Pride And Prejudice In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

One of the most powerful motivators in life is pride. People will go against their wants, desires, and even die for what they are prideful about. Pride can encourage a person to do something so small that has very minimal effect on anything or something so large that the world is changed as a result. Prejudice is one of many things that challenge the idea of pride. Prejudice is prejudgment that is not based on reasons or actual experiences. In simple terms, prejudice is judging a book by its cover. A person can feel prejudice towards a single individual or to an entire group of people, but in either sense the effects are felt by the victims none the less. Both pride and prejudice are major themes that Lorraine Hansberry weaved throughout her play A Raisin in the Sun and in turn these themes have affected the main characters in many different ways.

The first time I noticed pride appear in the play is right at the beginning of act 1, scene 1 when the stage director is illustrating the setting. He
describes the Youngers' apartment to be rather tiny and run down. All the furniture is said to be "tired." Reading a little past all this, I learned that it hasn't always been this way. The stage director explains, "...the furnishings of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope – and brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and pride" (). The contents of the apartment represent the history of pride for the Younger family. When they first moved into the apartment they were very proud of it and thought of it as a jump start to a better future for their family. Now, many years have passed and with all the poverty the family faces they are struggling to hold onto pride for everything they have.

Mama is very prideful of what her family has accomplished and where they are in life and this can be seen in act 1, scene 2 when Lena and Walter have a rather interesting conversation of where Walter is at in life.
At this point of the play Walter is coming to realization that he is doing a lousy job of supporting the family and he truly believes he can do better. He thinks that in order to do better though he needs money and because of this he believes "life is money." Lena replies to Walter shamefully, "You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done" (). Obviously, Walter, not being happy about where he is in life, upsets Mama greatly. Lena and Big Walter had worked really hard to provide a future for their children and now Walter is ashamed of their rundown apartment and lower-class lifestyle. Walter longs for a bigger and better future. Even though her children are losing pride of their lives, Lena continues to be proud of where she and her family have
came.

While talking with Lena in act 2, scene 2, Mrs. Johnson learns that Walter, just like his father, is unhappy with being a servant. Lena tells Mrs. Johnson, My husband always said being any kind of a servant wasn't a fit thing for a man to have to be"(). Mrs. Johnson retaliates, "You sure one proud-acting bunch of colored folks" (). Mrs. Johnson is being prejudice towards the viewpoint the Younger family has on life and where they would like to believe in the future. She feels that they are being snobbish and believe they are better than the rest. In all actuality though, the Youngers are just a proud family that are hopeful for the future.