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African American Strife In A Raisin In The Sun And The Civil Rights Era

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African American Strife Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun and the motown music of the Civil Rights era demonstrate the struggles African Americans faced during segregation. Both of these works explore ideas of perseverance, searching for freedom, and the longing for respect that many encountered. Mama relates to Mahalia Jackson’s song “We Shall Overcome” because of her religious perseverance and hope for the future of her and her family. One line from her song reads, “The Lord will see us through someday; oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.” This line sounds exactly like something Mama would say. She is a very religious lady who believes God has a plan for their lives. While encouraging Beneatha she says, “Course you going to be a doctor, honey, God willing” (50). Mama realizes that God is the one who really controls their lives, and in the end it comes down to whether he wants Beneatha to be a doctor or not. When Beneatha replies by saying God has no control over it and He simply does not need to be recognized in her choice, Mama becomes heated. She forces Beneatha to say, “In my mother’s house there is still God” (51). We see that Mama has an exceptionally high amount of respect for God in her life. Another line …show more content…

Many struggled with perseverance, searching for freedom, and longing for respect. Overall, we see a lot of struggle happening in the Younger family. Mama lives each day trying to make the family work and trying to hold them together. Beneatha is trying to find where she belongs in a world of inequality and different influences. Ruth is trying to do her best while not gaining the respect she deserves. They are all fighting hard for what is most important to them and we see the strength each one had to have while living in a time of segregation and

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Not only is her physique sturdy, but she also shows herself to be an unyielding person in both her opinions and actions. An example of her steadfastness in her beliefs is when Beneatha is talking about her own atheist beliefs. Mama’s response to Beneatha is a definite show of her opinion, as she “slaps her powerfully across the face” (35). To her, the small apartment is still her house and “in [her] house there is still God” (35) and judging by her response to Beneatha’s opinions, Mama will go to any lengths to defend her own beliefs. Beneatha has already shown that her

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Beneatha’s money too?” (29) after she finds out he just blew all of the money. This quote emphasises the discomfort and pure shock and disappointment of Mama at losing all of the money. Mama also cries in the play, "You mean your sister 's school money, you used that too?" (29) revealing her discomfort and despair in this quote shows just how upset that she is that Walter has gone and blown all of Beneatha’s money that was going to be her future on his little gamble.

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She was not like other young women that would be housewives or maids at her age but instead is independent. Looking after herself and making more of a life for herself, she attends school, tries to play guitar, and looks for a love interest. This breaks the stereotype of a “normal” woman who is a housewife or maid and shows Beneatha is different. Therefore, Beneatha overcomes this criticism of her “unnatural ways”, and proceeds to make her life successful.

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, But are consistently being differed. Lena Younger, otherwise known as, “Mama” is Walter and Beneatha’s mother and the head of the household. With her deceased husbands ten thousand dollar insurance check Lena bought a three thousand-dollar house with a garden where her family would be happy and hopes to save the rest of the money for Beneatha’s medical school. Lena’s dream, “ Festers like a sore” and is the only dream that somewhat comes true.

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This is seen by the actions she takes to get to her goal, statements she makes towards her family members, and how she responds to her family when they are troubled. Mama has lived in her apartment for a long time with her family and is about to get enough money to change that. An example of Mama’s motivation to achieve her goal is shown when Ruth, her daughter-in-law and Mama are talking about what Mama would do with the insurance money. Mama states, “Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime, if we use part of the insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of pitch in” (563). Mama is suggesting to Ruth of what could be a better future for her son and their family.

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Beneatha 's dream is to go to college and become a doctor. She wants to prove her family´s disbeliefs of her becoming a doctor wrong. Yet she feels defeated after her brother, Walter, goes out and gives away all of her college money to some man that ends up disappearing with the money. She faces challenges financially and faces backlash from her family.

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Therefore, this tumultuous scene set the stage for Black music of resistance and hope that not only served as songs of protest but also a chronicle of the struggle. The songs emanated the ever-growing self-pride of African Americans and in a sort of cycle, the ideals of black nationalist thinkers like Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Du Bois fueled the movement, and in turn, Civil Rights protesters encouraged these thinkers to keep on going. Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement and Du Bois’ revelations (such as the Niagara project and the NAACP) were the driving force of Black music during the Civil Rights era, and the music laid the soundtrack for the events of the movement. Some songs that defined the era include “We Shall Overcome”, which was originally a gospel song, “This Little Light of Mine” (also a gospel song), and “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, which speaks volumes about lynchings in the South. Although the era of Civil Rights was a time of racial divide and consciousness, the revival of music was able to bridge people together regardless of their age, race, and opinions: “The folk and blues revival’s black/white, young/old, traditional/contemporary, and country/urban music contrasts were a direct link to the ‘justice and equality for all’ politics of the civil rights movement and the nation’s rapidly growing social consciousness led by Freedom Now 23 its youth.”

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“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” No quote has rung in the ears of American citizens quite like this one from the literary classic, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This revolutionary story is about the happenings in a small town in Alabama and how Atticus Finch and his family fight for what’s right in a system that’s stacked against them.

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She puts a lot of effort and time in trying to get an education for herself and learn how to be her own person. Beneatha does not want to be with George because she feels that she will not be able to fulfill her dream of being a doctor. For example, “But if the Younger’s are sitting around waiting to see if their little Bennie is going to tie up the family with the Murchisons, they are wasting their time” (Hansberry31).Beneatha wants to be a hardworking woman and this connects to the American Dream because hard work is a big component of achieving what you want. Also, she does not want George Murchison stopping her from being a hard-working woman. She does everything by herself and puts her hard work into everything she does.

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Hardships of the Youngers In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter ,and Beneatha are faced with hardships associated with their dreams being destroyed by discriminatory housing,racial inequality and lack of support from her family towards her education. In the play all the characters have some kind of dream. Mama wants to get a house for the family, Walter wants to have money to provide for his family and plans to do that with a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Beneatha is going to school and at the same time she’s trying to discover herself,but her family is not supportive of this.

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Racism is a major issue that has effected many people since its discovery. Racism is the hatred by a person of one race pointed at a person of another race. A Raisin in the Sun deals with the impact of racism on the life of the younger family.

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Trusting Walter, her son, she mistakenly gave him the money. Mama specifically told Walter to put away some money away for Beneatha Walter's sister. Like Walter Beneatha has big dreams. She wants to go to medical school

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She defies the ideal life for a woman and expresses her opinion loud and clear. Beneatha throughout the play finds herself and her African American roots. Walter does not approve of Beneatha’s hopes to become a doctor he tells her, “If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people---then go be a nurse like other women---or just get married and be quiet. . .” (1.1.125) These social issues that the characters faced in their lives made them out to be the people that they were meant to be.

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Mama doesn’t work, what she does is butcher hogs and milk cows. “I used to love to milk till I was hoofed in the side” (Walker, 316, 13). Mama is also the narrator of this story. Mama sticks more into religion and is more traditional than her two daughters, mama thinks that Dee is a failure in life and she sees that the way Dee acts she is rejecting her families tradition.

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Mama is an authentic feminist. She tells Beneatha that she have to conform to certain rules in the family “not long as [she is] the head of this family”. (Page 34). She wants to save her family from economic pressures which compels her children to cause resentments towards each other. Thus, she had “got to do something different… and do something bigger” (Page 71).

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