The Younger's Family in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, have faced many hardships in 1950s America. In the play, Hansberry writes about a family on the south side of Chicago, in a beat up, old apartment that is about as tired and worn out as the Younger’s are. The Younger Family goes through many trials and tribulations that are best represented by the symbolism with their tiny one window, the plant, mama's gifts, and the condition of the old and new house.
The condition of the old house is tired and worn after many generations of the Younger’s living in their tiny “two” bedroom apartment. Hansberry describes the living room, where Travis sleeps, as tired saying that “they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many …show more content…
The small pot represents the Younger’s apartment, and the plant itself represents the Younger’s. The Younger’s family is not as strong as it once was, and is slowly pulling apart from each other, even Walter and Ruth. In one of the last scene with Mama, she is shown fixing the “raggedy-looking old thing” (page 1592) of a plant, which she intends to take to the new house, much to Beneatha’s disgruntled, because Mama says “It expresses ME”(page 1592). In the same scene, Mama is given two gifts, gardening tools and a gardening hat to use at the new house to plant flowers. Gardening tools, in this case, symbolize regrowth and renewing as the Younger’s move into the new house filled with hope for the future. The hat, a gift from Travis, symbolizes the hope for his future and the family coming closer together finally at the end of the …show more content…
The new house has a different meaning for each character, the most significant is Ruth. Ruth is ecstatic to move out of the old apartment and into the new house because just like everyone else in the Younger’s family, she feels trapped and defeated. The new house according to Mama is “a nice house … Three bedrooms—nice big one for you and Ruth … I and Beneatha still have to share our room, but Travis has one of his own …. And there’s a yard with a little patch of dirt where I could maybe get to grow me a few flowers … And a nice big basement ... in Clybourne Park”(Page 1577). Ruth is ecstatic for the move and asks Mama if there is plenty of sunlight, which she replies yes. Ruth asking if there is tons of sunlight implies she may feel hopeless in the apartment and hopeful in the new house. Sunlight, as previously mentioned, represents hope, and since there is tons of sunlight in the new house that means that the new house is the hope for the future the Younger’s need. For Walter, however, when he first hears about the new house he feels totally detached from the family and feels his own personal dreams have been crushed because he wanted the money to start up a liquor store which he brings up in almost every since scene of the play. Later on in the play, Walter ends up stealing money from Mama for his own benefit, which he
The condition of the old house is tired and worn after many generations of the Younger’s living in their tiny “two” bedroom apartment. Hansberry describes the living room, where Travis sleeps, as tired saying that “they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many …show more content…
The small pot represents the Younger’s apartment, and the plant itself represents the Younger’s. The Younger’s family is not as strong as it once was, and is slowly pulling apart from each other, even Walter and Ruth. In one of the last scene with Mama, she is shown fixing the “raggedy-looking old thing” (page 1592) of a plant, which she intends to take to the new house, much to Beneatha’s disgruntled, because Mama says “It expresses ME”(page 1592). In the same scene, Mama is given two gifts, gardening tools and a gardening hat to use at the new house to plant flowers. Gardening tools, in this case, symbolize regrowth and renewing as the Younger’s move into the new house filled with hope for the future. The hat, a gift from Travis, symbolizes the hope for his future and the family coming closer together finally at the end of the …show more content…
The new house has a different meaning for each character, the most significant is Ruth. Ruth is ecstatic to move out of the old apartment and into the new house because just like everyone else in the Younger’s family, she feels trapped and defeated. The new house according to Mama is “a nice house … Three bedrooms—nice big one for you and Ruth … I and Beneatha still have to share our room, but Travis has one of his own …. And there’s a yard with a little patch of dirt where I could maybe get to grow me a few flowers … And a nice big basement ... in Clybourne Park”(Page 1577). Ruth is ecstatic for the move and asks Mama if there is plenty of sunlight, which she replies yes. Ruth asking if there is tons of sunlight implies she may feel hopeless in the apartment and hopeful in the new house. Sunlight, as previously mentioned, represents hope, and since there is tons of sunlight in the new house that means that the new house is the hope for the future the Younger’s need. For Walter, however, when he first hears about the new house he feels totally detached from the family and feels his own personal dreams have been crushed because he wanted the money to start up a liquor store which he brings up in almost every since scene of the play. Later on in the play, Walter ends up stealing money from Mama for his own benefit, which he