Mama is a strong, hard-working, and passionate woman in her mid sixties. She is full bodied and has white hair. “She is one of those women of a certain grace and beauty who wear it so unobtrusively that it takes a while to notice”(39) Her dream is to own a house where her and her family can live. She wants to have a backyard for her grandson travis to play in, she wants to have an area where she can garden, and she wants it to be big enough for the whole family to live comfortably. Her dream of having a house is motivated by her wish to make living conditions better for her family. She says, upon receiving the $10,000 insurance check “I spec if it wasn’t for you all… I would just put that money away or give it to the church or something.”(69)
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Now almost 40 years later, She is still living in the tiny apartment, but now with her two children and grandson. Although Mama takes very good care of the apartment it is still very small. “Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used scrubbed too often.” (24)The house represents everything Mama has worked for and everything holding her back.
The title A Raisin in the Sun comes from the poem “Harlem.” by Langston Hughes. Hughes’ poem is about how dreams can get deferred which makes it a perfect title for the book. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun Almost every member of the Younger family struggles with their dreams being deferred.
Like the title, Mama’s dream of having a house seemed to “dry up like a raisin in the sun.” When she first moved into the apartment she had big dreams of owning a small house to raise her family. “And didn’t none of it happen.” When Mama’s dream was put off it slowly dried up and almost disappeared but there was still a glimmer of hope that she would be able to buy a little house and live in in with her
Now almost 40 years later, She is still living in the tiny apartment, but now with her two children and grandson. Although Mama takes very good care of the apartment it is still very small. “Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used scrubbed too often.” (24)The house represents everything Mama has worked for and everything holding her back.
The title A Raisin in the Sun comes from the poem “Harlem.” by Langston Hughes. Hughes’ poem is about how dreams can get deferred which makes it a perfect title for the book. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun Almost every member of the Younger family struggles with their dreams being deferred.
Like the title, Mama’s dream of having a house seemed to “dry up like a raisin in the sun.” When she first moved into the apartment she had big dreams of owning a small house to raise her family. “And didn’t none of it happen.” When Mama’s dream was put off it slowly dried up and almost disappeared but there was still a glimmer of hope that she would be able to buy a little house and live in in with her