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Racism is whats keeping the world from uniting. The discrimination of others base on their beliefs or culture is what Lorraine Hansberry the author of the play A raisin in the Sun experienced. She was born in Chicago in 1930 and died in 1965. Her family was one of the first African American families to move into an all white neighborhood, which led to her discrimination experiences.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun, she wrote about an African American family who lives in a small apartment building and how they dealt with their problems. The play starts out with Mama and the family anxiously waiting for a life insurance check to arrive in the mail for ten thousand dollars. As the story goes on, Walter decides to invest in a liquor store with two other of his friends Bobo and Willy. When the check arrives, Mama uses three thousand five hundred dollars for down payment on a house and wants three thousand dollars to put in towards Beneatha's college fund.
One important part of the play is when Mama hands over the rest of the money to Walter making him the man of the house. At the end Mama and her family moves into her new house. Although this play is about the life of an African American family in the old days, it showed us many important ways to overcome our problems and situations. The importance of dreams, true value of money, and equality of women are all three of the most important themes in this play. The importance of dreams cannot be accomplished without hope. Hope is whats helping you keep on going until you reach your dream.
Walters dream is to have power and not be a servant like he is now. His idea on how to reach his dream is to use the money Mama got from the life insurance and invest it in the liquor store business. If he accomplishes this part, then all he has to do is make a lot of profit of his business and soon he will have enough money to make himself powerful by giving orders and not taking orders. A job, Mama, a job? I open and close doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, yes, sir; no sir; very, good sir; shall I take the drive, sir?
Mama, that aint no kind of job... that aint nothing at all. Mama, I dont know if I can make you understand. (p. 60) From another point of view, Beneatha's dream is to become a doctor. At the time, many women did not think of becoming a doctor and men just laughed at the thought of it. Thats exactly what Walter did but Beneatha didnt care on how he thought about it, it was her dream and she was willing to do anything to reach it. Mamas dream was different from both Walter and Beneatha but she was willing to help both of them accomplish their dreams.
Her dream was to have a garden of her own and keep the family together. The first step towards the garden was Mama buying the house. Once she owns the house, she can turn part of the backyard into a garden. To keep her family together she had to sneak out of the house and work in other peoples houses to earn bits of money for they family to buy what they needed and also by taking control of arguments between Walter and Ruth. Although dreams were a major theme, the true value of money was also important.
The true value of money was viewed very differently from each character. Money was everything to Walter. Son- how come you talk so much bout money? , Because it is life, Mama. (p. 61) Walters interest in money so much was that he could use it as power. To Walter, money was life and without it, life would just be hell. Walters action toward giving three thousand dollars to Beneath's education was very negative. He hated that idea and wanted the money for himself.
Beneatha unlike Walter was more interested in using the money towards getting a good education like going to college and getting a degree in medical so she can become a doctor. Money wasnt everything to Beneatha, she thought that school can get you more than money could in this world. With Mama, she didnt care much about money unless she needed to buy something use full. Mama wasnt the type who would go out and buy something she wanted with extra money but would rather give it to her love ones to do as they wished. The true value of money to Mama was her loving family. During this time, the equality of women was also a big issue.
The equality of women and men were unequal. The men had more power and better paying jobs unlike the women who was expected to stay home and do housework all day long. Walter was a big sexes person in which he expected his wife Ruth to do as he wished and stay home to help his mother and do what all the other wives are doing which was cook, clean, and take care of the children. Walters sister Beneatha was unwilling to obey what he wanted so she took charge of herself. Walter had never heard much about women becoming doctors and insisted her becoming a nurse like other women or get married. Who the hell told you you had to become a doctor?
If you so crazy bout messing round with sick people-then go be a nurse like other women or just get married and be quiet... (p. 26) When Walter said get married and be quiet, he wants Beneatha to get settled down with a man and have kids so she can think about something else other then being a doctor. Walters thoughts on about men was that in every family, the man of the house who runs everything was always the man and never the woman but in his family, Mama was the man of the house. With a family like this he felt powerless because money is what gives you power and Mama has the ten thousand dollars and paid rent. When Mama handed over the rest of the money to Walter, that was the moment he felt power and thought he could do anything he wanted. With the money in hand Walter wanted more power and to do so he would need to invest in the liquor store business going against Mamas will. When he lost the money, he lost all of his power and started to respect more of the ones who had told him the right thing to do in the first place.
He learned a lesson of which many other men didnt which is to listen and try to understand that women are as smart and equal to that of men. The importance of dreams, true value of money, and equality of women are all important themes in this play which you should try to understand and know after reading it. My thoughts on the play A Raisin in the Sun is very interesting. It shows us an idea of life in an African American family in the 1940 s to 1950 s. Of course this story could happen again in Chicago in 1990 to 2000.
I think there are still some all black and all white neighborhoods in Chicago today. Ive heard of a few racist acts in the city and now do to the more violent street gangs, violence is more possible. Families in Chicago are both rich and poor. The rich folks live in nice big houses while some families in poverty live in cheap apartments with only cold running water.
In the United States more men have power than women. For example, the most powerful position ever is the President and no women has become one yet. I think if a woman does become a president other countries wont take her as seriously as a man. All in all, the ways of life havent changed much since this play was written. Money is still the most powerful object.
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Research essay sample on Racism In The Play A Raisin Sun
