A Raisin In The Sun

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade September 2001

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A Raisin in the Sun, a realistic and thoughtful play written by Lorraine Hansberry""an African American author, clearly shows the struggle of African American for equality in the main stream society and how their dreams deferred while living under the pressure of prejudice and racism, particularly in the 1950's. In this play, Lorraine Hansberry talks about the life of an African American family""the Younger""to highlight the theme of this play by not only emphasizing the conflicts that the Younger is facing, but also the relationship between every member in the family. Among the five members in the family, the relationship between Mama, the family head, and her son""Walter""are the most conspicuous because of their personality differences, and the nature, forces as well as the changes of their relationship throughout the play, which usually brings about some of the major complications as the play moves along.

The personality of Walter and Mama are mostly different with each other, which always leads to many significant incidents in this play.

Walter is actually a responsible and typical man who wants to take care of his own family, especially his son, as a father. Although Walter always talks about investing money on a liquor store, and it seems that he wants to take all the money by himself, but in fact, what he really wants is not only to earn money for himself, but also to improve his family's life and living standard. For instance, when he is talking to Ruth about the investment on that liquor store in act one, he mentions how bad it is when his son has to sleep in a living room for so many years, and he wants to make some changes with that money so that his son can live more comfortable (34). Furthermore, he,