A Raisin in the Sun

¶ … Raisin in the Sun. The writer explores the play itself, the central conflict, the theme and several other aspects of the play so that the reader gets a strong feeling for the storyline by reading this. There was one source used to complete this paper.

To understand the themes, conflicts and characters of the play one must have an understanding of the play's plot and storyline. A Raisin in the Sun is a play about an African-American family named Youngers. The Youngers live in Chicago on the South Side which is notoriously dangerous and filled with low income families. The family is no exception, until Mr. Youngers senior dies and leaves behind a $10,000 insurance policy. As the family waits for the check, they begin to argue and bicker about how it should be spent. The mother of the family wants a house, the son, Walter, wants to use it to go in partners with a friend and open a liquor store, Walter's wife agrees with her mother in law but doesn't want to anger her husband about the matter, and the sister of Walter wants to go to medical school and believes the money should be used to pay her tuition. The family begins to crumble as individual family members fight and argue over the money and how it would be best spent.

This is set in the early 1950's which was a time when the possibility of receiving $10,000 was a lot of money for any family, but for the previously poverty stricken Youngers it is a gold mine seemingly sent from God. They are individually and collectively concerned that once it is gone and they each believe that their desires for the money's use are the most fair to the family and to the future of the family. The daughter however, believes that the family is trying to achieve "Whiteness" and she takes issue with what she believes to be a refusal to recognize their African-American roots. The play takes the family to climax when Ruth, Walter's wife discovers that she is pregnant. In that conversation she alludes to her husband that she is considering an abortion so that she won't put a financial strain on the family by bringing another member into the mix. This was at a time when abortions were not only illegal, they were costly and dangerous with many women dying from them. Walter doesn't tell his wife not to get an abortion and it causes his mother to decide that the time has come to get control over the out of control family. She puts the money down to buy a house on the other side of town, so that the entire family can live together. She also gives Walter the balance of the money for the store but he gets swindled out of it by the man who was supposed to be his partner. Once the decision is made and the money is gone and no longer an issue the family members calm down and begin to come to their senses and start treating each other with love and respect again.

The back story unfolds through the story telling of various family members and narration. It is the way the audience gets the opportunity to see how the family arrived at the place that it is in when the money is about to come through. Exposition has long since been an effective tool for setting the stage for back story, and the play A Raisin in the Sun uses it to lay the ground work for understanding about how the personalities of the family members have worked in the past and currently work to create the plot.

The central conflict of the play is the struggle against racism and poverty that is experienced by the family. This play was written and set in a time in America when Black people were discriminated against openly and regularly. The plight of African-Americans was due for the most part to the fact that they were not afforded the same educational and employment opportunities that their white counterparts could obtain.

The racism was overt and it was insidious. It had the ability to oppress families and force them into economic situations in which they had to live on the poor side of towns in substandard housing many times. The money represented a way for mama to end the play's central conflict by allowing her to have enough to put down a payment on a house in a white area. As has always been the way if one has enough money one can do whatever one wishes to do. Racism may still be on the minds of those dealing with a wealthy African-American however, if the family had the funds they were at least on the surface treated with respect.

In the case of the Youngers the central conflict was balanced between lack of money and racism.

The conflict that is based in poverty and racism has to do with money and the argument and disagreement about how it should be spent. The conflict is developed through the use of each family member having very different ideas about how that money should be spent when it arrives. Each member of the family has an idea about how it should be spent, but through the dialogue and exposition of the plotline it becomes evident that each family member arrived at their opinion because of the racism and poverty issues that they have dealt with in the past. Each of their experiences in life creates the person that they become. Bethenia's ideas about racism are formed with all that she sees and goes through on the streets of Chicago, mama's burning desire to own a house in an area where she doesn't have to feel ashamed is based in the years with her dead husband in which they dreamed of someday being able to move to a better area, and Walter believes if he can own a business, he will be respectable and his family will have to be respected by those who previously looked down on them.

