What is the main conflict in A Raisin in the Sun?

Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the Youngers: a Black family living in poverty in Chicago's south side. The play features many conflicts, both internal and external, but the primary conflicts are the Youngers' struggles with financial hardship and racism.

The Youngers live in a dilapidated apartment in a poor neighborhood. The apartment only has two bedrooms and is home to four adults and a child. It is falling apart, as is the furniture in it. The Youngers dream of having a nicer home and better lives. Walter is unhappy with his job as a limousine driver. Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Lena has always dreamed of owning a house.

Lena receives a $10,000 life insurance payment after her husband's death. It seems that there is hope for the family to realize its dreams. Lena gives much of the money to Walter to invest in a liquor store with his friends, with the stipulation that he put aside $3,000 for Beneatha's schooling. Walter gives all of the money to his friend, including Beneatha's share, and his friend flees with it. Lena is able to make a down payment on a house with some of the remaining money.

The Youngers face racism and prejudice when attempting to buy a home in a White neighborhood. Their future neighbors send a man named Karl Lindner to offer them a large sum of money to not move into their neighborhood. Walter initially plans to accept the offer, but the Youngers ultimately decide to move to their new home in spite of their unwelcome reception by their new neighbors.

What conflicts does Ruth experience in A Raisin in the Sun?

As a person who has married into the Younger family, Ruth tries to get along with everyone. She has a pleasant temperament and tries to be the peacemaker in the family, but she unavoidably faces conflict with the others. However, the central conflict that Ruth faces through the course of the play is internal. In the first act, it is revealed that she is pregnant. Although she had been trying to hide this fact, after she faints in front of Lena, her mother-in-law, she can no longer do so. Primarily because of the family’s precarious financial situation, she is contemplating terminating the pregnancy. Although she does not say this out loud, Lena understands that she is considering it and, as a devout Christian, voices her strong opposition.

In trying to maintain a calm atmosphere, Ruth is constantly thwarted by Walter and Beneatha, who have very different world views. Ruth wants to support her husband, but she also realizes that he goads his sister. Trying to play the mediator places Ruth in conflict with both of them.

Ruth is also frequently in conflict with Walter. Where she is calm, he is volatile; where she is steady, he tends to be erratic. One area of conflict is his ideas about business, including his expectation of using his mother’s insurance money and the men he plans to have as partners.

Which conflicts are resolved and which remain unresolved in A Raisin in the Sun?

Conflicts Resolved: Lena and her family will move into their larger, more comfortable home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park. Ruth and Walter Jr.'s relationship also seems to be healed now that Walter Jr. has a new outlook on life and Ruth will be moving into a newer home. Walter Jr.'s self-hatred and depression have also come to an end now that he has decided to do the right thing by not selling Lena's home to Mr. Lindner.

Unresolved Conflicts: Hansberry leaves the plight and future of the Younger family unresolved at the end of the play. The audience does not know if the Younger family enjoys their new life in the white neighborhood or suffers from discrimination and threats of violence. Beneatha's conflicts are also left unresolved, as the audience is left to wonder about whether or not she decides to move to Africa with Joseph Asagai or continues to date George Murchison. The audience is also left to wonder if Walter Jr. finds a fulfilling job that will allow the Youngers to stay in their new home in Clybourne Park.

What conflicts emerge in the play A Raisin in the Sun?

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 as she tries various hobbies. She wants to be able to express herself honestly, and she wishes to become a doctor and be independent. She wrestles with trying to assimilate into a white world as she straightens her hair. She feels some pressure to marry into money, but she does not love George Murchison, and she is conflicted about marrying Asagi and going to Africa with him. 

Walter is dissatisfied with his job as a chauffeur. He would like to be more self-directed and to be able to provide for his family. But he is also selfish because he wants to get rich quickly by investing a large part of his father's insurance money in a liquor store.
When his so-called friend runs off with his money, Walter feels terrible, but he decides that he must be the man of the family.

Ruth is very disappointed in life: "Life has been little that she expected." She wrestles with whether or not she should have an abortion, because she and Walter cannot support themselves and their son Travis now.

Lena (Mama) is the matriarch of the family and is a strong woman who struggles to maintain her belief in traditional values, which go against many of the things her children do and say. But she reminds herself of how her husband always lived for his children and how, when he was exhausted and mentally worn out, he replenished his soul at home through his joy in his children.

Person vs. Person 

Walter/ Beneatha: Walter comes into conflict with all the other characters. In fact, his words to others are said to always be like an "indictment." As he and Beneatha argue, he tells her,

WALTER: I don't want nothing but for you to stop acting holy 'round here. Me and Ruth done made some sacrifices for you. Why can't you do something for the family?

