What makes you feel the most unwanted or unappreciated?
A Raisin in the Sun by
Lorraine Hansberry is about a black family from the 1950’s struggling to find their way in the
world. They don’t have much and even live in a broken down apartment. The Youngers, Walter,
Ruth, Beneatha, Mama, and Travis, have worked their hardest but they have always been
disheartened. Their dreams have been ignored by people around them and each other. Cultural,
physical, and environmental forces shape the characters in A Raisin in the Sun greatly. As
Walter's feelings of inferiority are reinforced by his family, Mama and Ruth’s disdain for their
life grows, and they are being guided to leave their home, they struggle to move through life.
Walter Younger is a chauffeur and lives with the family in the apartment. He feels inferior
to those around him because of his job and living situation. Society makes him believe that he
isn’t doing the best he can be and that the things around him haven’t fully blossomed the way
they should. He feels as though he hasn’t achieved much in his life and wants to do better for his
family. Walter wants to own a liquor store and plans to invest in it with the insurance check. He
talks to Ruth about it but all she just tells him to eat his eggs, and they end up arguing. Walter
expects his family to support everything he wants to do even if it is hard to. He sees the people
around him living great successful lives and wants to improve his. He expects Ruth to understand
him and talk to his mother for him but instead she dismisses him. This leads Walter to take
matters into his own hands and invest the money himself, leading to horrible things happening.
The apartment the Younger family lives in was rented by Mama and Big Walter. When
they first got it, it was clean, beautiful and strong but now it is worn down and tattered. The
home can represent many things but it mostly represents the physical way the family is broken.
The narrator says the rugs are torn and the couches try to hide it but they are broken too. The
family is dejected and hides it in a way that is still obvious. Ruth is tired of her life and instead of
talking about it, she puts that energy into taking care of her family. Mama wishes she could leave
her current home and doesn’t say it but the plant she waters shows her true desires. Mama and
Ruth both want a better life but haven’t found a way to get it with everything they don’t have
piling on. Even though Ruth couldn’t find a solution to her problems, most of them get resolved
just by the house being bought.
Mama uses part of the insurance money for the downpayment of the house she’s always
needed. Even though the house is in a white neighborhood, they are excited to move in and
everyone including Walter, who was upset before, is now happy. In the middle of their
excitement, Mr. Lindner comes to tell the family to sell their house to the neighborhood because
the people there are very hard-working and he’s not sure how having a black family will affect
that. The family is distraught and refuses to sell it. They have been stuck in their apartment for so
long and when they finally find a house perfect for them, the neighborhood wants to take it away.
The color of their skin is stopping them from living their lives. The fact that they are moving into
a white neighborhood has already made them so scared because of the bombings but because of
Mr. Lindner’s offer they are now more than willing to do it.
The Youngers live in a torn apartment which can barely fit all of them. They struggle to
live in a society that doesn’t try to encourage them and instead drives them out. Walter feels
inferior to his friends and feels as if his family doesn’t encourage him enough. Mama and Ruth
haven’t found a way to live in the world they are put in and instead of expressing that, they try to
force themselves to work for it. When they try to move, Mr. Lindner puts them in a position
where it is either sell the house and don’t move or be bombed. It seems everyone is against them
and what they stand for but the Younger family are still willing to fight for what they want. In A
Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry uses cultural, physical, and environmental forces to show
how Walter feels unsupported, Mama and Ruth can not seem to find happiness, and the Youngers
aren’t wanted in their new home.
