Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

561 Words3 Pages
The central conflict in “The Raisin in the Sun” revolves on the ten thousand dollars. How should it be spent? To whom should it be given to? All of these questions and more surface up through the characters and these questions create turmoil; turmoil that grows and multiplies. This conflict brings out the bad in everyone, and the significance of the money is not its amount, but what it means. When you add all of the digits up in the number ‘10000’, the final digit is ‘1’. Ergo, this is the number that reveals the hidden patterns that involve this figure in the book. What’s important to understand is that each number has positive and negatives attributes. When Walter confronts Mama about the money, she tells him plainly that: “...There ain’t…show more content…
In other words, she wants to put some of the money away for Beneatha’s medical school costs. Even though Walter already knows this, he still insists on using it for a liquor store, and this reveals the stubbornness and selfishness of his thoughts. And it just so happens that the negative characteristics of the number ‘one’ are exactly these. The wish for a liquor store is the negative side of the money because its intent is out of selfishness and stubbornness. If we were to believe this, then the positive aspect of the money is the intent to put some of it away for Beneatha’s medical school expenses. Beneatha is an independent, young woman who has an entire life in front of her to design as she wills. In this case, going to medical school is just one way in which she wishes to put herself out there, to start her path. The positive characteristics of the number ‘one’ include being individualistic and independent, while also being progressive and strong willed (numerology.com). In other words, Beneatha and her medical school costs are the positive aspects of the ten thousand dollars. Knowing this of the money adds a deeper level of understanding with the
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