Corruption In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Beneatha is Walter Lee´s little sister. She is very smart. Beneatha thinks that she is always right. Beneatha want to become a doctor in the future. She say everything that is on her mind and nothing makes her happy. She is always fighting with Walter Lee about the decision of become a doctor.

“Being rich doesn't always mean having money. It means being happy with the amount that you have.” In the play, A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter Lee Younger Jr, a man who may not be happy until he has this check he's been waiting for in his hands. A man whose family has never been financially stable and wants the best for everyone. Younger has goals, he wants to open a bar and be a businessman. He has a family that does not completely support him and he struggles with accepting their wants and needs. Throughout the play, he learns that money may not always buy someone's happiness. He often struggles with the idea of not having what he needs to provide the right things for his family, which makes him extremely hot headed

“Me and Ruth done made some sacrifices for you – why can’t you do something for the family?” (Hansberry 1.1.118). The Younger family has grown up without much and when the father dies, he leaves an inheritance that can get the family into a comfortable living position. The only problem is that they all want to use the money for different reasons. Each character wants to make their own dreams come true. They do not want to sacrifice their own dreams to please the others. Unwilling to make a sacrifice proves to bring more animosity in a family as shown in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry through conflict involving money and how the characters handle their actions.

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.

Greed. Betrayal. Mistrust. Slimy. Selfish. These are all traits that would describe Walter Lee and his actions. Walter Lee is a character from the play A Raisin in the Sun in which a black family tries to get out of poverty and go against stereotypes by trying to start over with their Grandpa’s life insurance money. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the concept that greed leads to being blinded by money and forgetting about one’s loved ones as shown by the climax of the play, the character of Walter Lee, and the effect that his actions have on the rest of his family.

In her play A Raisin in the Sun, author Lorraine Hansberry conveys that a change in character is essential in order to attain one’s dreams. Such changes can include a shift in perspective or personality.

Back in the 1950s, women would be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and kids. However, Beneatha does not want to fit this stereotype. She tells Ruth and Lena that "[she is] not even worried about who [she is] going to marry yet. If—[she] ever gets married" (Hansberry 75). Beneatha gets shamed for not wanting to marry before her schooling. Lena and Ruth laugh at her, and are confused on why she does not want to marry George right away. George thinks it is stupid to not get married right now and wants Beneatha to be like everyone else. Sharon Brubaker notes that Beneatha's version of the American dream is "solitary, less traditional, and not as concerned with family." Beneatha does not want to be "white" or "normal" in her life. Sally Burke says that "Beneatha refuses to accept the subservient position often seen as 'natural' for women" (95).

Poems are tools used to demonstrate dissatisfaction. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry leads by foreshadowing its theme of crushed dreams by starting with the poem A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes. The play follows an African-American family in 1950s Chicago, consisting of protagonist Walter Lee Younger, his son Travis, his wife and Travis’ mother Ruth, sister Beneatha, and mother/grandmother Lena, called simply “Mama” in the play. Walter is ambitious and wants to move out of his small and run-down home and find a better job than a chauffeur for the kind of man he wishes he could be. Desperate to fulfill this dream, he takes $6,500 of his mother’s insurance money that she obtains shortly beforehand following the death of Walter Sr. and strikes a deal with two friends of his to purchase a liquor store. This causes him to be scammed by one of them. Langston Hughes’ poem accurately represents the state of the family after Walter’s investment.

Beneatha is a young independent woman, who has big dreams of becoming a doctor. During the 1950, it was very rare for a young woman to become a doctor. As a result, becoming a doctor was even harder for a young black woman, like Beneatha. She is constantly told that women should just sit and look pretty. Constantly being put down by George Murchison a man that neglects his roots, “I don’t go out with you to discuss the nature of “quiet desperation”or to hear all about your thoughts...”(Hansberry 96 ). Beneatha is often confronted by Asagi, about how she is assimilating to an oppressive culture. Asagi tells her to stop trying to fit in, to be proud of her African roots, to embrace them, “White-black in this you are all the same.” (Hansberry 64) Beneatha desires to be different from those in her generation. Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor, is often affected by some of her family members’ decisions. She begins to lose hope, thus enabling her to become a realist.

Everyone learns lessons in life. These lessons can come from a book, experience and legends. Books have a theme that you can learn from that is what make books important. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry both have the themes of responsibility, family and dream that runs through the main characters Tom Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie and Walter Lee Younger from A Raisin in The Sun.

A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period. The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a

Money is one of the things in the world that a person can become obsessed with. In the story “A Raisin in the sun” the author Lorraine Hansberry shows how a family is changed by the lust of money. A widow, Lena, her son Walter Younger, his wife Ruth and daughter Beneatha all lived under the same roof. Lena just lost her husband and is receiving a check for his death. With the money, Lena wants to buy a new house for the whole family to live in but everyone else in the family sees a different type of opportunity. Being the man of the household, Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and plans on using Lena’s money to do so. Walter is always after money and believes that the only way to succeed in life is with money. For example, when Walter is talking about the check, he says, “Mama, sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking about things, turning deals worth millions of dollars, sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (992).This shows how Walter wanted something more out of life and not just be a poor black man.

“Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.” Symbols can add a deeper meaning than just an object itself that the author is trying to make.Symbols can also foreshadow what is yet to come. The audience can interpret a symbol in many ways it depends on their experience. In Southside Chicago the Younger family is struggling to have hope as they are always facing society.In the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry the plant symbolizes the Younger’s dream as it evolves throughout the play.

Beneatha also faced a hardship in her life, but herr 's was different from the rest. She face problems with education. Her family did not fully support her decision of wanting to become a doctor. Beneatha wants to become a doctor but her family is not that wealthy. They do all put in work to pay for her schooling though. School was difficult for black students as they were not always accepted in all schools. “In September 1957 Arkansas Democratic Governor Orval E. Faubus became the national symbol of racial segregation when he used Arkansas National Guardsmen to block the enrollment of nine black students who had been ordered by a federal judge to desegregate Little Rock 's Central High School¨(Faubus). The Whites were definitely trying to keep the blacks from getting the proper education to be successful this is why her family is sceptical about her become a doctor. The family is somewhat supportive of Beneatha’s dream in the sense that they pay for her schooling. 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

In Susan Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the themes identified are dreams and faith that each character signifies throughout their struggles in their daily lives. The theme dreams refer to how each of the main five characters: Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Travis Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger dealt with different oppression situations that took part in their lives that put the dreams on hold. Furthermore, the theme also connects towards the faith that each main character had to pursue to keep their family together after the death of a love one. The characters’ in A Raisin in the Sun tries to chase after a separate dream, unfortunately their dreams are utterly pushed away to realize the importance of their family