Beneatha Younger

In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha Younger is the daughter of Mama and the younger sister of Walter Lee. On the outside, Beneatha is portrayed as stubborn and self-centered, but when the play focuses on her more directly, she is shown to be intelligent and independent person who is trying to find her own identity as a person in a whole. Even though she does show the want for the money when the check arrives, she still wants Mama to do what's right with the money and tries to do what she can in order for the Youngers to live a better life. Beneatha Younger in the play represents the younger generation and the rising ideals appearing amongst the African-American population at the time. Beneatha not only believed in the view of African-American
Africans would try to "assimilate" into American culture in order to fit into the cultural mold, as Beneatha does such by straightening her hair instead of leaving it naturally curly. Joseph Asagai helps Beneatha to understand the important of the African roots, and promises her that if she ever went to Africa it would feel like she had only been away for a day. Beneatha then takes a lot of pride in her African heritage, and cherishes the robes and music Asagai brings back for her from Nigeria. She counters George Murchison's beliefs - he represented those who believed that assimilation was the best, were American rooted foremost, and believed that thinking so much about African is wasting time. Diving into African heritage was a piece important to Beneatha's part in the play concerning the idea of
While her family is only trying to look at a smaller perspective in their lives, Beneatha is looking for a larger perspective on her own life and on the world around her. At first it seems that Beneatha and Mama's relationship is strained when Mama goes as far as to slap Beneatha for saying that there isn't a God. However, Mama cares for Beneatha by telling Walter that some of the money set aside is for Beneatha's education, and when Beneatha says that George is a fool, Mama agrees, making Beneatha very happy to have her agree with her on her differing views of George from the rest of the