Abstract
“Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is about the Youngers an African American family living on Chicago’s Southside. The various members of the family try to accomplish their dreams while dealing with issues of self, racism and poverty. Prior to the events of the play the father has died as a result of the backbreaking labor he had done all his life. As the family waits for the 10,000 insurance payout, each member of the family has their dream of how the money would benefit them.
Thesis
Each member of the Younger family has a specific dream. Mama wants her family to have an actually home, Beneatha wants to go to medical school, Walter wants to have one of his ventures be a success and Ruth wants a place for her family to grow and thrive. This paper will look at the different ways that the members of the Younger family deal with living in the “ghettoized” Southside of Chicago.
Lena Younger “Mama”
Mama is the matriarch of the Younger family. She is a proud and moral woman who insists that their apartment be kept neat at all times. She also has a strong belief in god which is seen in the play when she tells Beneatha "Now – you say after me, in my mother's house there is still God." After Beneatha tells her that she no longer believes in God. (Hansberry Act I Scene I). Mama does not support Walter’s plan to invest in a liquor store as she believes that it is an unchristian enterprise and she has boundaries that she will not cross. Ultimately she is more concerned with fulfilling her dream of having a house with a yard where Travis can play then becoming wealthy.
Walter
Walter is the son of Mama and the brother of Beneatha he is also the father of Travis and husband of Ruth. His attempts to bring his family out of poverty through a variety of schemes. Some of his plans are successful but most of his actions have a negative effect on the family. He feels that money will fix everything and he is constantly coming up with new schemes to become prosperous. At the end of the play he realizes that buying a house like Mama wants is the best move to make as it would help to improve the wellbeing of the family. This would subsequently allow them to get out of poverty. It is for this reason that Walter rejects the money that Mr. Lindner offers the family not to move into the white neighborhood.
Beneatha
Beneatha is the college educated daughter of Mama who dreams of being able to go to medical school. Beneatha seems to think that she is better than that rest of her family as she is constantly talking down to them. She does not believe in religion or in abiding by the traditional feminine roles and has two boyfriends, Joseph Asagai a Nigerian student who helps her find her identity as a woman of African ancestry and George Murchison, who is wealthy and all about assimilating into white culture. Throughout the play Beneatha prides herself on her independence, and it is not until Asagai reminds her that she is dependent on her father’s insurance money that she realizes what Walter had been trying to do and she decides that she will get the money for school on her own.
Ruth
Ruth is a very pragmatic woman saying "I'll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all the floors in America and wash all the sheets in America if I have to – but we got to MOVE. We got to get OUT OF HERE!" (Hansberry Act III Scene II), She is also like Mama in that she dreams of being about to provide her son and husband with an environment in which they can thrive.
Hansberry was ultimately saying that while wanting to better oneself through education and business ventures were admirable aspirations. The most important way to improve the situation for people living in poverty is to strengthen their environment. This is because if a person lives in a better neighborhood they will have access to a better education and circumstances then they would be living in an impoverished area. This would help not only improve the life of the individual but would help better the life of everyone in the family.
Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun: And Related Readings. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 1997. Print.
