A Raisin in the Sun Final Essay
Belen Contreras
December 3, 2014
AP Literature- Period 2
Ms. Bockus
For a Brighter Tomorrow
Imagine living with your family in a poor little apartment. It’s crowded with faded furniture and not enough space for all the members to live comfortably. Due to this lack of space, your family is cranky and fed up with each other. Would you dream for a better dwelling? Would that new place help your family grow closer together? Lena Younger, from “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, believed the positive in this situation. She dreams of a means to improve her family situation so that they all can life happily with each other in love and respect. Lena Younger always believed and hoped for a brighter future for her family. She desires to own a lovely house with a garden and a yard for her grandson, Travis, to play in. This will support and provide for her family better than their current situation. That way they can live comfortably for a change. To Lena, money is only a way to an end meaning that her dreams are far more important to her than wealth of the world. However, in order to make her dreams a reality, the money she gets from her late husband’s insurance is used to buy a fine house in Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood. Despite the fact that the house is in a white neighborhood, Lena still believes that her family will have a better life, “ It’s just a plain little old house-but it’s made good and solid- and it will be ours…it makes a difference in a man when he can walk on floors that belong to him.” (536). By owning a house, she hopes it will help make Walter a better man which will definitely stabilize the rest of the family.
Throughout the play, Lena Younger, the head of the household, interacts with her family members with a foundation of Christian beliefs. When her son, Walter, approaches her with the idea of investing in a liquor store, she rejects it completely by saying it’s un-Christian to be part of that kind of business, “-whether
December 3, 2014
AP Literature- Period 2
Ms. Bockus
For a Brighter Tomorrow
Imagine living with your family in a poor little apartment. It’s crowded with faded furniture and not enough space for all the members to live comfortably. Due to this lack of space, your family is cranky and fed up with each other. Would you dream for a better dwelling? Would that new place help your family grow closer together? Lena Younger, from “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, believed the positive in this situation. She dreams of a means to improve her family situation so that they all can life happily with each other in love and respect. Lena Younger always believed and hoped for a brighter future for her family. She desires to own a lovely house with a garden and a yard for her grandson, Travis, to play in. This will support and provide for her family better than their current situation. That way they can live comfortably for a change. To Lena, money is only a way to an end meaning that her dreams are far more important to her than wealth of the world. However, in order to make her dreams a reality, the money she gets from her late husband’s insurance is used to buy a fine house in Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood. Despite the fact that the house is in a white neighborhood, Lena still believes that her family will have a better life, “ It’s just a plain little old house-but it’s made good and solid- and it will be ours…it makes a difference in a man when he can walk on floors that belong to him.” (536). By owning a house, she hopes it will help make Walter a better man which will definitely stabilize the rest of the family.
Throughout the play, Lena Younger, the head of the household, interacts with her family members with a foundation of Christian beliefs. When her son, Walter, approaches her with the idea of investing in a liquor store, she rejects it completely by saying it’s un-Christian to be part of that kind of business, “-whether