Mama’s potted plant symbolizes many things, but the most prevalent is family. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raison in the Sun, Hansberry uses a plant to represent family. Just like any living thing, a plant needs to grow, to be watered, to be cultivated, and to be nurtured. Here are some examples of how Hansberry symbolizes family with a plant. To properly care for a plant you must watch over it as it grows and water it daily. In the play, Hansberry uses many ways to show growing and watering. Every day, Ruth makes breakfast for her family, as Mama waters her plant. After breakfast, everyone leaves to go and do their daily routines and at the end of the day everyone returns. As the plant grows, the more the stems droop, so Mama brings them back together and ties them with string to keep them strong. Mama cares for her family every day, as she does for her plant. To have a healthy plant with good roots, you must cultivate the soil. …show more content…
Mama watches over her family every day. In the play, when Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, Mama helps her. Mama doesn’t make Ruth panic, Mama just cares for her. In Act I, Travis needs 50 cents for school. Ruth tells him no, but Walter gives it to him along with another 50 cents for school. Later, Walter realizes that he needs the 50 cents. Walter gave up his money for his son. In order for the family to be nurturing, they must be understanding and be willing to step up for one another. There were some important examples of the plant signifying family. Lorraine Hansberry shows in many ways that it takes hard work to have a healthy plant or even a healthy family. She does a great job exemplifying family through Mama’s potted plant. Hansberry never fails to show the importance of Mama’s family. At the end of the play, in the very last lie, Hansberry show the importance of Mama’s plant, “The door opens and she comes back in, grabs her plant, and goes out for the last
How they grow, and how the act to changes. Plant are almost always associated with how family relationships should be like. At this point in novel taylor doesn't think of Mattie as just a friend but in this passage it suggests that Mattie is starting to stand as some sort of substitute mother in Taylor's life as she is far from home a misses her mother.
Symbols in the Sun In the drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Symbols are a recurring theme. Hansberry uses them skillfully throughout the piece to give things a deeper meaning that can relate to the story. She uses it for Beneatha’s hair, a plant in the apartment, and even the insurance check the story revolves around.
"The Chrysanthemums" is a short story in which John Steinbeck, the author, presents a telling of Elisa and Henry Allen’s marriage through Elisa’s perspective. The work takes place in the 1930s in the Salina Valleys, where Elisa is tending to her Chrysanthemums, while Henry is negotiating a business deal. Throughout the story, the reader gets an inside look into how Elisa truly feels about her relationship and life with Henry. Symbolism is an object, person, or an action that means more than what it literally is. Within the story, Steinbeck includes symbolism to the Chrysanthemums, themselves.
In John Steinbeck’s story “The Chrysanthemums”, it details, along as follow a lady and the plant she loves to grow. Within the story a young lady expresses her love for this specific plant. She explains why she grows it and how highly she holds them. It gives her a sense of pride and ease when she takes care of them. It is a way of escape from her feeling of confinement.
Having Ruth said this show us that she bursting with excitement, but she also wants her husband to be happy about that house and not just let him be down about not achieving his goal. This is an example of a good choice with Mama buying the house because Travis is happy and so is Ruth. If Mama had not decided to buy that house who knows what good and bad choices could come out of the
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are a few “blossoms”, as well as beautiful flowers that are introduced. Flowers are important symbols that are compared to the feisty, feminine females that were brought into the novel. As Miss Maudie had said to Jem, “Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard. I’ll have more room for my azaleas now!”
Mama’s plant in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a symbol of Mama’s constant sacrifice for her children and how Mama’s children can succeed on little to nothing. Mama always provides tender care to her plant and her children and she pampers them both as much as she possibly can in order to make sure they are happy in the environment that they have been raised in. She gives everything she has and more to make sure that her children are doing well, but what she has is sometimes not nearly enough. It's very hard to be in a world full of wealth around you and not ever want that luxury for yourself, especially for the Younger
There are many symbols in A Raisin in the Sun worth describing, but one that particularly stands out is Mama’s plant. It is old and barely a substantial piece of nature, yet it makes many vital appearances in the play. The small plant seems to personify Mama’s stubborn nature in its intent on survival despite its close to death appearance. It also represents Mama’s dream that seems close to being crushed, yet never dies. As a whole, the plant is an extension of Mama’s character and an important symbol in the play.
Mama’s plant in A Raison in the Sun, represents hope; hope for their future of having a house and a garden in the back. Mama is able to tend this dream plant and keep it alive even with the harsh atmosphere. When mama feels Walter and Beneatha are losing touch with her, she portrays her feelings through the dream plant, "Lord, if this little old plant don't get more sun than it's been getting, it ain't never going to see spring again" (40). This shows Mama truly believes that if Walter and Beneatha keep acting the way they do, they will not only ruin mama’s dream but also fail to initiate Big Walter’s legacy. Another piece of evidence that proves this, is when Ruth and Mama were talking about the now run-down house her and Big Walter used to
Mama is thinking that the family just shouldn’t move since all the money is gone. Ruth is trying to convince Mama to still move because the apartment is too small for another baby and having Mama not give up her hope of having a house with a garden. This shows Ruth just wants her family to have a nice home and is willing to work for it even more. Another example of Ruth working hard for her family is when, Ruth begs, “Lena—I’ll work…. I’ll work twenty hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago….
Hardships of the Youngers In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter ,and Beneatha are faced with hardships associated with their dreams being destroyed by discriminatory housing,racial inequality and lack of support from her family towards her education. In the play all the characters have some kind of dream. Mama wants to get a house for the family, Walter wants to have money to provide for his family and plans to do that with a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Beneatha is going to school and at the same time she’s trying to discover herself,but her family is not supportive of this.
In literature, writers utilize symbolism as an artistic element in their writing. John Steinbeck’s short story “The Chrysanthemums” is about a woman named Elisa Allen who feels dissatisfied with her way of life. Elisa’s frustrations proceeds from her marriage and her sole escape from her frustrations is her garden where she grows chrysanthemums. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums to symbolize Elisa’s struggles to identify herself and her challenging circumstances. Although children are not mentioned in Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemum”, the flowers symbolize Elisa’s children or lack thereof.
In the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry the plant symbolizes the Younger’s dream as it evolves throughout the play. Meanwhile in southside Chicago dreams are either being crushed or pursued. The Youngers family are always facing society as they live in poverty. A family with such big dreams believes the only way for these dreams to come true is money. Mama received her husband's life insurance which was 10,000 dollars.
Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem” and her own experience, Lorraine Hansberry authored A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry used the locale of South Side, Chicago where she was born during a time of social and political turmoil as the backdrop to her play. Through the lens of Marxist’s critical theory about contradictions building into social systems that lead to social revolution, Hansberry depicts issues related to racism and discrimination. Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate agent, but despite her family’s wealth, the law of Chicago required the Hansberry family to live in the ghetto South Side. Similar to the plot of the play, Hansberry’s father bought a home in a Caucasian neighborhood and after the family settled into their new home, a brick was thrown through the window almost hitting Hansberry (Plays and Playwrights, 1540).
Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family.