A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The play revolves around the Younger family and the struggles they experience in the post WWII era. Three of the main characters are the women of the family Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha. Each of these women are vastly different individuals with different wants and dreams from life.
Lena Younger is the matriarch of the family and her main goals in life is for her family to be happy and good people and to love each other, “Yes—I taught you that. Me and your daddy. But I thought I taught you something else too…I thought I taught you to love him” (1236). Lena feels her family is in a bad way, she wants to salvage the situation in which they find themselves by buying them a house. Like a new beginning, however her son Walter loses all the money beside the down payment Lena had already made on the house. There is also an issue with where the house is found. The all white neighbor is not welcoming and try to buy the house back. …show more content…
Ruth Younger is the wife of Walter and mother of Travis.
She is disappointed with how her life as turned out and is unhappy with how her husband obsession with his dream of unrealistic success has taken its toll on their relationship, “I—I’m sorry about this new baby, Walter. I guess maybe I better go on and do what I started… I guess I just didn’t realize how bad things was with us… I guess I just didn’t really realize” (1213). Ruth wants more, more from life and more from Walter. Walter’s attitude is a constant strain on Ruth’s mental health as well as the rest of his family. Walter finally step up at the end of the play and becomes the man she hoped he would
become.
Beneatha Younger is the daughter of Lena and sister of Walter. Beneatha has big dreams of becoming a doctor. Which is no easy feat giving their monetary status as well as her being an African American woman. She also has high expectations of life. When Walter losses the money she was going to use toward medical school she is devasted, “No! I sound like a human being who just had her future taken right out of her hands!” (1230). Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. "The Raisin in the Sun." Barnet, Sylvan, et al. Literature For Composition Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education, 2018, 2017, 2014. PP. 1185 - 1238.
Lena Younger is the matriarch of the family and her main goals in life is for her family to be happy and good people and to love each other, “Yes—I taught you that. Me and your daddy. But I thought I taught you something else too…I thought I taught you to love him” (1236). Lena feels her family is in a bad way, she wants to salvage the situation in which they find themselves by buying them a house. Like a new beginning, however her son Walter loses all the money beside the down payment Lena had already made on the house. There is also an issue with where the house is found. The all white neighbor is not welcoming and try to buy the house back. …show more content…
Ruth Younger is the wife of Walter and mother of Travis.
She is disappointed with how her life as turned out and is unhappy with how her husband obsession with his dream of unrealistic success has taken its toll on their relationship, “I—I’m sorry about this new baby, Walter. I guess maybe I better go on and do what I started… I guess I just didn’t realize how bad things was with us… I guess I just didn’t really realize” (1213). Ruth wants more, more from life and more from Walter. Walter’s attitude is a constant strain on Ruth’s mental health as well as the rest of his family. Walter finally step up at the end of the play and becomes the man she hoped he would
become.
Beneatha Younger is the daughter of Lena and sister of Walter. Beneatha has big dreams of becoming a doctor. Which is no easy feat giving their monetary status as well as her being an African American woman. She also has high expectations of life. When Walter losses the money she was going to use toward medical school she is devasted, “No! I sound like a human being who just had her future taken right out of her hands!” (1230). Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. "The Raisin in the Sun." Barnet, Sylvan, et al. Literature For Composition Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education, 2018, 2017, 2014. PP. 1185 - 1238.