"A Raisin in the Sun"-The House and The Home

The Younger's apartment serves as a major symbol in Hansberry's play.  Within Act I, one can tell the apartment is symbolic of the family.  The apartment is falling apart and will not be able to support the family all together much longer.  Similarly, the family's structure is beginning to display "cracks".  The relationship between Walter and everyone else is slowly deteriorating.  Ruth has become indifferent, and Mama is surrounded by worries.  As much as they want to hide it, the cracks in the wall and the roaches on the floor do not lie: they cannot stay here much longer.   Likewise, the family will not last much longer in this condition either.  This presents Mama's main reason for purchasing the house.  "I--I just seen my family falling apart today...just falling to pieces in front of my eyes...We couldn't of gone on like we was today.  We was going backwards 'stead of forwards--talking 'bout killing babies and wishing each other was dead...When it get like that in life--you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger"  (Hansberry, 94).  From this, the reader concludes the family would not have survived if they had not moved.

"A Raisin in the Sun"-Something Wrong

Throughout the entirety of Hansberry's play, I was pondering why the characters's moods were not more solemn.  Why were they not sad?  Assuming the death was not too long ago because they are just now receiving the insurance check, the audience wonders why the family would not resurrect his memory more often and focus on the man rather on what the man left them.  Through the trials of the times, they (with the exception of Mama) lose sight of why they are getting the money in the first place: the death of the father.  The man, who is referred to as extremely hard-working, is little remembered for who he was rather for what he left in monetary terms.  The greedy attitudes, especially those of Beneatha (for her education) and Walter, present a foreign sentiment to the play.  Most surprisingly is the fact that they do not even seem to notice what they are doing: forgetting their father and his legacy in the search for financial security.  Asagai must point this out for Beneatha.  "Then isn't there something wrong in a house --in a world--where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death of a man? (Hansberry, 135).  In this, the audience learns that money is not this family's problem, it is the way they have chosen to lead their lives because of money that is the problem.    

"A Raisin in the Sun"-Money is...

To Mama and Ruth, money is a painful, but eternal aspect of life.  To Travis and Beneatha, money has yet to gain serious significance.  To Walter however, money is the source of all things.  "Mama: 'Son--how come you talk so much 'bout money' Walter: Because it is  life, Mama!'"  Most importantly, however, is that Hansberry uses money as a type of measurement of Walter's masculinity in A Raisin in the Sun.  Without it, Walter fails to see himself as the "Man of the House" that everyone so desperately wants him to be.
Money also is a major contributing factor to the generation gap that occurs between Walter and his mother.  Mama understands that it is necessary but does not fully grasp the tight hold it has on Walter's life.  His life and family revolve around it.  He needs a new house for his wife, needs to create a better future for his son, and needs to support his aging mother.  When the money finally presents itself, he can not but help to try and invest it to further improve his idea of a better life.  Hansberry reverts back to her reference of money as life when Ruth and Walter find out all of the money is gone.  "(RUTH stands stiffly and quietly in back of them, as though somehow she senses death, her eyes fixed on her husband)". (Hansberry, 126)  For them, money was symbolic of better, refreshing life.

"A Raisin in the Sun"-Allusion

"Maybe Prometheus is a nice fellow" (Hansberry, 86).

In her reference to Greek mythology, Hansberry makes an allusion to Prometheus.  Like Walter, many have very little knowledge of who Prometheus is.  The aspect most relevant to A Raisin in the Sun is Prometheus's punishment.  Zeus chained him to a rock and had an eagle eat his liver.  The liver would grow back each time so that Prometheus was left in eternal torture.  Walter feels trapped/chained to his life as well.  He works hard day in and day out only to figure out that the family is still impoverished.  On a wider scale, Walter also feels tormented that he will never live up to his father's memory, and therefore is constantly failing serving as an additional for of torment.  At this point in the play, the reader wonders if Walter can redeem himself or if he will continue to spiral out of control.  Bitterness and anger have overwhelmed his once innocent heart. 

"A Raisin in the Sun"-The Generation Gap.

Show how Raisin deals with the generation gap--the problems that the older generation has in dealing with the younger generation and vice versa. 

 

"In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too...Now here come you and Beneatha--talking 'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy.  You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done.  I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's streetcar--You my children--but how different we done become" (Hansberry, 74)

 

Lorraine Hansberry creates a great conflict between the generation of Mama and the generation of Walter and Ruth.  Mama does not understand how Ruth and Walter can be so unappreciative and fail to recognize what they do have versus what they do not.  Regarding Ruth and Walter's generation, there seems to be an abundance of self-perceived shame.  They hold little pride in the jobs they hold--even referring to themselves as "servants".  Walter abhors his job as a chauffeur and takes little appreciation in the fact that he has a job at all, as pointed out by Mama.  Because of this miniscule amount of pride, they seem to have difficulty being proud of anyone else.  For example, they chastise Beneatha for going after her dream of being a doctor instead of applaud her efforts.  Mama understands the amount of hard work it took to get the family where it is today, even if they are experiencing a rough patch.  Her husband, her parents, and ancestors wanted to create a better life for future generations.  Mama recognizes that this is a process that will take time.  Unfortunately, they will not be immediately gratified with the perfect life.  Though wise, Mama is incapable of seeing the large toll the times have taken on Ruth and Walter's generation that creates the high level of frustration.  They are working day in a day out and getting nowhere fast.  In the end, they eventually find that the middle ground of these two conflicts is where the resolution lies.