Balance Beams In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Hansberry’s drama draws on her own experiences growing up in segregated Chicago, for example, redlining was often used in Chicago to discriminate against [colored people] who were moving into new neighborhoods. “Redlining is the practice of denying key services (like home loans and insurance) or increasing their costs for residents in a defined geographical area...It was almost exclusively a tool to force blacks (and other minorities) into particular geographic areas.”(Jamelle Bouie, How We Built the Ghettos, page 1). This ties to Hansberry’s play, a Raisin in the Sun, by the Younger family lived in a very cramped and poor area. They were then meet by Linder from the “welcoming committee” of the white neighborhood he told them the people of the neighborhood were

The Younger family all had a dream of living a better life, and they made the right decision to move to the white neighborhood. Because it had the better living environment, it is was an easy way of taking a stand in against racial discrimination, and it gave the Younger family hope, taught them a lesson about the importance of family unity.

“Life will test you, but remember this, when you walk up a mountain your legs get stronger” ~ Unknown. Life tested the Younger family in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, when they receive a large sum of money and it places the family into a feud. Trying to stop the feuding of her children, and do what she feels the family must do in the 1950s racial prejudice against people of color. Lena Younger, a woman of great strength and dominance, makes difficult choices for the sake of keeping the family together in a time of hardship. Throughout the play Mamma shows how she helps her family, even the simple ways, like being strong for them when they can not.

Relocating from a rural environment to this urban life imply acquiring jobs, which would be difficult to attain due to the atrocious belief of color superiority. Even though segregation was not legalized

The family starts to tear apart as Walter decides to sell the house to Mr. Lindner and take the check. Mama and Beneatha try to explain to Walter that their family, through generations, would have never thought about taking money in hard times. Beneatha then begins saying that their dream of moving to a new house is now dead, which Walter replies, “What’s the matter with you all! I didn’t make this world. It was give to me this way!

Mama's husband passed away not to long before this play took place. In the play, the family gets 10,000 dollars from his life insurance and doesn´t know what to do with it. Each family member has different dreams, but the money will not go around for everyone to use it because of certain events that happen. Mama puts a down payment on a new house in a white neighborhood and gives the rest of it to Walter. Walter was supposed to put some of it in the bank for Beneatha for college, but instead he gave all of the money to Willy for his business.

In “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry each family member has their own pursuit of happiness. Lorraine Hansberry depicts the Younger family as an ambitious group of people wanting either a little or a lot more for themselves. In this story a man named Walter plays both the roles of a protagonist and antagonist. He proves in the story that he can be helpful to his family, but he can also be their biggest critic through his dream for an investment in an alcohol business which represents his hope for manhood and “success”. Most people have a dream which is more or less hard to accomplish. Walter's dream did not come true because of the lack of money, the racism and the disloyalty of investors. The Youngers are a Christian, African-American

The house Mama bought was $3,500 leaving $6,500. Mama asks Walter to take the money to the bank and put $3,000 away in a savings account for Benetha's medical school. Mama made a smaller decision to give Walter $500 more than Benetha. She felt as though, with the new baby coming, Walter and Ruth may need the money more than Benetha. The remaining $3,500 was for Walter and his family.

The Younger family in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun faces many oppositions and conflicts, but Mama, the matriarch of the family, keeps them held together. She helps them work out their issues with her wisdom that she has received through her own trials and tribulations. She can best be described as puritanical, dignified and caring woman who would do anything for her family. Hansberry separates Mama from the family through her wisdom and values, but she uses her to tie the story together.

A Raisin In the Sun begins in a small, somewhat rundown apartment in Chicago in the early morning, sometime in the 1950s. It is a fairly average morning for the family that resides in this apartment. This family consists of Mama, her son Walter, her daughter Beneatha, Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son Travis. The members of the family all wake one by one and go about their normal activities, all bickering amongst themselves. One topic that they all bring up frequently is a check that is coming in the mail the next day, a life insurance check for Mama’s late husband which is worth $10,000.

Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun is set in a one-bedroom apartment shared by three generations of the Younger family: Walter and Ruth, their son Travis, Walter’s sister Beneatha, and their mother Lena.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun (1959) asserts that in life, those with less don’t go there in one day but through a prolonged time of struggle and strife . The first scene of the novel describes that a family that once was united and loving evolved into one that continues to survive in the conflict of society. In order to do this the author describes the furniture of the house and explains how through time the decor seemed to get worn and torn out. This section gives the audience the sense that the moments you once had can be replaced by ones you don’t want.

Each of the adults in the house have their own individual ideas and dreams of what they can do with the money. In the beginning, Mama plans to divide the money in portion, mainly between purchasing a new house and to pay for Beneatha’s college education. Beneatha is very ambitious about her education and career pursuit to be a doctor, while Walther wants to invest in a new business. Both rightful in their pursuit, reveal Walter’s own sexism and as they continue to contest which of their goals is more

Life can be full of false hope and promises, but what we decide to make of the situation is the defining factor. As children we dreamed of becoming doctors, lawyers, or business owners with the idea that our goal would be achieved. As we grow older and the time has come for our goals to be met we sometimes fall short or give up on our lifelong dream. Life can get in the way and things do not always turn out the way we intend it to. Our dreams do not seem as easy to obtain as they did when we were a child with a big imagination. In her play, A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry portrays characters who appear to be strong, determined, and hopeful when it comes to living out their daily lives and following their dreams. Early in the play we

He wants to take all $10,000 dollars and use it to open a liquor store with his friends Willy Harris and Bobo. His mother doesnt really agree with his ideas but hands him the $6,5000 left over after the downpayment. She tells him to put $3,000 of it into savings for his sister Benny so that she can finish college and become a doctor, and tells him that he is free to do what he thinks benifits his family most. Instead of adhearing to his mother’s wishes, he gives the money to Willy Harris for the business venture. Willy then stabs his friend in the back when he runs off with not only Walter’s cash but his dreams as well.