English 252

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry reveals to its readers the issues of class, gender and race. This black family living in the south side of Chicago is relying on an insurance check of $10,000 to help them somewhat escape from the common themes of racial and class inequalities occurring in this book.  In Act 2 Scene 3, it is moving day and the Younger family is preparing for moving into their new home in Clybourne Park. Mama received new gardening tools from her family and she has never received presents besides on Christmas so she is very grateful for this gift. Things between the Younger family seem to be getting better and they seem to be currently happy at this moment in the play. However, money is the motive for many and especially for Walter Lee Younger and Willy Harris. With Walter being the so-called “man of the house” Mama gives him $6,500 and she tells him to put $3,000 towards Beneatha’s schooling and whatever is left Walter is supposed to look after it and to decide what to do with it. However, things didn’t go as planned and Walter decided to take all of the $6,500 and invest all of it into the alcohol business. His business partner Willy decided to take all of the money and he ran off with it.

Having an education or having money, what is more important? Walter Lee Younger has become obsessed with money and it is the root of most his problems. He can’t even deal with the fact that he lost $6,500 but he is okay that Ruth was thinking about aborting their future child. This shows that Walter’s main focus is money. He is extremely selfish and feels entitled, he seems to think that he is the only person with money issues in the story or the only one struggling.

On Page 128, Bobo tells Walter that he did not go to Springfield yesterday and that he had no reason to.

Bobo: I’m talking about the fact that I got to the train station yesterday morning-eight o’clock like we planned … Man – Willy didn’t ever show up.

Walter: Why … where was he … where is he?

Bobo: That’s what I’m trying to tell you . . . I don’t know . . . I walked six hours . . . I called his house . . . and I walked six hours . . . I waited in that train station six hours . . . (Bobo begins to break down into tears) That was all the extra money I had in the world . . . Man, Willy is gone.

Walter goes off on a tangent and later towards the end of it he says “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH” and Bobo responds to this by saying “I’m sorry Walter . . . I had my life staked on this deal, too . . .” (Page 129).

Walter makes the disappearance of both him and Bobo’s money all about him. There has been an ongoing theme of selfishness and the desperation for money since the very beginning of this play. Walter has strong ideas of how a household should function. He doesn’t seem to support Beneatha’s education he somewhat sees it more as a financial burden. The alcohol business has been lingering in Walter’s mind for so long. Mama puts her trust in Walter to make him feel like the “man of the house.” She gave him the power to fulfill his sense of  masculinity of making decisions for the whole entire family rather than him being subject to her decisions. Unlike Walter, whenever Mama makes a decision it’s for the whole entire family without only having her own personal interests in mind.

Not only is money ruining Walter’s life it also is ruining his relationships to the people around him. He is letting money get in the way of him and Ruth’s marriage, he is constantly fighting about the insurance check they received with Mama, and he lost all the money that was supposed to go towards Beneatha’s schooling.

Mama begins to beat Walter on page 130 and as she is hitting him she says, “I seen him . . . night after night . . . come in and look at that rug . . . and then look at me . . . the red showing in his eyes . . . the veins moving in his head . . . I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty . . . working and working like somebody’s old horse . . . killing himself . . . and you – you give it all away in a day.”

Mama is almost blaming Walter in a way for the death of her husband. All of these emotions she has pent up about her husband are released and she is triggered by the loss of his money. Hansberry focuses more on the issue of the misfortune of the Younger family rather than the $6,500 Willy Harris took. Misfortune happens to be another theme in the story for example the $10,000 insurance check. Mama went and bought her family a new home in Clybourne Park and as soon as things seem to be getting better there is always some kind of setback.  

What other factors rather than selfishness do you think led Walter into giving away the $6,500 and putting it entirely into the alcohol business? What do you think will happen between the Younger family and do you think there will be any relationships permanently ruined? If so, between who and why?

In the story A Raisin in the Sun, the family has been getting better. Walter seems to be more joyful to be around and actually took Ruth to the movies and they had a delightful walk through the snow and mama got some cool gifts! But, there has been some secrets that have been hidden and unfortunately, in Act II scene III, Walter and Ruth are hiding both of the secrets and also, lying.

On page 80, (right after Lindner leaves) mama asks Ruth and Walter what the man wanted and this is their response:

Mama: (Innocently) Who?

Beneatha: The welcoming committee. They said they’re sure going to be glad to see you when you get out there.