Walter/Ruth: Their marriage has problems, and they are financially strapped, having to live with Mrs. Younger. Walter complains that Ruth "couldn't be on my side" many times. Poor Ruth just replies, "Walter, please leave me alone" when he seeks her support for his idea of buying a liquor store with another man, because she is pragmatic and he is more of a dreamer.

Mama/Beneatha: As an educated person, Beneatha perceives herself as a modern woman, and, as such, she rejects some of her mother's cultural values. Mrs. Younger becomes particularly upset when Beneatha displays her lack of faith in God and her hostility toward her brother. Beneatha's irresponsible expenditure of the family's money on new hobbies puts an unnecessary burden on the entire Younger family.

Mama/Walter: Walter greatly disappoints his mother when he loses thousands of dollars on his business venture when his so-called friend absconds with the money Lena gave him. Her faith is further tested when Walter argues that the family should take the bribe from Mr. Lindner, but when the man comes to their house, Walter speaks for the family and refuses the money.

Person vs. Society

The Younger family refuses to be intimidated by Mr. Lindner, and they move to a white neighborhood.

The most obvious conflict is that of racism and prejudice.  The Youngers are a black family moving into a white neighborhood.  The neighbors try to pay them to move away and then resort to threats.

There is also conflict with Beneatha wanting to be a doctor and the cost of her school.  She believes she deserves the money more than anyone else for her education.

Other family members have ideas about how to spend the money as well, so there is the conflict of the money and how to spend it.

Walter takes the money for a "get rich quick" scheme and gets conned out of it.  He takes away the conflict of how to spend the money and replaces it with how will they afford the new house in addition to their resentment of him and his stupidity.

Beneatha also suffers from the internal conflict of whether or not marry her African boyfriend and move away from her family and all that is familiar and safe.

What are two main conflicts in A Raisin in the Sun and their causes?

A principal conflict in A Raisin in the Sun is that between Walter and Beneatha, on one side, and their mother, Lena. Both wish to be released from parental control, though for different reasons. With Beneatha it is mostly a question of intellectual independence. When she expresses skepticism about religion, Lena slaps her face and forces her to repeat, "In my mother's house there is still God." Beneatha tries also to connect with her African heritage and gets no support from the family. Walter wants to be released too, but from having to submit himself to the ethic by which he must work at a menial, under-paying job and give up the ambition to do anything more because it would be too much of a risk to the family to do so.

These problems cause the arguments among Lena, Walter, and Beneatha. Beneatha resents her mother's dominance not only about religion but also about the older generation's requirement that she sacrifice herself and her own will for the traditional role a woman is supposed to play. Walter similarly doesn't want to play the compliant breadwinner for the family and sacrifice his goals. The Youngers are crushed when Walter's friend Willie disappears with the money Walter has given him to invest, and this further undermines Walter's standing in the family.

The second explanation for conflict lies, of course, in the racial society that is the background of the story. The Youngers, knowing that their different dreams are being short-circuited by the discriminatory world they live in, express their frustration to each other. Lena is seen by her children as naive for using the insurance money to buy a house in a white neighborhood. Of the Youngers, Beneatha is the one least surprised at the white man from the "welcoming committee" who tries to buy them out of the new house.

All of these conflicts are interrelated. The racism and bigotry of US society in the 1950s are an obstacle to the individual dreams of each member of the family, dreams that in an equal society would, of course, not be impeded by one's race. The play is a demonstration of a family overcoming those obstacles and triumphing in spirit.

In A Raisin in the Sun, which conflicts are resolved and which remain unresolved?

This is a fascinating question to consider, and you would benefit from analysing the number of conflicts the play presents us with and considering to what extent (if at all) those conflicts are resolved by the end of the play. One conflict that certainly does reach a resolution is the conflict between Mama and Walter. Consider what Walter says to his mother after she buys the house:

What you need me to say you done right for? You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to. It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. So what you need for me to say it was all right for?

It was this challenge that made Mama relinquish her authority as head of the household and give it to Walter, giving him the rest of the money to do with as he saw fit. This also, in spite of how Walter loses the money, inspires him to follow in his father's footsteps and become a man in his rejection of Mr. Lindner's offer.

However, one conflict that is definitely not ended is the biggest conflict of all in the play: the animosity between whites and blacks. Although the Younger family are going to move into their house in a white neighbourhood, this is by no means the end of the play, and the rejection of Mr. Lindner's offer will be something that will antagonise their white neighbours and will clearly lead to an intensification of this central conflict in the future of the Younger family. This conflict is deliberately left open, establishing the way in which the Younger's decision to move was actually an act of bravery.