Beneatha In A Raisin In The Sun

The reformation of civilization’s thoughts and discrimination has changed over the years from the culture of every ethnicity or race. Every person no matter the race has some sort of cultural tradition that has been past down from generation to generation. In the play “Raisin in The Sun” the character Beneatha has a difficult time trying to find herself. Beneatha struggles with cultural identity, finding herself, and achieving her dreams.

In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha is an empowered young woman whose dreams are more significant than life. Beneatha is not an actual name, but it still has a more profound significance. Hansberry creates this name to show society’s perception of Beneath in contrast to her perception of herself. Everyone around her wants to dim her light and make her more petite than she wants to be. Beneatha has had her mind set on being a doctor forever.

In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun follows the struggles of an African American family living in a neighborhood in 1950s South Side Chicago. The play discusses several issues pertaining to African Americans of the time, such as poverty and discrimination. One of the major themes of the story is the search for a sense of belonging; whether that’s a sense of belonging to the continent of Africa, a neighborhood in Chicago, or on a personal level within the Younger family. The play explores this theme through its characters Beneatha, Mama and Walter.

“A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, was the first play ever produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and was considered ground-breaking for it’s time. Titled after Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” the play and the subsequent film adaptations are honest examinations of race, family, poverty, discrimination, oppression and even abortion in urban Chicago after WWII. The original play was met with critical praise, including a review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times where he wrote, “For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate. Not having any axe to grind, Miss Hansberry has a wide range of topics to write about-some of them hilarious, some of them painful in the extreme.” The original screen adaptation released in 1961 was highly acclaimed in its own right, and was chosen in 2005 for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.

In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.

Every individual symbol has its own unique and distinct traits that have its resemblance to different aspects of life. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin In The Sun, many symbols and themes were introduced which held a significant meaning and value to the play. One key symbol that was significant in this play was Beneatha’s hair, which represented many aspects of the Youngers day to day life, especially of Beneatha’s whose character trait and personality developed alongside this symbol throughout the play. One way Beneatha’s hair represents Beneatha in this play is how it contains aspects such as assimilation and change, which correspond to Beneatha’s personality in the beginning of the book very well. The scene that represents this begins with the Youngers cleaning their apartment and doing

The 1950s were oppressive and degrading towards the culture and identity of African Americans. This principle is especially personified through the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. As a black female author in this time period, she was easily able to capture the racism and forced stereotypes poignant within the lives of the minorities. Beneatha, a fictional character in the play, represents the ambitious and suppressed black female intellectual who is stripped of her identity at every turn. The men in her life are as different as black and white, and in essence that is what they are.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play which contains many different obstacles that the characters face. One character, Beneatha, faces an obstacle that is out of her control. This obstacle is gender inequality. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, gender inequality is experienced by Beneatha and reflects the struggles women faced in the 1950s. One of the issues that Beneatha faces in the play is her relationships with two men in her life, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai.

At the end of the play Beneatha is considering marrying Asagai and moving with him to Nigeria to practice medicine. Asagai’s dream is that Beneatha will become an African woman. He wants her to wear her hair natural and listen to African music. Asagai also wants her to marry him and move back with him to Africa.

Beneatha’s quest to find her identity is a prominent theme throughout Act

No one ever stays the same forever. This is shown in Beneatha Younger in “A Raisin in the Sun”. Beneatha is a young black women, who faces challenges everyday. She is a students at a college and dreams to be a doctor but no one else seems to believe in her. This makes her try harder and makes her change the way she thinks.

While her family goes through difficult times after Walter Sr. has passed away, Beneatha faces many challenges. Beneatha, a resilient young woman, must try to find herself while overcoming the ridicule of others and being treated like a child, not a mature adult in the Younger’s family. Chicago in the 1950’s was also a difficult time for African Americans to face. Dealing with discrimination, segregation, and less opportunities as

A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period.

Reader Response: 3 “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.