The Role Of Ambition In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Bill Bradley once said, “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” Ambition, one of the few motives that will push a person to excel, is achieved before anyone can construct a plan to meet their expectations for their future. Quite persistent and defying the stereotypes, Beneatha Younger, a young, ambitious woman living during the 1950s struggles to oppose stereotypical mindsets hammered into the minds of the society around her while she struggles to win the war taking place beyond what the world has the ability to see. Beneatha Younger is not your typical 1950s woman you would expect to read about, instead, she is conveyed as an outgoing, ambitious woman who struggles to find herself amidst a storm of judgemental bullets.

Lorraine Hansberry wrote, A Raisin in the Sun, about the Youngers, an African American family, living in a racially segregated society in Chicago’s southside during the 1950s. The play begins with the death of Walter and Beneatha’s father. Due to his death, their mother, Lena, is being imbursed ten thousand dollars in life insurance money. Because of this, everyone has a different opinion on how the money should be divided among the

Asagai addresses Beneatha with this name which translates to, “One for Whom BreadーFoodーIs Not Enough.” Beneatha immediately understood what Asagai was referring to when he called her Alaiyo. She is the personification of Alaiyo; the desire for more in expressing oneself. Throughout the play, Beneatha presents herself as a defiant young woman who meets Asagai, an assimilationist, and uses his help to scrutinize her future. Without seeking vengeance on Walter for losing the insurance money to a scam, Beneatha considers Asagai’s offer of bringing her to Africa to continue studying medicine in the country she has always dreamed of visiting. Due to her consideration of this offer, Beneatha maintains her ambitious personality and continues to display her growing