Bending Gender Roles in A Raisin in the Sun
In society, there is definitely a standard for which gender does what. Men are very often seen as the head of a family, or the boss of a company, while women are more commonly seen as a housewife or secretary. However, if people are in a situation where money is tight and space is tighter, these roles don’t seem to hold up. In a house where everyone can work, everyone should work. In the novel, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, she presents Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha in order to express how the usual gender roles of the time period are bent and rewritten, overall showing how being in situations with limited resources can change a family dynamic.
The “head” of the family is Mama. Mama makes most of the decisions for the family and manages a lot of money. The author uses Mama as the regular maternal role, leading the family
…show more content…
Beneatha is very independent and always speaks for herself, even when others tell her she shouldn't be. One example is her first boyfriend in the book, Joseph Asagai. Joseph is her favorite boyfriend because of how he wants to keep his african roots, but even he tries to get Beneatha to change in some way or another. Joseph thinks that Beneatha is too dependent on American culture because of her straight hair. However, Beneatha likes Joseph much more than her other boyfriend in the book, George Murchison. George is on the other end of the spectrum and he thinks Beneatha is too independent and that she speaks for herself too often. He tells her to be more submissive and “Drop the garbo routine” (Hansberry 96). George tells her that she needs to start acting “like a woman” and that he wants a sophisticated girl, not a poet. Beneatha ends up breaking up with George and then eventually finds Joseph. This shows how Beneatha is independent and will speak for herself, even when people say she