Struggles In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

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A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tells us a story about a struggling black family dealing with a move during the 1950s in Chicago. Lorraine Hansberry pinpoints the struggles this family was facing due to race, gender, and class. Being an African American family in the 1950s went through many hardships and they were segregated based on their economic standing. Even today we still face many problems with poverty . The problems of poverty and economic stature depicted in this story stands as an obstacle for their goals leading to a weakened lifestyle of an African American family.

In A Raisin in the Sun Walter is an example of one struggling to achieve their dream or ambitions. Walter, who firmly believes in the American Dream
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His father had died at the beginning of the play and it created space to get 10,000 dollars from his life insurance. Wanting to show his family that he was the man, he decided to take all of the money for himself. He did not realize that the money could be used to pursue one of their educatons. Beneatha wanted to go school to become a doctor. He states “Have we figured out yet just exactly how much medical school is going to cost?”(Hansberry Act One, Scene 1)He becomes a tad bit jealous that her younger sister is receiving all the money and he is not getting a dime. Hating where he was coming and decided that he needed to find his place and go with his gut, he took all the money that Beneatha would have used to get her education in becoming a doctor. Walter thought that Beneatha was selfish for trying to get the money all for herself but in reality he was greedy because of his lack of confidence and belief in others. He’s lack of confidence shows a little breakage …show more content…
In the story “mam says 'Cause it sounds respectable to 'em. Something white people get, too. They know 'bout the flu. Otherwise they think you been cut up or something when you tell 'em you sick. Ruth replied I got to go in. We need the money.”(Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun) The status of their life keeps Ruth from being a wife and forces her to take upon a supportive role in the household. On the contrary this forms Ruth in becoming a strong independent woman. Ruth always focuses on ways to keep the family in good shape and puts the family over herself. She is always picking up the slack for Walter who seems as though he is not that important in the

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