Stereotypes In A Raisin In The Sun

The narrative of the Younger family is told in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the

Sun. They are an African American family that is struggling to make ends meet in a cramped apartment on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. The family consists of Lena (Mama), her son

Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, and their little son Travis, as well as Walter Lee's sister Beneatha. The story's premise is that after Lena's husband, Walter Senior, passed away, the family was given a

$10,000 life insurance check, and they are unsure of what to do with it. Tensions mount and disagreements arise as the family attempts to decide how to handle the funds, both within the family and with their neighbors. While the family struggles to improve their lives, the play

makes

The Youngers, an African-American family, are realistically portrayed

Mottley-Pierre 7 as surviving in a racist environment in the story. These are workers who struggle for a living while yearning for a better future. They have goals that they didn’t want black people to have back in those days. Beneatha wants to be a doctor, Walter Lee wants to be a provider and set an example for his kids, and Mama and Ruth want a better life for their family. They are all well-mannered individuals that strive for the betterment of their family, and that’s how black families should be seen. This journal supports my thesis because it shows a different side to the culture seen in the media when representing black people or minorities as a whole. They have us in gangs; we have no father; these are typical stereotypes that are meant to bring us down. This article takes us in a whole different direction and makes the reader understand that, through

Hansberry’s play, that’s not who we really are. That’s what they want us to think we are, but we are different; we have goals and aspirations derived from our culture. The whole family has