The conflict is carefully developed through discussions, arguments and opinions of the family members who are waiting for the check. The author of the play did a good job providing a backdrop for the central conflict when she placed characteristics within each character that would cause conflict to be aired openly to give the audience a view. Bethenia's hatred of white people and her desire to retain and discover her African-American roots, is a direct conflict with her mother's desire to finally be able to move into a neighborhood filled with white people. Her brother's anger at the system can be fixed, according to him, by joining it which also opposes the desire to move back to roots and help other Africans. Each family member has personality traits that set the stage for an open confrontation regarding the way the family has dealt with racism and poverty for the years before the family's father death and the receipt of the insurance money.

The audience gets to know the characters through their development in the play. The conflict, the arguments and the discussions are all used to set the stage for character display. Walter shows his true character in many ways. He is a defiant man as can be seen by his insitance that the money be used for a store and by the control he experts over his wife and his son. The character of Walter is used as both a protagonist and as an antagonist in the play.

This is an unusual use of a character and it is one that takes skilled writing to succeed with but the author does an excellent job of developing Walter's character in such a way that he can play both of those roles. He provides the perspective of just about every Black man in the era that the play is set in, however, he also makes many mistakes and choices that in the end hurt the family.

However, even though his actions that are exposed through the back story exposition and many of his actions and decisions that happen in the play hurt the family, in the end he rises to the occasion and becomes the man of the family. It is interesting to note that if one applied the Aristotle six characteristics of what it takes to be a tragic hero Walter would easily fulfill at least five of them. The audience is led down the road of discovery with Walter as he first acts like a spoiled petulant child and then becomes a man and begins to act as head of the household.

His character places all success or failure on the event of funds. If one has money one has become successful and if one does not have wealth then one is a failure according to his character traits. This helps the audience have an interest in the development of the other characters as they are opposite Walter in many of their beliefs and those conflicting personalities hold the interest of the audience.

The development of the character of his sister is in direct defiance of his personality. It is interesting to note that it is the sister who wants to have the family return to their African roots and Walter who seems to want to join the white capitalist society. In the era that the play is set it was usually the men who wanted to hold fast to their heritage while the women were content to stay home, raise children clean house and have the men make the political and societal decisions for the family.

The audience gets to know the character of mama through her discussions with her children and her daughter in law. Mama makes it clear that her deceased husband's wishes should be an important consideration in the decision about what to do with the money. The audience sees mama, initially as a weak woman who is going to be led astray by her demanding son or self-centered daughter, but as the play continues to unfold the audience sees that mama has always been and is still the strongest members of the family. She works to organize the family to address the issues at hand with little success but the audience gets to know her strength by her arguments with both her son and her daughter when it was about something that she cared deeply about. The old saying choose one's battles, and choose the hill you are willing to die on, pertain to the character development of mama because she appears to be quiet and mild mannered and easy going, but when it comes to something she values such as the desire to keep her family together and move them into a house in a white area she becomes strong, demanding and vocal about those wishes.

Mama's character is developed through her insistence about certain things for her children. Her demand that her children have self-respect, tells the audience that the character of mama has self-respect, her demand that the house remained clean and polished regardless of how poor it is, demonstrates for the audience that she takes pride in her surroundings and understands that lack of money does not mean lack of class or style.

The fact that she consistently tells Walter that the only thing she ever wanted was to make her family happy, provides an understanding for the audience that her character is the most nurturing character in the play.

Beneatha's character unfolds itself before the audience as she demonstrates ambition, intelligence and drive. She works to display the need for African-American not to forget their beginnings and her character is developed in such a way that African-Americans are encouraged to maintain their sense of identity and heritage. Through the development of this character however, she sometimes appears to be self-centered as can be seen by her desire for the insurance check to be used to send her through medical school.

Her character is developed quickly as a defiant young women who wants to believe that she is independent but the reality is she is dependent not only on her father's insurance money but also on the fact that she is ultimately afraid to leave America and lead the life she claims she wants to lead. Her character shows itself to be spoiled a bit and possibly somewhat immature.

Asagai is a character whose development is essential to the play because he brings the international flavor to the set. His character is one that sets the stage to reflect the underlying lack of ability for Beneatha to actually do what she claims she wants to do and that is to leave the nation and live among her heritage people.