Materialism In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

In life sometimes you have a dream and your willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. If in order for your dream to come true, it meant taking your families money and inserting it into a business. Would you do it? Even if that wasn’t what you were supposed to do with the money? Would you let the money and your dreams come between your family? In the play “Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is a family that ends up going through a lot of trials and tribulations. The Younger family was your typically lower class family. They lived in a run-down cramped apartment with only two bedrooms with five people living there and shared a bathroom with their neighbors. Many members of this family had different dreams from being a doctor to owning …show more content…
“Walter: …You know the check is coming tomorrow”. “Beneatha: That money belongs to Mama, Walter, and it’s for her to decide how she wants to use it… Its hers. Not ours-hers” (Hansberry 37). The Younger family let the money take over their souls and everyone let the money get to their pride. In the beginning Beneatha stated it was Mama’s money but she ends up getting upset towards the end when she finds out Walter lost the money. Beneatha ends up letting the money get best of her also. Asagai ends up making her think is it really her money: “Asagai: Was it your money? Beneatha: What? Asagai: Was it your money he gave away? Beneatha: It belonged to all of us. Asagai: But did you earn it? Would you have had it all if your father had not died?” (Hansberry 134-135). The unfortunate death of Walter Younger Sr. left the family with a check but that didn’t mean everyone was entitled to it nor did it mean to argue a break up the family unity. Within the play the family definitely let materialism get in the way of their family …show more content…
Success has a major impact in today’s society. Everyone is always trying to make a better future for themselves and the next generation. Sometimes with success drama begins to arise because money and other things comes in between families. According to “Materialism Undermines the Family”, “Materialism is taking a drastic toll at home. There is considerable strain involved in generating the money needed to acquire so much”( Dalton). People in society isn’t putting their families first, because they think achieving their success is helping their family. Although, yes that may true at times that cause more damage than actually achieve something. In contemporary American society, materialism has made relationships among family and friends suffer more. Materialism comes between families all the time just like it did in the