a raisin in the sun play by lorraine hansberry

After much wavering and vacillating, the Youngers decide to continue with their plans to move - in spite of their financial reversals and in spite of their having been warned by a weak representative of the white neighborhood that blacks are not welcome. Hansberry explores controversial issues like abortion (which was illegal in 1959), the value of marriage, and morphing gender roles for women and men. One of Walter Lee's prospective business partners, however, runs off with the money, a loss which tests the spiritual and psychological mettle of each family member. A Raisin in the Sun anticipates the massive changes in gender relations principally, the rise of feminism and the Sexual Revolution that would transform American life in the 1960s. He immediately invests it secretly in his liquor store scheme, believing that he will perhaps quadruple his initial investment. In an attempt to make things right between herself and her son, Mama entrusts Walter Lee with the rest of the money. When Mama decides to use part of the money as a down payment on a house in a white neighborhood, her conflict with Walter escalates and causes her deep anguish. Minor conflicts erupt over their disagreements. The mother objects mainly for ethical reasons she is vehemently opposed to the idea of selling liquor. Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, a play about a struggling Black family, which opened on Broadway to great success.

Beneatha read analysis of Beneatha Younger. A twenty-year-old college student with dreams of becoming a doctor, Beneatha is as slim and intense as her brother, with an intellectual face. The son, Walter Lee Younger, is so desperate to be a better provider for his growing family that he wants to invest the entire sum in a liquor store with two of his friends. Nicknamed Bennie, Beneatha is Mama’s daughter and Walter Lee’s younger sister. When the play opens, Mama, the sixty-year-old mother of the family, is waiting for a $10,000 insurance check from the death of her husband, and the drama will focus primarily on how the $10,000 should be spent. This play tells the story of a lower-class black family's struggle to gain middle-class acceptance.

A raisin in the sun play by lorraine hansberry