By: Nicole Crews One could say that a raisin in the sun could represent a dream being deferred at least Langston Hughes believes so. This title is aimed toward the father’s dream to have a better life for his family. Although, I feel this fairly depicted Beneatha Younger’s drive, ambition, and success in the shadow of her failing family. The play, a raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry. Throughout the play, Beneatha remained the most educated and intelligent member of the Younger family. She went to Medical school to pursue her dreams and create a better life for herself. Beneatha has three key characteristics that are portrayed throughout the book, including ambition, sarcasm, and easily influenced. Beneatha indirectly revealed her ambition, sarcasm, and easily-influenced, by not specifically expressing to the reader that she was each of those things.
To start with, Beneatha showed great ambition and determination throughout the play. Unlike the rest of her family, Beneatha went on to pursue higher education and attended Medical School. At Medical school, Beneatha was introduced to Joseph Asagai, a native Nigerian, who teaches Beneatha all about the African culture and heritage. The Younger family was extremely poor and lived in a small apartment; therefore, college was a rare expense. Beneatha was the only one in her family that had the privilege of attending college but she worked extremely hard for it. “Oh, I probably will. . . but first I 'm going to be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that 's pretty funny. I couldn 't be bothered with that. I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that!” (Hansberry, 506) In this quote by Beneatha, the reader can really start to understand how determined she is to pursue her dreams and isn’t going to let anyone come in her way and shows her determination characteristic. All of the above describes how Beneatha is ambitious and
Cited: Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.