Walter: (Devilishly) Yeah, they said they can’t hardly wait to see your face. (Laughter)

Mama: (Sensing their factiousness) What is the matter with you all?

Walter: Ain’t nothing the matter with us. We just telling you ’bout the gentlemen that came to see you this afternoon. From the Clybourne Park Improvement Association.

Mama: What he want?

Ruth: To welcome you, honey!

As you can see, Walter and Ruth were not the only liars here. But, I can see why they did it. Mama bought them a house and was trying to better her and family by putting them in a better neighborhood. If Mama were to find out the real reason why Lindner was there, it would break her heart and would probably blame herself for putting her family (in what seems to be) a worse position.

After this whole fiasco, Bobo came and rang the doorbell while the family was passing Mama her gifts. Come to find out, Willy never met Bobo at the train station to head to Springfield. He has been missing for six hours with no phone calls, sightings, or contact with him. This stirs the pot for Walter because the family found out that he had used his sisters college money for his new liquor business he wants to start. He gave Willy and Bobo the money for the business, hence their (almost) train ride to Springfield and they lost the money.

To me, this is plain selfishness. I understand his reasoning to start a business and to make more money for his family. But, that is his sisters education and he threw it down the drain. If he were to sit them down, talk, and maybe work something out then I see that as being reasonable. But, selfishness took the win on this one.

Another common theme I have seen throughout this story thus far especially this scene) is, inconsistency. Walter and the family have been up, down, sideways, and backwards and they cannot seem to stay on the same page at all. As much as I want to see everything start to come together, I am getting this feeling that it will not be happening anytime soon.

Will Mama find out about why Lindner visited? Do you think Willy stole the money from Walter and Bobo?

Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, has so far has shown a great number of themes already, even though we have only read up until the end of Act II, scene i. After having read the introduction (and having never read A Raisin in the Sun before) I expected to read about a family that will stop at nothing to be recognized and to be able to do whatever they wanted to do without being oppressed and have their internal fires extinguished, but so far the only character that has shown these qualities is Beneatha. Through her sarcastic, strong, independent character Beneatha is showing a woman who desperately wants to be something in a world that expects her to be nothing. Probably one of the most critical and cynical character’s towards Beneatha is her brother, Walter. Walter seems to have a sort of hostility towards his sister and her dreams of becoming a doctor. Could his hostility stem from jealousy? Jealousy that Beneatha is determined and on track to becoming successful, while he is stuck serving and chauffeuring men around or is he just looking out for her by trying to prepare her for failure?

Two reoccurring themes that immediately took my notice in Act II, scene i were having dreams/ambitions and the subject of money. The theme of dreams is present in almost every character, especially Beneatha. Beneatha has dreams of becoming a successful doctor and is pursuing such by going to college and preparing for medical school. This dream of which is constantly criticized by her brother, Walter. An important dream that Beneatha had in Act II, scene i is to not be an assimilationist. She shows how just anti-assimilationist she truly strives to be on page 80,

“(Beneatha looks at him and slowly, ceremoniously lifts her hands and pulls off the headdress. Her hair is close-cropped and unstraightened. GEORGE freezes mid-sentence and Ruth’s eyes all but fan out of her head)

GEORGE. What in the name of—

RUTH. (Touching Beneatha’s hair). Girl, you done lost your natural mind!? Look at your hair!

GEORGE. What have you done to your head—I mean your hair!

BENEATHA. Nothing—except cut it off.” (2.1.8-18).

Beneatha in an act of rebellion cuts her hair and leaves it natural, this act is directly against the idea that black women should try to assimilate and be like a white woman in every way possible including their hair. Even now in 2019, black women are still shamed for their natural hair, people call it “nappy” just as Ruth did. All black women just as Beneatha so boldly displayed, should be able to be themselves whether that means natural hair or not.

Another character that has dreams of being successful is Walter. Not only does the theme of dreams occur within his character, but also the second them I would like to discuss and that is, money. Walter is seemingly obsessed with the matter of money in Act II, scene i, he brings up Mama’s insurance check almost every chance he gets. He seems the most excited, but the money does not even belong to him (although he would like to think so). He dreams of opening up a liquor store with one of his friends to make more money and become successful for his family. Although Walter seems to have good intentions, he tends to take his frustrations out on his family, especially Ruth. Walter has been unhappy lately with his life and everyone has noticed, he is excited about the check coming in hopes that Mama would help him in his business, come to find out Mama has other plans. Another person not actually obsessed with money, has a large amount of responsibility with it is Mama. The theme of money is especially prevalent towards the end of the scene, when the check finally comes and Mama has to make some big decisions. Come to find out at the end, Mama decided to but her family a house with the check.

