Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Discrimination runs rampant in the world, today and looking back at history. However, society mainly scrutinizes discrimination against blacks, Jews, homosexuals, and transgenders. We tend to overlook the subjugation of half of the entire human race under harmful stereotypes and outrageous expectations. Discrimination against women, highlighted by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, began and has continued since the beginnings of society. Using strong female characters and harsh dialogue in A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry points out and criticizes the expectations and stereotypes that hinder a woman’s advancement in society.

Hansberry’s descriptions of strong female characters evoke sympathy and rebellion against society’s oppression.

The men constantly feel that women are inhibiting their progress to become great, but the women have truly done all they could for their families. This is played out when Ruth helplessly asks, “What else can I give you, Walter Lee Younger?” (Hansberry 87). Elizabeth Hadley Freydberg’s literary criticism points out the use of the word “else” to show that Ruth “has given Walter all that she knows how to give- love, a son, and now another child, and he is still unhappy and unfulfilled.” Freydberg reasons that Hansberry “introduces the issue of the necessity of the black woman supporting her man against all adversities” (Freydberg). This necessity is really a bottomless pit that devours lives and dreams. When Ruth says that “[Walter] needs something - something that I can’t give him anymore”, it shows that society forces women to set aside their own dreams, ambitions, and aspirations. Instead, women are forced into an infinite loop of pondering how to serve their husbands better. Walter is completely incorrect when he says men are “tied to a race of women with small minds”, instead, men prevent women from wanting to be anything at