African American Strife Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun and the motown music of the Civil Rights era demonstrate the struggles African Americans faced during segregation. Both of these works explore ideas of perseverance, searching for freedom, and the longing for respect that many encountered. Mama relates to Mahalia Jackson’s song “We Shall Overcome” because of her religious perseverance and hope for the future of her and her family. One line from her song reads, “The Lord will see us through someday; oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.” This line sounds exactly like something Mama would say. She is a very religious lady who believes God has a plan for their lives. While encouraging Beneatha she says, “Course you going to be a doctor, honey, God willing” (50). Mama realizes that God is the one who really controls their lives, and in the end it comes down to whether he wants Beneatha to be a doctor or not. When Beneatha replies by saying God has no control over it and He simply does not need to be recognized in her choice, Mama becomes heated. She forces Beneatha to say, “In my mother’s house there is still God” (51). We see that Mama has an exceptionally high amount of respect for God in her life. Another line …show more content…
Many struggled with perseverance, searching for freedom, and longing for respect. Overall, we see a lot of struggle happening in the Younger family. Mama lives each day trying to make the family work and trying to hold them together. Beneatha is trying to find where she belongs in a world of inequality and different influences. Ruth is trying to do her best while not gaining the respect she deserves. They are all fighting hard for what is most important to them and we see the strength each one had to have while living in a time of segregation and
Beneatha 's dream is to go to college and become a doctor. She wants to prove her family´s disbeliefs of her becoming a doctor wrong. Yet she feels defeated after her brother, Walter, goes out and gives away all of her college money to some man that ends up disappearing with the money. She faces challenges financially and faces backlash from her family.
Beneatha’s money too?” (29) after she finds out he just blew all of the money. This quote emphasises the discomfort and pure shock and disappointment of Mama at losing all of the money. Mama also cries in the play, "You mean your sister 's school money, you used that too?" (29) revealing her discomfort and despair in this quote shows just how upset that she is that Walter has gone and blown all of Beneatha’s money that was going to be her future on his little gamble.
Racism is a major issue that has effected many people since its discovery. Racism is the hatred by a person of one race pointed at a person of another race. A Raisin in the Sun deals with the impact of racism on the life of the younger family.
Mama doesn’t work, what she does is butcher hogs and milk cows. “I used to love to milk till I was hoofed in the side” (Walker, 316, 13). Mama is also the narrator of this story. Mama sticks more into religion and is more traditional than her two daughters, mama thinks that Dee is a failure in life and she sees that the way Dee acts she is rejecting her families tradition.
She wants to become a doctor and get the education she needs to become one. Throughout the play she proves that her independence means a lot to her. Beneatha wants to be free and have her own life, just like the American Dream. In the play she says to Mama and Ruth, “Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet-if I ever get married” (Hansberry32).
Not only is her physique sturdy, but she also shows herself to be an unyielding person in both her opinions and actions. An example of her steadfastness in her beliefs is when Beneatha is talking about her own atheist beliefs. Mama’s response to Beneatha is a definite show of her opinion, as she “slaps her powerfully across the face” (35). To her, the small apartment is still her house and “in [her] house there is still God” (35) and judging by her response to Beneatha’s opinions, Mama will go to any lengths to defend her own beliefs. Beneatha has already shown that her
She was not like other young women that would be housewives or maids at her age but instead is independent. Looking after herself and making more of a life for herself, she attends school, tries to play guitar, and looks for a love interest. This breaks the stereotype of a “normal” woman who is a housewife or maid and shows Beneatha is different. Therefore, Beneatha overcomes this criticism of her “unnatural ways”, and proceeds to make her life successful.
She will soon have an opportunity to make this thought into a reality if she wished. Another example of Mama’s motivation for her goal is her dreams
Mama is an authentic feminist. She tells Beneatha that she have to conform to certain rules in the family “not long as [she is] the head of this family”. (Page 34). She wants to save her family from economic pressures which compels her children to cause resentments towards each other. Thus, she had “got to do something different… and do something bigger” (Page 71).
Beneatha doesn 't really believe them though, she thinks that they are against her she says “Forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all” (Hansberry.37). She is saying that no one else in her family is ever going to be anything. She believe that she is the only one that is going to be successful. The rest of her family just has a low paying job and they don 't really make anything of them self. The real truth is that her family is working hard to put her through school so that she can make
, But are consistently being differed. Lena Younger, otherwise known as, “Mama” is Walter and Beneatha’s mother and the head of the household. With her deceased husbands ten thousand dollar insurance check Lena bought a three thousand-dollar house with a garden where her family would be happy and hopes to save the rest of the money for Beneatha’s medical school. Lena’s dream, “ Festers like a sore” and is the only dream that somewhat comes true.
She defies the ideal life for a woman and expresses her opinion loud and clear. Beneatha throughout the play finds herself and her African American roots. Walter does not approve of Beneatha’s hopes to become a doctor he tells her, “If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people---then go be a nurse like other women---or just get married and be quiet. . .” (1.1.125) These social issues that the characters faced in their lives made them out to be the people that they were meant to be.
Trusting Walter, her son, she mistakenly gave him the money. Mama specifically told Walter to put away some money away for Beneatha Walter's sister. Like Walter Beneatha has big dreams. She wants to go to medical school
Therefore, this tumultuous scene set the stage for Black music of resistance and hope that not only served as songs of protest but also a chronicle of the struggle. The songs emanated the ever-growing self-pride of African Americans and in a sort of cycle, the ideals of black nationalist thinkers like Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois fueled the movement, and in turn, Civil Rights protesters encouraged these thinkers to keep on going. Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement and Du Bois’ revelations (such as the Niagara project and the NAACP) were the driving force of Black music during the Civil Rights era, and the music laid the soundtrack for the events of the movement. Some songs that defined the era include “We Shall Overcome”, which was originally a gospel song, “This Little Light of Mine” (also a gospel song), and “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, which speaks volumes about lynchings in the South. Although the era of Civil Rights was a time of racial divide and consciousness, the revival of music was able to bridge people together regardless of their age, race, and opinions: “The folk and blues revival’s black/white, young/old, traditional/contemporary, and country/urban music contrasts were a direct link to the ‘justice and equality for all’ politics of the civil rights movement and the nation’s rapidly growing social consciousness led by Freedom Now 23 its youth.”
As the narrative progressed, Mama had a discovery that forced her to confront the reality she had always wished to keep hidden. At first, she remained stubborn and kept herself out of trouble. In the beginning, Mama believed that moving to the west would only cause her children to experience hardships similar to those she endured. Mama made a position for what she thought was best for the kids and remained persistent on the subject because she was afraid her kids would be malnourished and miserable if they gave up everything they had in the east. Following Mama's separation from Papa and her middle child Dominic, an unbearable pain overcame her, driving her to do everything in her power to avoid getting into trouble.