Sexism In A Raisin In The Sun

Throughout our history our society struggles with inequality. Sexism and racism still addresses like class, gender or other dominating classifications a structural problem in our United States culture. In Jean Baker Miller’s essay “Domination and Subordination” she discusses the temporary and permanent inequality. Miller states that the temporary inequality is a relationship between a dominated individual who explains and is a teacher to the subordinated individual. In contrast her explanation of the permanent inequality is the relationship of different individuals who always will be unequal.

In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions. Hansberry challenges the traditional gender roles and issues of dominance throughout the play when Mama gives Walter lee the rest of the money at the end of the play. He becomes all excited and was supposed to save some for himself and put the rest of the money to Beneatha 's education. Instead, he gave all that money to Willy another character in the play which later on that he stole from him.

Patricia Hill Collins matrix of domination is concerned with the pattern of intersecting systems of oppression orchestrated by the most elite organizations in society. According to Collins, the systems of oppression are organized through four interwoven domains of power; structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal (Patricia Hill Collins: Intersecting Oppressions, n.d.). The structural domain entails power and authority. In this domain the power players have ownership and control of the land, laws, religion, and the economy.

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.

In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter and Ruth have a personality that correlates to the traditional gender expectation. Walter has an abrupt nature, while Ruth is demure and quiet; the temperament of the two characters corresponds to a man expectation to be dominant and superior to women. Walter comments, “Don’t call it that. See there, that just goes to show you what women understand about the world. Baby, don’t nothing happen for you in this world ’less you pay somebody off!”

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.

Identity is who someone is as a person. People have different views of what identity is and what can be done to find it. Identity can be your actions and thoughts. It’s what makes someone unique and different from anyone else. The Bible has its own view of identity as well.

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

Beneatha dreams to be a doctor, which is a male-dominated profession. She says, “I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that!” (Hansberry 33). This shows her feminist attitude in the play when Beneatha takes a largely optimistic stance when facing troubles of entering a male-dominated profession, implying that she is a ‘non-conformist’. Additionally, Beneatha refuses to “just get married and be quiet” (Hansberry 22), as her chauvinistic brother, Walter Lee, expects her to be.

Throughout the 1950s, people of color have struggled with achieving their dreams due to the lack of equality that is portrayed in that specific time era. It has been a constant battle for equality for all races and genders over the course of time. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin In the Sun the character Beneatha struggles with her racial inequality, education, and gender stereotyping. These specific struggles are the blocks she deals with trying to achieve her dream.

She defies the ideal life for a woman and expresses her opinion loud and clear. Beneatha throughout the play finds herself and her African American roots. Walter does not approve of Beneatha’s hopes to become a doctor he tells her, “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. . .” (1.1.125) These social issues that the characters faced in their lives made them out to be the people that they were meant to be.

As a civil rights activist, Stokely Carmichael once said, “We are told,” If you work hard, you’ll succeed”- but if that were true, black people would own the country. We are oppressed because we are black- not because we are ignorant, not because we are lazy, not because we are stupid, but because we are black!” This quote is still relevant even to this day, blacks are still considered a minority and they get treated differently simply because of the color of their skin. People continue to treat others by the color of their skin rather than their character. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the interaction between the themes of race and dreams demonstrates that your race can affect the dreams that you have and what you choose to do about it.

Race, gender and class shape the experience of all people. Because of their simultaneity in people's lives we advocate using the approach of a "matrix of domination" to analyze race, class, and gender as different but interrelated axes of social structure. The matrix of domination or matrix of oppression is a sociological paradigm that explains issues of oppression that deal with race, class, and gender, which, though recognized as different social classifications, are all interconnected. This structural pattern affects individual consciousness, group interaction, and group access to institutional power and privileges. In the Disney movie, Aladdin, both status and gender affect positions in the matrix of domination, but an analysis of the

Whereas Ruth adheres to patriarchal standards, Beneatha rebels against them. Hansberry contrasts Ruth and Beneatha to study how their adherence affects their personal and social well-beings. Through her play, she suggests that opposing the patriarchy leads to a more positive mindset and more stable relationships. In conforming to patriarchal norms, Ruth fulfills the roles of homemaker and wife. In the first scene of the play, Ruth makes breakfast and tells her son Travis, “Sit down and have your breakfast,” signifying that she has embraced her role as mother (Hansberry 490).

Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family.