Factors that Impact on Life in “Raisin in the Sun”

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A “Raisin in the Sun” is mainly about dreams, it shows how the main character’s effort to understand and comprehend with the overbearing factors that impact their lives. The title of the play implies a theory that Langston Hughes adequately wrote in the poem; he wrote about the dreams that were abandoned or never given attention to. He’s curious to know if those dreams ever shrink like a “Raisin in the Sun”. Every individual in the Younger family has a different dream.

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For example, Beneatha’s dream is to become a doctor and Walter wants enough money so that he can fulfill his family’s necessities. The Younger family have a hard time to achieve these dreams in the entire play, their happiness and depression is associated to the achievement or failure of their dreams. In the end they learn that a house is crucial because it brings the family together.

In the play racial discrimination is an outstanding problem throughout the play.

Mr. Linder’s character shows racial discrimination towards the Younger family, which they can’t ignore. The guiding figure of the Younger’s new neighborhood, the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, send Mr. Linder to advise them not to go into an all-white area. Mr. Linder and the individuals he spoke for, saw the Younger family’s skin color, and what he used to bribe the family to stop them from moving in would impact the family and the beliefs they stand for. In the end the Youngers answer to the discrimination with contempt and courage.

The play shows that the only way to deal with discrimination is to stand up to it and acknowledge an individual’s self-respect upfront rather than letting it go. The Younger family have a hard time both socially and economically in the whole play, but they come together in the end and recognize their dream of having a house. Mama greatly understands the value of family, she wants to develop this among her family as she has a hard time to keep them together and working. Walter and Beneatha understand this teaching about family towards the end of the play, when Walter must manage the damage of the stolen insurance money, and Beneatha refuses Walter as a brother. Even though they were facing such hardships, they all came together to deny Mr. Linder’s racist suggestion. All of them are strong individuals, but now they are individuals who are part of a family that works together. When all of them started putting the family’s dream first before their own dreams, they united their own dreams with the family’s overall dream.

Tone is the writer’s or speaker’s approach for the subject. Stage direction with punctuation in the text helps readers understand the tone of a character in a specific scenario. For example, in act 2 scene 1, George come to take Beneatha to the theatre who was dressed in an elegant native African dress; George comments that “They’re going to the theatre, they’re not going to be in it”. George, being the rich imperious person, he is, hints from his tone that Beneatha should change her clothes, so that he isn’t embarrassed with her. In the last scene, Walter is having a conversation with Mr. Linder if they will take the house or not, Walter tells Travis to go into a different room Mama urges him not to leave she says; “(opening up her eyes and looking into Walter’s) No Travis, you stay right here. And you make him understand what you are doing. Walter Lee, you teach him good. You show were our five generation have done to come here. (Walter looks from her to the boy, who grins innocently)”. This scene would not show the tension between Mama and Walter if there wasn’t any stage direction. We know that they make eye contact so that Walter knows how serious Mama is. The involvement of Travis’s innocence makes readers understand the reason for Walter’s action.

The Raisin in the Sun is a climatic form, it is climatic form because this play has concise narrative that concentrates on less characters in fewer locations. This play has only a few characters that it focuses on, and the play revolves around them. In this play the structure comes together during the climax, which is usually done during a climatic form. The climatic form usually has a cause and effect scenario; for example, Mr. Linder was showing racial discrimination towards the Younger family the effect was that at the end the Younger family stood against him.

In “A Raisin in the Sun” the complication is that the Younger family, who are a middle to lower class family that are facing various problems like racism and economic struggle. When Mr. Younger passes away, a 10-thousand-dollar insurance check came, and everyone has their own idea of what to do with the money. The climax in this play is that when their going-to-be neighbors find out that they are a black family moving in next door. They do their best to bribe them to send them away, by sending Mr. Linder from Clybourne Park Improvement Association to persuade them. The crisis in this play was that Walter lost the rest of the money. The money that was going to be used for the family he lost it to his “friend” Willy Harris who took their money and left; which Walter wanted to use for a liquor store.

This play many characters and each of them individually are very different from each other. The characters are Walter Young, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha, Travis, Asagai, and Mr. Linder.

