However, Walter Lee, the male member of the family has his own plans; he wants to make an investment in the liquor business with the partnership of his friend Bobo and Willy, the street-smarts. His optimism about the success of his investment has made him gleeful so much so that he hoodwinks the family by giving the money to Willy for the liquor store investment in his hope to reveal it later when he succeeds. Despite his optimism, he is unable to convince even his own wife who conjoins his mother in having a house of their own. Also, Mama disagrees with the plan because it is against religion. However, she gives the rest of the money to Walter for the business investment on the condition of reserving three thousand dollars for her daughter’s education.

• Lena says she thinks Walter Lee has got a fine life, with “a job, a nice wife, a fine boy,” but Walter Lee laments the fact that his job is driving a man around all day and opening doors for him.
• Along with feminism, the theme of fecundity (fertility; being fruitfully prolific) is threaded throughout this play.
• You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly.

She also makes the comment, “ Oh, I just mean I couldn’t ever really be serious about George. Beneatha realizes that there is more to a person than their wealth. Lorraine Hansbury’s “Raisins in the Sun” is the story of a lower-class African-American family living in South Chicago in the 1950s. It is only with the help of aspiring dreams that these various members of the Younger family are seen to battle on in a society bent on deferring or quashing them.

A View Of Prejudice As Described In Lorraine Hansberrys Play, A Raisin In The Sun

For instance, when Travis asks for fifty cents, Walter gives his son twice money as much as he asks for. The name of Hansberry’s play makes a direct mention of the the Langston Hughes poem, “A Dream Deferred.” “what goes on to a dream deferred?” asked Hughes. The feeling of ambition that Beneatha once had for becoming a doctor turned into feelings of impossibility. She often mentions the words “used to” emphasizing that her dreams of becoming the cure, the doctor, and someone who cares have now become a part of the past. She is someone who genuinely cares about people and becoming a doctor was only intended as a way for her to help someone to write my paper more people who were hurting.

The play is about an African American family, consisting of five members, who live in Southside Chicago during the post-World-War-Two era. The Younger family is crowded in a tiny, worn, and shabby apartment and they are fairly poor. They never have much surplus money until Walter’s father, and Mama’s husband, died and the family received a life-insurance check for ten thousand dollars.

A Raisin In The Sun Theme Essay

Invest big, gamble big, hell, lose big if you have to, you know what I mean. It’s hard to find a man on this whole Southside who understands my kind of thinking ̶ you dig? ” This shows that walter is trying to make his life better with the ideas he has and is trying to make connections to get money to make his dream come true. His dream is to get the american dream the dream that everyone wants. He uses adjectives like big, hard, and the phrase “turn this city upside down” to emphasis on how immence his ideas are and how amazing he thinks they are. Hansberry uses diction of dreams to show how much Walter want to accomplish this dream of his and to show his determination.

Mama points out that something has come between her and her children and Walter notes the same is happening between him and Ruth. These divisions are only seen to be overcome at the end of the play when assignments help they finally, and jointly, agree to move to Clybourne Park with pride. Their unity is seen to transcend the barriers and this becomes a weapon to challenge the divisive effects of poverty and inherent racism. Oftentimes, seemingly minor characters can actually have great significance to either the meaning or the actions of the play. InA Raisin in the Sunthere is a handful of minor characters, including George and Joseph, who are significant to the play. Choose one or more of the minor characters inA Raisin in the Sunand write an essay in which you analyze the roles that they play in the development of the thematic content ofA Raisin in the Sun.

A garden and a yard are also discussed when mama’s desire for these things are revealed. She wishes that her gardening skills only became better with practice with this plant. These aspects of nature reveal much about the inner character of mama.

Such global inclusion is typical of “Raisin,” where Hansberry uses literary devices not only to enrich her text but also to intensify her characters and their interactions. Choose a character from the play and examine how Hansberry develops a theme through the development of that character. Show how each of these women shape him while conveying a theme of the play. Select a symbol found within in the play, and write an essay that reveals the significance of these symbols.