Lorraine Hansberry's Inspiration for "A Raisin in the Sun" 

I am lucky to be able to experience a great Yuwoman Being in this life..Great...Loving..Intelligent..Caring..A Great Writer of Life...A Wisewomen...

❤

This play is very little about racial discrimination; it is really about intra-family struggle. Everyone seems to have the same thoughts about Raisin In the Sun which are that-- +the story was essentially about a close knit, black family trying to move into a white neighborhood. +momma was all wise and 100% correct in everything she did. +Walter Lee was money hungry, materialistic and selfish. +aside from Walter losing most of the money, all of the family's problems were due to racism. +Ruth was saintly in enduring Walter Lee's compulsiveness. +Beneatha's character was flawless because she aspired to become a medical doctor. So, here are some questions about issues that I don't think I've have ever heard discussed regarding Raisin in the Sun: 1 Why did family members talk so harshly with each other even in the morning? Is this how they started each day? 2 Why didn't we see the Younger family eat meals together even when everyone was in the house? 3 Was Ruth's morning grumpiness due to her secret about her pregnancy? It had to be because she was not a single mom with several small children but a married woman with one child who was not a toddler or infant. Yet, all she could manage to cook for breakfast was scrambled eggs. 4 Why was only Walter talking about the insurance money? They all knew about it for six months, but the other adults all seemed uncomfortable as if even talking about that money was sinful. As the play opens two of the first things, we see are that this family of five shares a bathroom down the hall with neighbors and Travis sleeps on the living room couch. So why did no one talk about using the money to move to a larger space. Wouldn’t they be desperate to move? Why wasn't this the first idea they would all have for the money? Why did this topic never come up? 5 Why was mama so domineering with her grown children as if she had been an overcompensating single mother? She was never a single mother but a wife who with her husband raised their children to adulthood. So why is mama treating her 35-year-old son and 20 something daughter like children? 6 Why did mama single-handedly buy the house even though the family comprised three other adults? 7 Why did mama with her Clyborne Park housing choice thrust the entire family into a racial dilemma without any prior family consent and preparation? Is this the way that any family buys their first house let alone buy it as the first blacks in a white neighborhood? 8 Did mama consider that this move might cause her grandson to be transferred to a racially hostile school in Clyborne Park? 9 Why did momma house hunt around the city on the bus with $10,000 cash in her purse? Why did she have $6,500 cash in her purse when she went to a bar at night looking for Walter? Why didn't she deposit the insurance check in a bank account? 10 Why didn't we ever see momma pray for wisdom and guidance regarding the money or the family's general well-being. Why did we only see her mention God when she slapped her daughter for questioning God's utility in daily human life-again treating her grown daughter like a child? 11 Why would the insurance money all belong to mama? It was a survivors' benefit that the father originated when Walter and Beneatha were still children; thus, he intended it to be for them all and not just for mama. 12 When she learned that her sister-in-law, Ruth, was pregnant, why was aspiring medical doctor Beneatha's first reaction, "where is it going to sleep? Is this the appropriate sensitivity of an aspiring Ob/Gyn, pediatrician or family doctor? 13 What is Beneatha's income source that enables her to pay for exotic elective classes and expensive camera equipment collecting dust in a closet while her nephew sleeps on the living room couch and is overdue for new shoes? As an aspiring health care professional hoping to help meet human needs in the larger community, why is she oblivious to needs in her own house? 14 If Walter was so ashamed of and humiliated by his job as a chauffeur why didn't he pursue something else? Chicago industry was bustling in the 1950s with better paying jobs for blacks in many areas, even though blacks faced intense job and trade union discrimination. By the 1950s, blacks from the south had been migrating to Chicago for decades and landing jobs in the steel mills, the stock yards, various large factories, and in construction and transportation as well as in government such as the post office. 15 How in the world could Walter be conned into handing over $6,500 to Willie Harris? Why would he think all that money would be needed just to smooth the way for liquor licensing? What money would be left to acquire the space and inventory to actually open the liquor store? Why didn't he insist on going with Willie and Bobo to Springfield? Why would Bobo have handed over his money to Willie if he was later going to meet Willie at the train station for the trip to Springfield? 16 Near the end when mama expresses deep compassion for her son for how the world has "whipped him so", did she recognize that his family had first whipped him with their sharp dismissals and mocking of him and his liquor store idea without offering any alternatives that they might find acceptable? Why didn't the family consider business possibilities other than a liquor store? These could include a laundromat, dry-cleaners, barbershop, florist or shoe store or acquiring rental income property. 17 Why did we never see the Youngers plan anything as a family? We only saw them react. They knew for six months that the insurance money was coming but made no plans for how to use it. Instead, Momma brought the house in reaction to learning earlier that same day that Ruth was considering an abortion. Mamma handed over the rest of the money to Walter in reaction to her concern about Walter’s despair. By not planning the Youngers turned economic opportunity into a serious of dilemmas. How could they have never even discussed buying a house during the six months? If they had, Ruth and Walter would likely have been on better terms and Ruth would have celebrated her pregnancy. If they had considered other business ideas as a family, Walter would not have been so fixated on a liquor store and taken up with outsiders and gotten conned. ---Final question: What was the author conveying by showing us so many unflattering things about the Youngers? Was the author showing that the Youngers problems were not all due to racism--even in the 1950s? The family’s lack of a tradition of coming together for meals and to discuss and plan and Walter getting conned out of all that money were not due to racism.

very cool

POV: you’re here from schoology