Walter Young, son of Mama and father of Travis. He is known as the “man of the house,” a fierce man in his thirties, who is not satisfied with life. His job is as a chauffer for a high-rich white man, his son sleeps on the couch, and the mother needs to work in others kitchen if they don’t have enough money. He wants to achieve his dreams of having a business and giving his family a better life, he wants to use his father’s insurance money for a liquor store. It wasn’t his decision to say what to do with the money. Walter disagrees with his mom and wife, about the insurance money, and says they can’t understand his dreams of getting a better life. After Mama does the down payment for the house, she gives the rest of the money to Walter and says to put it in the bank for Beneatha’s schooling, but Walter doesn’t do anything like that. Instead Walter loses all their money to his “friend”. Walter is now insulted and upset so he thinks to call Mr. Linder who made an offer to the family for them not to move into the white neighborhood. Once he met Mr. Linder, he decides not to take his money in trade for his dignity. He tells Mr. Linder that he will not take his money, they will be moving into the house because his father worked hard.

Ruth, the wife of Walter and mother of Travis. A pretty woman, who has a life that was tough since her youth. Walter and she have many disagreements with money, but she love him a lot and will do anything for him and the family. She’s willing to go through an abortion so that they don’t have a burden of another child. She has a strong relationship with Mama as seen she gives her support in everything and they tease Beneatha together. She has her motherly kindness towards her son and her mother-in-law, she is an independent working woman that sticks to her beliefs; she’s willing to work hard everyday to get the life she needs.

Mama is the backbone of the Younger family. She is an elderly black woman who had a hard life working for her family. She and her husband never wanted to stay in the apartment forever, they always dreamed of a house of their own to raise their children. It has been awhile since then and her husband passed-away leaving Mama with a 10-thousand-dollar check for her to do what she likes. Mama is very upset over the amount of the check because of ow much hard-work her husband put in his work to keep the family moving. Mama wanted to give her children and grandchildren a better life she put a down payment on a two-story house that was in a nice area, but a white neighborhood. She wanted to fulfill all her children’s dreams so she gave Walter the money to put in the bank, but when she found out Walter lost the money in the liquor scam, she has melt-down she starts hitting Walter and shaming him for losing the family money. Mama makes Travis see what his father is going to take from Mr. Linder, this is what makes Walter realize what he is doing is wrong. After Walter refuses the money, Mama gets ready to leave apartment and remembers all the memories she made, then she took her plant and was ready to go to her new house to make new memories.

Beneatha Younger, is the daughter of Mama and sister of Walter. She is a very understanding and motivated woman, in her twenties. She’s independent and has her whole future planned, by hoping to become a doctor even though it’s the 1960’s. Beneatha cares for an African college student named Asagai. To her he is the same and equal like her and they both have a connection to their African heritage. For him she is a lover, future wife, she cares for him in a romantic way, but can’t commit to him because he isn’t equal with her. Towards the end of the play when the money is lost, for her she felt like her future is gone, and there was no motivation for her to work because no “real” change could be made. Asagai and Beneatha have a bad argument over their future and the dreams of Africa. This is when Beneatha realizes she can be a doctor and be connected to her African heritage; she can go to Nigeria and practice medicine with Asagai. The argument brings them close as individuals, because they understand they can work together equally while loving each other.

Asagai is a young Nigerian college student who just had a trip to Canada. He has a close relationship with Beneatha, they would be together if he would just understand Beneatha better. He isn’t in the play as much as Beneatha, but his character develops throughout the play. During his and Beneatha’s argument he becomes very annoyed with how she is losing hope in herself, in humanity, and in Asagai; we see that he is planning to go back to his village to pass on the knowledge because there is no source of education there. He tells Beneatha that the world will always have bad people, it just depends on how they handle it either they sit and complain or make a difference. This brings hope to both, and they can see a better future for Africa.

Travis is a 10-year-old boy son of Walter and Ruth. He has no worries he’s living his life and uses phrases like “gaalee” and “whoopee”. The one thing he really worries about is his school caps instead of moving into a white neighborhood. He is interested in the insurance money just like everyone else in the family, but this is apparent because he doesn’t know why Mama is upset when the money is missing or what Willy Harris (the man who deceived Walter) did to his father. Travis is the motivation for his father, he is also the reason that his father realizes that accepting Mr. Linder conditions is wrong. He’s the reminder for his dad of “what kind of a father I will become”.

Mr. Linder is the only white character in the play. He is the negotiator that comes to the Younger Family’s apartment to bribe them from the Clybourne Park, the new place the Youngers must move. Even though he showed he was okay and calm while talking to the Youngers he was very uncomfortable. He is uncomfortable around any black person, it’s seen in the play when Ruth asks him if he wants coffee or a chair to sit he gets flustered when trying to answer or even his short comments towards them when Walter was speaking at the end of the play. Mr. Linder in all the scenes he had in the play showed racism that was in the 1960’s.