The big questions I had at the end of this scene that I think that you guys should think about are: Is Walter justified in his anger towards his mother for buying a house with the check? And: Are Ruth and Walter’s marital problems to be blamed on money or is there something deeper within Walter going on? If so, what do you think that is?

Before starting A Raisin in The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, I knew nothing about this play. I didn’t read the back of the book, I didn’t hear anyone talk about it, I had no context to the book other than the few shorts words we had in class. The initial thought I had when I opened the book and saw the picture was this- there is a colored family, all surrounded by an older woman, the family didn’t seem poor nor wealthy, they just seemed to be an average middle-class family. The picture was in black and white, so the time period must have been before colored pictures. On the next page it says, To Mama: In gratitude for the dream. This statement implies that the book is to a character named Mama and there is an appreciative factor towards her. From this statement, we already feel a sense of joy towards Mama. Within the next couple pages is the poem by Langston Hughes. After reading the poem a couple of times out loud, it is easy to understand that the poem foreshadows a problem with an obstacle. However deeper within the poem, the reader will understand more to the story. The second line says, “Does it dry up” …into the next line that says, “Like a raisin in the sun”, in these two sentences the poem is already starting off at a low point because usually a grape would turn into a raisin in the sun, but what would a raisin turn into in the sun? The grape is the full-bodied, healthy raisin but a raisin is a shriveled up, dehydrated grape. These lines create a feeling that once your already so low what is there to happen, will you move on and “explode” like at the end of the poem or will you just die into nothing. So, the tone at the start of the play is already at a solemn sort of grim stage, but there also is a factor of mysteriousness as to what will happen.

Through Act I, most of the characters are introduced. Each character has unique qualities that challenge each other’s thoughts and lives. What I found interesting was the contrasting personalities of Beneatha (or Bennie) and her mother Lena (aka Mama). The two characters are constantly having different view points on a matter. It seems as if Lorraine Hansberry had created a character to challenge the perspectives of Mama. When Bennie is introduced on the seventeenth page of the book, she is described as more modern and educated then the rest of the family. She has wild ambitions and is intended on accomplishing them. When reading through the scenes with Bennie and Mama, you feel a sort of similarity between them in that they both have or had large ambitions. However, Mama is just more realistic in the thought process of her goals. Bennie almost has a child-like personality because of the dreams she aspires to accomplish, even though she is twenty years old. Bennie has many dreams she wants to accomplish while Mama just wants to have a good life for her and her family. Lorraine Hansberry wrote the book as if to be seen as Bennie was Mama when Mama was Bennies age. Bennie wants to be able to express herself in new ways such as playing the guitar. Since the time period is around the 1950s/1960s, it is during the time period right after the famous case of Board vs Education naming it unconstitutional for students to be separated in school by the color of their skin. So, it is evident that this has influence Bennie to be whoever she wants to be and express herself in anyways she wants. Mama sadly did not have that right like Bennie does, so Mama somewhat understands her desire to play the guitar. There is a mutual loving relationship between the two, but at the same time Beneatha constantly challenges the authority of Mama.

For the next Act in the Raisin in the Sun, I ask myself: Will Beneatha be able to fully accomplish one of her dreams in her life, or will she end up like Mama- not being able to successfully be what she wants to be? I also ask myself: How will Mama wisely use her money?

Hi everyone! My name is Ariana but I go by Ana. I am from Rochester, New York and am a Junior here at SUNY Cortland. I am a Business Economics major with a computer applications minor. Some of my favorite hobbies are dancing, listening to music, and exploring new places. This summer I am planning on traveling to Italy with a couple of my friends. We plan to stay for a couple of weeks which will be so fun! Thanks for reading my blog!!!

Hi guys! I signed up on Wednesday evening due to some transfer issues so I’m late to the party. I’m an English major, a Jersey girl, and vegan (yes, I like to talk about it a lot and I would love to answer any questions or be your mentor). I surf, my favorite show is The Walking Dead and my dream job was to be a paleontologist. I chose the next best thing – to be a writer – so that I could write about dinosaurs because I don’t have the credentials to excavate or study them. I love to read non-fiction and textbooks in general because knowledge is truly power.

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