A Raisin in the Sun

In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows how large-scale, impersonal forces such as poverty and institutionalized racism impact individuals and relationships. Ruth and Walter live in a...

In some ways, the play ends happily for the Younger family. Walter, who has considered accepting a bribe from a white homeowners' association in exchange for not moving to a new neighborhood,...

The significance of the play's ending reveals the Younger family's motivation to overcome obstacles and strive to attain their dreams, despite experiencing the racial prejudice that has hampered so...

As was mentioned in the previous post, Walter criticizes George for his attire and education before George takes Beneatha on a date. As George is leaving, he says, "Good night, Prometheus!"...

Walter and Mama disagree about what to do with the insurance money that the Younger family will inherit. Walter wants to open a liquor store, while Mama is totally opposed to the idea. Mama wants...

In the Younger family, Walter Jr. and Beneatha (Bennie) are siblings; he is her older brother. Both are adults: he is 35 and she is 20. As the only two children in the family, they are very close...

Among other things, the plant could be said to represent the love that Mama has for her family. She cares for the plant just as she cares for her children, nurturing it in the hope that it will...

The dream deferred in Langston Hughes's famous poem is the dream of an America where there will be true equality among the races and where African Americans, specifically, will no longer be...

Walter Lee Younger experiences the most significant change throughout the course of the play. At the beginning of the play, Walter is an exhausted, depressed dreamer, who is tired of working as a...

In A Raisin in the Sun, Ruth and Walter Younger are a married couple in their thirties. They live in a small apartment with Walter's mother and his sister Beneatha, and Ruth and Walter's son...

Beneatha says she is not an assimilationist while she is talking with Joseph Asagai, a Nigerian exchange student. Arriving at her home, he brings her "the colorful robes of a Nigerian woman" and...

Walter Lee Younger is the man of the Younger house and the protagonist of A Raisin in the Sun. Most descriptions of him refer to his ambitious ideas and preoccupation with financial independence....

As was mentioned in the previous post, George Murchinson and Joseph Asagai come from opposite backgrounds and have drastically different personalities throughout the play. George Murchinson comes...

A good thesis statement would relate to one of the key thematic aspects of this play, which is dreams and their importance to the characters. It is very obvious from the early scenes in the play...

Mama is deeply religious (as demonstrated by her heavy-handed philosophical clashes with Beneatha), and she looks down upon drinking as a vice that makes one focus on the pleasures of the...

George Murchison is one of Beneatha's suitors. He is wealthy and charismatic, and he believes in traditional gender roles. He doesn't like it when Beneatha acts in ways that don't align with what...

The 1961 movie version of A Raisin in the Sun is very close to Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play, but the main difference is that the movie allows the story to leave the confines of the dimly lit,...

At the end of A Raisin in the Sun, Mama says this of Walter as she is speaking with Ruth and is just about to leave their old apartment for their new house. She is referring to Walter's maturation,...

Although Lorraine Hansberry's celebrated play A Raisin in the Sun is set in the 1950s, there are multiple themes and situations explored that are still relevant in today's society. One of the...

When Walter Younger, Sr. was alive, he and his wife Lena moved into a small apartment and dreamed of one day buying a house. As the family grew and Walter, Jr. married, his wife, Ruth, joined them...

Both Langston Hughes’ "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)" and Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun" focus on the effect of racism on African-Americans. In both cases, the focus of the authors is not...

At the beginning of the play, Lena Younger and her family anxiously wait to receive a ten thousand dollar check from her husband's life insurance payout. Lena's husband, Walter Sr., has recently...

In the play, Walter is depicted as a dreamer. He is upset with his current situation and desperately wants to use his mother's insurance check to start a liquor business with two of his friends....

This question has previously been answered. Here is a link for you: http://www.enotes.com/raisin-in-the-sun/q-and-a/what-conflicts-do-you-see-emerging-play-46731

In Lorraine Hansberry's classic play A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee Younger is employed as Mr. Arnold's chauffeur. Walter is portrayed as a vibrant, enthusiastic man with massive dreams of one day...

