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Use Of Gender Identity In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Lorraine Hansberry uses gender identity as a key foundation throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun. The play intertwines masculine and feminine gender roles concurrent with the times. Gender identity has been and always will be an issue that people either advocate for or ignore completely. It is an unspoken rule that men are the leaders and women simply follow orders. Sociologically speaking, gender is a social construct that we are so accustomed to that we rarely speak up about the injustices women face.
Throughout the drama, gender plays a key role in the development of the story. Lorraine Hansberry purposefully incorporated empowered men and women both fighting to be heard and understood, while maintaining their masculinity or femininity. This was done to create the dynamic that gender does make a significant impact on lives and how we choose to live. Hansberry explores the issues relevant in the early 60’s such as abortion, the importance of marriage and the altering of gender roles.

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I - I experiment with different forms of expression
RUTH Like riding a horse? BENEATHA People have to express themselves one way or another. MAMA What is it you want to express? BENEATHA (Angrily) Me! (MAMA and RUTH look at each other and burst into raucous laughter) Don't worry I don't expect you to understand. (48)

Beneatha suggests that just because she explores various hobbies does not mean that she does not know what she wants to do. She is simply practicing her liberation and exploring her life much as privileged white people do. While her family is more traditional and by the book Beneatha looks to be different and expand her knowledge to be more well-rounded. Beneatha is a true feminist who believes that gender roles are as ambiguous as religion, that putting your faith into something unknown is naïve. She touches upon many aspects of education in order to stand on her own as a strong independent black

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The cultural confusion that Beneatha has driven her to look back into her original family heritage. She looks into the African tribal apparel, headwear, along with tribal language/chants influenced by Asagai. She first finds that maybe the tribal culture isn't for her when she gets into a conflict with her brother walter. A quote describing that incident is

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It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don’t believe in God” (Hansberry 51). Not to mention, Beneatha is saying that she does not have faith in God and relies on herself, express that she is independent , and does not need God to solve all her problems or do the work that she has to do.

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Walter uses his male privilege to put Beneatha down. Beneatha battles being underprivileged at home and in society by defying odds and choosing her own path. According to the matrix of domination, Beneatha being an African American woman shows that in order for her to have full privilege she has to deal with both the isms. The social construction of difference has produced racism and sexism and connected them and society has used them to justify

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Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor, is often affected by some of her family members’ decisions. She begins to lose hope, thus enabling her to become a realist.

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She wants to become a doctor and get the education she needs to become one. Throughout the play she proves that her independence means a lot to her. Beneatha wants to be free and have her own life, just like the American Dream. In the play she says to Mama and Ruth, “Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet-if I ever get married” (Hansberry32).

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Beneatha doesn 't really believe them though, she thinks that they are against her she says “Forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all” (Hansberry.37). She is saying that no one else in her family is ever going to be anything. She believe that she is the only one that is going to be successful. The rest of her family just has a low paying job and they don 't really make anything of them self. The real truth is that her family is working hard to put her through school so that she can make

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“The ways in which the characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A raisin in the sun, are affected by racial imbalances and respond to the injustices engendered by such inequities are solely influenced by their gender.” I agree with this statement to an extent. Although it is correct that gender plays a big role in this play, there are other factors to consider. Context:

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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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Beneatha dreams to be a doctor, which is a male-dominated profession. She says, “I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that!” (Hansberry 33). This shows her feminist attitude in the play when Beneatha takes a largely optimistic stance when facing troubles of entering a male-dominated profession, implying that she is a ‘non-conformist’. Additionally, Beneatha refuses to “just get married and be quiet” (Hansberry 22), as her chauvinistic brother, Walter Lee, expects her to be.

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In a patriarchal society, women are encouraged to focus on their family and its well-being. Most often, women achieve this by caring for the children and the home. However, in the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry suggests that women do not have to focus on the family. Instead, they can prioritize their own well-being. Hansberry exhibits these ideas through two female characters, Ruth and Beneatha.

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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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In Act 1, Beneatha’s quest to find her personal identity is seen in the way she expresses herself, her ambitions, her roots and the way she deviates from what is acceptable in her family. She tries to find ways to express herself such as trying different hobbies. In the past, Beneatha has been a part of a play-acting group, horseback-riding club, and in Act 1 starts guitar lessons (47). She also has the ambition to become a doctor which is looked down upon by her brother, Walter Lee (38). Additionally, her African roots are important to her search for identity.

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Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family.

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