Racism In A Raisin In The Sun

Having a dream is a wonderful opportunity to expand and make an impact in the lives of others, yet oftentimes these dreams are given up when they require a commitment people are unwilling or unable to give. The play A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the dreams of the Youngers, an African American family living in the Southside of Chicago around 1950, and their journey to achieve them. The Younger family is made up of Mama, her daughter Beneatha, her son Walter Lee and his wife Ruth, and their son, Travis, living in a tiny two bedroom apartment. With the death of Mama’s husband, the younger family receives a life insurance check for ten thousand dollars; having struggled in poverty for so long, the Youngers finally can fulfill their dream of getting a house of their own. Mama uses the check to buy a house in a white neighborhood which causes problems as the whites living there do …show more content…
Using the check, the Youngers buy their independence, but Walter’s greed of being more in society causes delays in obtaining this independence fully. Miscommunication between Mama, Walter and Ruth and the family’s struggles living in poverty, creates more problems the Youngers must combat. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry explores the impact of racism through characterization, setting and details to explore the hardships and misunderstanding that create the internal and external challenges preventing the Youngers from achieving their dreams. An external challenge the Youngers face is racial hostility and inequality preventing them from improving their lives. This inequality is seen when Mama buys a house and finds that the houses for black people are