A Raisin in the Sun: Addresses African-American Personal and Collective Identity in the 1950s
A pervasive generation gap separates Mama and Beneatha in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. A Raisin in the Sun addresses African-American personal and collective identity in the 1950s, a time of turbulent change for race relations in the country. Therefore, Mama and Beneatha represent a shift in social and cultural values with respect to both racial and gender identity. Mama represents traditional gender roles and family values, and also pursues the American Dream with enthusiasm. Her desire to purchase a new, large family home embodies her value system of assimilation into the dominant culture. Her daughter Beneatha struggles against what she feels is an outmoded value system for both African-Americans and for women. Beneatha rebels against Mama's American Dream in several ways. She rejects the ideal of a family and desires self-fulfillment far more than she wants to become a wife and mother. Similarly, Beneatha rejects the idea that African-Americans should conform to the dominant culture's version of history and proudly proclaims their African heritage through her choice of boyfriends and her goals in life. Because of the generation gap, Mama and Beneatha remain nearly opposite to each other in terms of their worl
Beneatha, on the other hand, emerges as a strong, independent woman whose ideas regarding gender are opposite to her mothers. First, Beneatha is not interested in being with a man like George Murchison only for his money and his ability to support a wife and family. In fact, Beneatha rejects the value of being a housewife at all, a value that completely contradicts that of her parents. Beneatha is sexually bold, interested in dating more than in settling down. She does not believe that the only destiny of a woman is to become a wife and mother and wants to attend medical school not so she can meet a future husband but so she can improve herself. Similarly, she had taken up the guitar as a means to improve herself and forge a personal identity different from that of traditional gender roles. Regarding race and ethnic identity, Mama and Beneatha also differ significantly, appearing at times at opposite ends of a political spectrum. However, Mama exhibits a remarkable willingness to learn and grow throughout A Raisin in the Sun, mostly due to her daughter's influence. For example, Mama stands up to the emphatic Mrs. Johnson by calling Booker T. Washington a fool, the same word that Beneatha used to describe George Murchison. dviews, their belief systems, and their philosophies of life. Home and house are poignant symbols in A Raisin in the Sun, representing the physical entity that ties the family together. Mama focuses more on the house as a primary object of change, whereas Beneatha focuses more on changing her psyche and inner self. Yet both Mama's and Beneatha's core dreams are similar: self-improvement. For Mama, improving their home would automatically mean improving the self, the family, and their shared identity. She believes that a bigger house would represent the fulfillment of their dreams
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Approximate Word count = 1223
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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