Raisin In The Sun
"A Raisin in the Sun", written by Lorraine Hansberry, follows the life of a small black family's difficult struggle to keep their dreams of from tenants to owners alive and see them through to culmination. These dreams, as well as coming to terms with the dreams that are out of reach, are the focus and driving force behind this story of every persons struggle to attain goals that aren't always consistent with societies thoughts or ideas on a persons place in life. The internal difficulties of the family and the effects of these problems on the family is a major theme in the play.As the play begins a husband, Walter, and his wife, Ruth, are seen having a fight over Walter's dream to become a 'mover and shaker' in the business world by using an incoming insurance check for his mother as a down payment on a radical adventure. Walter tells his wife that, "I'm trying to talk to you 'bout myself and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work", which is the first sign of Walter's recurring feelings that if someone in the family would just listen to him and put forth their trust his dreams would come to fulfillment. Following this argument Walter goes off to his job as a chauffeur which is the job he so lo
" This bold and unselfish move helps to propagate the family's long standing ethics, values, and pride. A Raisin in the Sun displays a great recurring theme in life that many times the good of the few has to be sacrificed through the needs and propagation of the group. Once again, as with Walter, Beneatha realizes later in the story that it is the furtherance of long-standing family values and morals which give the foundation upon which to build a wonderful life. This event shows yet another time in which a family member threatens to ruin the inherent stability of the family structure by trying to build in a manner which is completely incompatible with the rest of the structure. Beneatha's speech about God is her attempt to show her independence and uniqueness in the world, but when she asserts her self in an area that is extremely sensitive to the family heritage and structure, she threatens to wean herself from the only guaranteed support group in life, the family. Later in the morning Beneatha, the younger sister of Walter, starts yet another internal conflict by speaking in an unacceptable manner about God at which point her mother slaps her because of her disrespect to values that have been taught to her since childhood. ngs to be done away with because he would rather "be Mr. This play also powerfully illustrates the idea that sometimes to hold on to ethics, values, and pride is the harder thing to accomplish, but is the most fulfilling and helps to make facing the next challenge easier and more rewarding. This movement away from the family is against the furtherance of the values and morals of the family. As seen later in the story Walter learns that for the overall good of the family he needs to set his dreams aside and get his 'head in the game' so that all may succeed. But, as the time draws near for Walter to put his pride away he realizes with the help of the family that no amount of money can make up for the loss of pride and that it is sometimes better to sacrifice the goals of one for the good of many, so he tells the gentleman from the 'Welcoming Committee' that they "decided to move into our house because my father-my father-he earned it. As Walter dreams bigger and bigger he seems to leave the 'smaller' things such as his family behind. This episode illustrates a major conflict throughout the story. But, as time progress Leana sees how downtrodden her son his because none of the family members will back his dream, so she gives him the money left over after buying the house to spend on his dream and "be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be.
Common topics in this essay:
Lorraine Hansberry,
Mama Leana,
Walter Beneatha,
Raisin Sun,
'welcoming committee',
raisin sun,
ethics values,
values pride,
ethics values pride,
values morals,
story walter,
house family,
family walter,
insurance money,
beneatha's schooling,
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Acceptance Essays
