolt telling his wife, Elizabeth, what to do she remarks, “And like men do, Mister Raleigh Leefolt walk out the door where he don’t have to give nobody no explanations about nothing.” (Stockett 432). In the 1950s and 1960s, men were considered the head of the household and sole provider. Mae Mobley was caught playing a game with her

In “Trifles”, Glaspell shows the oppression of women back in 1916 when the play was written. In the play, Glaspell shows the roles of both men and women. To show how men treated women, what was expected of the women, and how women overcame the patriarchal society that they were placed in. Also, “Trifles” having an effect on the society it was based on and how the roles of women have evolved over time.

In Raisin in the Sun, Walter and Ruth has a personality that correlates to the traditional gender expectation. Walter has an abrupt nature, which corresponds to a

Walter Lee Younger, Lena's son, is second only to Lena in arousing sympathy and pathos from the audience. The entire play shows the development of Walter's quest for manhood. Similar to Lena, Walter's dream of owning a liquor store becomes hindered by his economic station, or lack of money, and his social position. In the opening scenes of A Raisin in the Sun, Walter does not occupy the position of head of the household. This secondary position to Mama demonstrates his frustration with his limiting environment. Even Walter's job show subservience and inequality as a chauffeur to wealthy white people. Elizabeth Phillips comments, "Consquently, he[Walter] is forever on the lookout for a means of making more money, not only to enable him to give luxuries as well as necessities, but also to satisfy the deep inner need of every man to prove that he is capable of great achievement" (54).

"Trifles," a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. Mrs. Hale?s and Mrs. Peters?s treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of

Crying over spilled milk is silly, right? Worrying about the little, mundane things is pointless and a waste of time. In Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles, she demonstrates how being sensitive to the subtle details can be vital to solving a mystery. Throughout the one-act play, Glaspell highlights the theme of gender roles through the women’s worries, irony, and symbolism.

First, Ruth, is one of the women in the house who changes Walter’s decisions in the story. Her relationship towards him is poor. Ruth nags at the beginning, saying “Eat your eggs Walter” (Hansberry 34). This angers him because she repeats it multiple times throughout, not understanding him, showing their strained relationship. Ruth is also shown to not be on Walter’s side on multiple occasions. For example, when Walter finds out that Mama spent the money on a new house, he does not like it. Ruth however is not feeling the same way as him, and tells him “Walter honey, be glad” (Hansberry 92). Ruth tells Walter to be glad, because their views are different. Ruth thinks this was beneficial to the family, yet Walter does not. This hurts Walter throughout the story as he feels alone with no one on his side. Walter know this when he says “Cause ain’t nobody with Me! Not even my own mother!” (Hansberry 85). Since he is alone, and believes no one cares about him, he tries to fix his own mistake when he decides he will get more money saying, “That White man is going to walk in that door all to write checks for more money than we ever had.” (Hansberry 143). Ruth does not like Walter’s idea, but he does not care as no one is on his side, which disappoints Ruth.