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Travis Younger Resilience

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Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” is a provocative play written in the late 1950’s with dynamic elements of race, poverty, disillusionment, and hope. Its significance and message is one that has stood the test of time and is still relevant to today’s reader. A particular element that has evoked strong feeling in me is poverty and it’s profound impact on people especially children. Growing up I lived in a single parent household that was impoverished and I saw firsthand what living in poverty can do to children. A character that is growing into this cycle of poverty is Travis Younger and in this play we see him coming to age, adapting, battling poverty, and showing resilience all at the same time. Through numerous interactions we see how its effect on him is crucial because of poverties ability to either bring about resilience or create disillusionment in people. …show more content…

Our first interaction with him is when he wakes up and has to race to the bathroom that is shared by different families in the building they reside in. After Travis asks his mother Ruth Younger for 50 cents and is turned down he shows me that he is not disillusioned by it. Travis asks his mother “Could I maybe go carry some groceries in front of the supermarket for a little while after school then?” (Hansberry, 1959, page 980) this quote demonstrates that even at 10 Travis knows that he needs to work hard for the things that he wants. We see how he has learned to adapt to his financial constraints. Though living in such poverty as a kid can sometimes cause disdain I see that he is showing

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