In act two, scene three, the entire Younger family is in a joyful mood as they prepare to move into their new home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park. After a brief meeting with Mr....

Beneatha is portrayed as a rather fickle, mercurial young woman, who is interested in both George Murchinson and Joseph Asagai. When Lena and Ruth initially begin inquiring about Beneatha's...

The dialogue in A Raisin in the Sun uses numerous figures of speech that are commonly found in everyday speech. Lorraine Hansberry incorporates this type of figurative language to make the...

One way to approach character motivation is to think about the rhetorical meaning or thematic significance of the character's wants and desires. The conflict of A Raisin in the Sun centers around...

The Younger family's new home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park symbolizes Lena's personal dream, significant social mobility, and hope for the family. When Lena receives her husband's...

Money plays a significant role for the characters in A Raisin in the Sun. The beginning of the play revolves around the Youngers being about to receive a $10,000 check from Mr. Younger's life...

Lorraine Hansberry challenges stereotypes of African American people in the play by making the characters people rather than caricatures and by giving them qualities that stereotypical African...

In A Raisin in the Sun, Ruth Younger is an important character. She is the mother of Walter's son. Travis will carry on the family name. Also, Ruth is expecting Walter's next child. Life goes on...

In A Raisin in the Sun, Joseph and George Murchison can be seen as symbolic characters, each representing a different set of values and a different mode of identity. In choosing between these two...

My answer will refer to the earliest film version, from 1960, of A Raisin in the Sun. What strikes one is how closely the film recreates the play. This should not be surprising, given that this...

As in most families, the relationships between the characters of Walter, Ruth, Travis, Beneatha, and Mama are complicated. They are often tense and difficult even though by the end, it is clear...

For Ruth, Mama’s announcement that she has bought a house is one of the first bursts of optimism in a long time. Consider her body language upon hearing the news: She laughs joyously, having...

It is not too surprising that mother and daughter are in opposition a bit in this play. The mother/daughter conflict exists in most of humanity. In A Raisin in the Sun, Mama’s dreams only conflict...

Overall, Ruth’s relations with the other family members are very good. Lena is the family matriarch and the mother of Walter, but she and Ruth generally get along as a mother and daughter would....

Mama Younger is very spiritual. In her house, there is still God. Even though Beneatha has the courage to deny God's existence, in Mama's house, she comes to her senses when Mama slaps her across...

In A Raisin in the Sun, the tone is somber, depressing yet realistic. The Younger family lives in a segregated Chicago neighborhood. The apartment is worn from too many people living in it: The...

This is a play which does not have any obvious central character. Rather, Hansberry chooses to focus equally on the four main characters, Beneatha, Walter, Ruth and Mama, exploring their different...

As was mentioned in the previous post, dramatic irony is when the audience knows more about a situation than a character or actor. In Act One, Scene 2, Beneatha criticizes her mother for not...

Mrs. Johnson is depicted as the Younger family's nosy, jealous neighbor who briefly visits their apartment to see how Lena and the family are handling their recent fortune. When Mrs. Johnson stops...

The primary similarities between Walter Younger and Beneatha Younger are that these African Americans are siblings who live with their widowed mother in a small apartment in Chicago. Both are...

Starting with Hansberry's own description of Mama in Act One, Mama is a strong character, "a woman who has adjusted to many things in life and overcome many more." Mama has dealt with many...

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is set between 1939 and 1959. Hansberry does not pick a specific date for the play to suggest that the dilemmas that the Younger family face are ongoing...

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a drama that contains the conflicts of Person vs. Self, Person vs. Person, and Person vs. Society. Person vs. Self Beneatha struggles with her identity...

The conflict of George attempting to change Beneatha into a passive, quiet young lady is resolved when Beneatha refuses to kiss him and ends their brief relationship. At the beginning of act two,...

Mama and Walter are at odds and struggle to see eye-to-eye on how to spend the insurance check of ten thousand dollars. In the play, Mama is depicted as a religious, traditional woman who simply...