Discrimination In A Raisin In The Sun

In the text “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the author uses the writing strategy of conflict to develop the central idea of how oneself can become selfish when trying to achieve the American dream. The text shows that the central idea is selfishness because circumstances are presented where various characters fail to take into consideration others while seeking their dreams. For example, Walters says, “ Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? 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…. ’’. This example of greed shows that the ambition to obtain a dream brings out the selfishness is true in the instance of Walter. It shows this because Walter diminishes his sisters Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor by making a misogynist comment in which insinuates on her settling on being a nurse due to a doctor clearly being an often male dominant profession. Furthermore, Walter is deluded by greed on opening a liquor store which causes him to have no regard for the feelings or desires of others. Clearly, the central idea of the text is that in trying to achieve a dream it can bring out a person selfish tendency because people tend to disparage others dreams in order to attain theirs.

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.

People have dreams to do or be what makes them happy by setting goals to reach their dream. Dreams are almost like goals that people create in their mind to try to motivate them self to achieve their dream. The American Dream is the idea that everyone who is a U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to be successful and benefit through their hard-work, determination, and initiative. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha Younger’s dream is to become a doctor and build a career/life for herself without anyone providing for her which connects to the American Dream through her independence, hard-work, and determination.

The racism and sexism being shown in the Raisin in The Sun demonstrates that the matrix of domination is in play. In the book, Beneatha is an African-American woman who is battling not only racism, but also sexism. She battles racism by attending medical school during the civil right movement era and she battles sexism at home with her brother Walter, and being told to marry George Murchison. In the text Walter says “We one group of men are tied to a race of women with small minds” (Hansberry, 35). In this quote he not only degrades the woman, but he degrades the African American woman. Walter uses his male privilege to put Beneatha down. Beneatha battles being underprivileged at home and in society by defying odds and choosing her own path. According to the matrix of domination, Beneatha being an African American woman shows that in order for her to have full privilege she has to deal with both the isms. The social construction of difference has produced racism and sexism and connected them and society has used them to justify

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play which contains many different obstacles that the characters face. One character, Beneatha, faces an obstacle that is out of her control. This obstacle is gender inequality. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, gender inequality is experienced by Beneatha and reflects the struggles women faced in the 1950s.

Of the three major struggles the Younger family faced, the most prominent in Act one is that of financial disability. This is best shown through the working lives of the family. Out of a family of five, three people work: Walter Lee as a chauffeur to a wealthy white family, Ruth as a housemaid, and Mama as a nanny to other peoples children. This is clearly necessary to afford basic needs as shown in their apartment, with “weariness [having], in fact won” (Hansberry pg.23). It is clear in Hansberry’s characterization that the members of the Younger family are dissatisfied with their station in life, albeit to varying degrees; Walter Lee in particular is very vocal regarding their poverty, as he states at one point: “I got boy who sleeps in the living room- and all I got to tell him is stories about how rich white people

In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.

Ruth exclaims, “Lena, no! We gotta go. Bennie—tell her…. Tell her we can still move… he notes ain’t but a hundred and twenty-five a month. We got four grown people in this house—we can work…” (609). 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…. 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….” (609). Ruth is begging for Mama not to change her mind on moving saying she will do anything. Her family needs this chance to live a better life. Ruth is willing to work harder and harder if it means she works for what her family wants and needs. Ruth Younger is motivated by working for her family’s and her goals to get what they dream

This could be for a variety of reason such as the way walter acted once mama received the money. He was always upset about not being the complete “breadwinner” and he technically wasn't the head of the house because mama was. Walter tries to make more money by investing in the liquor store. He loses the money because the man runs off with and mama warned him before so of course she becomes disappointed. “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH!” Walter is upset and is trying to cope and make mama understand that him receiving the money from the white man to not to move in will of regain.“Men are expected to be breadwinners, yet providing for one’s family with little or no help has negative repercussions,” said lead author Christin Munsch. Mama was upset that he didn’t listen and that he lived up to the vision of how the whites seen them, Careless and destructive. This is why mama thought it to be all in her hands because Walter as man was distraught and she felt it was a women's jobs because they do everything else. This showed feminism by mama wanting to stay in control and Walter being a man wanting/feeling like he had to be the “breadwinner” because its a mans

The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright of the century to express real social issues. There are three female characters in the play, each one is faced with a different struggle for their freedom. All three of these women, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha all dreamed of something more in their future. They did not want the life that every female was supposed to have, they wanted to be different. Beneatha has high aspirations in life and is the character that most expresses her struggles with feminism. 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. It was harder for the Young family to do simple things, but they overcome their obstacles and stayed true to themselves throughout the

Everyone in this family had dreams but no one supported each other dreams. Even Walters’s wife Ruth didn’t believe in his dream to own a liquor store. She grew weary of his day-to-day pipe dreams. Walter quotes, “That’s is just wrong with colored woman in this world, they don’t know how to build their man up and make them feel like they somebody.

“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.

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. Mama did unfortunately lose her husband, and the family is receiving a life insurance check for $10,000.

The reformation of civilization’s thoughts and discrimination has changed over the years from the culture of every ethnicity or race. Every person no matter the race has some sort of cultural tradition that has been past down from generation to generation. In the play “Raisin in The Sun” the character Beneatha has a difficult time trying to find herself. Beneatha struggles with cultural identity, finding herself, and achieving her dreams.

In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions.