Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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"A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry, it's one of her realistic masterpiece. The play expresses an African American family stand out in their respective to chase the American dream by experiencing contradictions and conflicts. Although in the play, the American dream not ending perfectly, the dramatis personae in the play, particularly mother Lena Younger, did not show any improvement by moving into a white neighborhoods. To having a better understanding on Lena, I am going to interpret her through exploring her physical, spiritual and social space, to understand the perplexities and helpless of this seemingly strong mother. Lena's physical space is cramped and oppressive. The play had begun with a detailed description of the department…show more content…
Lena seems a very assertive person, it is a uncompromising householder. But her heart was full of puzzled and fear. Lena carefully raise her two children traditionally, and has been proud of them. On the other hand, her son and daughter gave her increasingly uneasiness because their thoughts and practices. The ideas of her daughter made her feel confused and angry. Beneatha is a black woman of new era, she is not willing to be assimilated into mainstream of culture, but instead to seek and identify her African identity. As Beneatha's interests kept changing, and told Lena that is her way to express herself, Lena felt puzzled. Beneatha challenged and deny the existence of God's authority, Beneatha thinks all the efforts that human beings had has nothing to do with God, they are the results of their own efforts. Beneatha hates people always to thank God for everything. Lena was stunned after hearing this. Under situation with anger and fear, she slapped Beneatha. When wealthy George Murchison appeared in Beneatha's life, the whole family are very satisfied. But when Beneatha refused George because she thinks George is superficial, Lena felt confused again, she could not understand her daughter's ideas and practices, Her son Walther has a family, an apartment, a job, Lena thinks Walter should be very satisfied, but Walter was unhappy and complain again and again, this deeply touched Lena. Lena could not understand the…show more content…
As an African American woman, her space is being isolated from the whites, her space is greatly reduced. Lena lived carefully with white supremacy, she was trying their honestly and kindness in order to survive in the crowd. But deeply inside Lena's heart, she always had a dream: to own a house with a garden, a house that she can enjoy the sun. This is Lena's desire for her personal space. When Lena decided to use her husband's insurance money to buy a house, she found out the houses in the black area is much expensive than the ones in white area, she bought one in a white area. When she dreams of moving into her new home, the white man broke her dream by paying the higher price because the white people do not want a black family move
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