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The Black Ambition of A Raisin in the Sun

Revisiting lorraine hansberry’s most famous play in the wake of the open letter to white american theater.

Stephen Perry, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun (1961), directed by Daniel Petrie. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation .

by Koritha Mitchell | September 4, 2020

When the curtains open on Lorraine Hansberry’s most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun , we see Ruth Younger bustling about a claustrophobic Chicago kitchenette: waking her loved ones, cooking, fretting. As the Youngers compete with other tenants for the bathroom down the hall, Hansberry uses stage directions and dialogue to suggest that cramped quarters strain relationships. Recently widowed, Lena Younger lives here with her adult son, Walter Lee, who is Ruth’s husband; their son, Travis; and Lena’s 20-year-old daughter, Beneatha, who wants to become a doctor. Mama Lena has received a $10,000 insurance check because her husband “worked hisself to death,” which Walter Lee wants to invest in a liquor store.

The play debuted in 1959 and made Hansberry the first African American woman dramatist produced on Broadway, and its tensions unfold as the United States worked to convince people of color that they would never be at home. Facing segregation and housing discrimination, African Americans cultivated what I call homemade citizenship —a deep sense of success and belonging that does not rely on mainstream recognition or civic inclusion.

Suburban home ownership became a barometer of American success in the 1930s and 1940s, with mortgage loans newly subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration. But Black and Brown citizens were systematically excluded , so most African Americans could not pursue home ownership until the 1950s. Placing Black people’s struggle to attain this marker of American achievement on Broadway, Hansberry accomplished a feat parallel to that of the family she portrayed. Both the Youngers and their creator encountered hostility for daring to reach for what the country defined as success.

Revisiting Hansberry’s 1959 triumph proves poignant in the wake of the open letter to “White American Theater,” which is part of the racial reckoning prompted by the video-recorded police murder of George Floyd. Signed by more than 350 practitioners and creators of color, including Lin Manuel Miranda and Viola Davis, the letter exposes how the theater world resembles other arenas: Its institutions prioritize solidarity statements over self-reflection, structural transformation, and material redress. The letter also suggests that theater criticism facilitates exclusion and condescension: “We have watched you amplify our voices when we are heralded by the press, but refuse to defend our aesthetic when we are not, allowing our livelihoods to be destroyed by a monolithic and racist critical culture.”

Though Hansberry became “ a darling of the theater world ,” according to biographer Imani Perry, she experienced the racism of its critical culture. Because United States citizenship is built on the exclusion of African Americans, even when Black success does not prompt naked brutality, it inspires condescending reminders of difference, of outsider status. A Raisin in the Sun therefore places a spotlight on what historian Carol Anderson calls white rage : In portraying Black ambition, the play also showcases the white hostility that always accompanies it.

Over the course of the play, as the Youngers pursue a better life, Mama Lena spends part of her insurance payout to place a down payment on a house in the Chicago suburb of Clybourne Park. In response, her son Walter Lee disappears for three days. When he returns, his hopelessness convinces Lena that she has helped the United States strip her son of his manhood and kill his dreams. So she gives him the $6,500 left after the down payment, instructing him to put $3,000 in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical school education and the rest in a checking account under his name. “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be,” she says.

On moving day, Mama Lena is out when a representative of the suburban neighborhood association arrives. Karl Lindner, who is white, tells Walter Lee, “Our association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family.”

Insulted by this “ civil ” effort to keep his family out of the neighborhood, Walter Lee declines. However, he later realizes he has been swindled out of every penny entrusted to him, having given it to an acquaintance who promised to speed up the liquor license process and then skipped town. He invites Lindner back and rehearses a speech to accept the humiliating offer.

In the end, Walter Lee cannot stomach the routine he has practiced. “We have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick,” he tells Lindner.

“What do you think you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where you just aren’t wanted?” Lindner demands.

The play ends with the Youngers moving out of the tenement, heading for the suburbs, despite every indication that their fellow Americans will not welcome them. Mama Lena is the last to exit the apartment, and her pensive farewell serves as a prelude to a future of offstage malevolence.

Hansberry’s drama highlights the mundane cruelty of denying people of color desirable homes. While the federal government encouraged “all” Americans to pursue home ownership, FHA redlining enacted bloodless violence by making whiteness a qualification for access to the American Dream. At the same time, the labor movement’s “family wage” campaign empowered white heads of household while excluding non-white people, given that (like most American institutions) unions discriminated based on race, as cultural historian Chandan Reddy has shown.

Employment and housing discrimination prevented most citizens of color from organizing their households according to the nuclear family ideal, a male breadwinner and his financially dependent wife and children. The few whose households fit this mold achieved a level of success that would not go unchecked. White Americans attacked families of color who dared to move into “their” neighborhoods. Thus, declarations about the nation’s preferred domestic configuration amounted to discursive violence—telling everyone to aspire to an ideal while affirming only white examples of it—that encouraged physical violence.

The Youngers understand that they invite injury by clinging to a suburban definition of success. As they reach for what white Americans will attack them for securing, they do not pursue white acceptance, but instead, claim what they believe to be rightfully theirs. Aligning with the tradition traced by legal historian Martha S. Jones, Walter Lee declares his family to be birthright citizens , telling Lindner, “This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation of my family in this country.”

Interpretations of Raisin have been shaped by the presumption that it is a protest play, that it resists segregation. This lens obscures what most drives the action: a pursuit of success. If one focuses on accomplishment as African Americans do, it becomes clear that pursuing achievement in the face of white opposition requires the Youngers to define and re-define the parameters of success. They are not pursuing integration as a form of protest or resistance, but rather, to accomplish goals and claim resources. The play reveals that what has been framed as “integration” is really about getting white people to stop hoarding everything desirable. Further, “civil rights” are human rights—pursued not for “equality” with white people but as an assertion of clarity about one’s due.

While pursuing success, most members of the Younger family prioritize patriarchy, so the play showcases a reality that protest-obsessed audiences miss: the damage done in Black households when prevailing ideas about gender are not questioned. The Youngers subscribe to the rhetoric of the 1950s Black church that often vilified single women’s goals. Christianity’s message of affirmation routinely failed to reach single black women—represented in Raisin by Beneatha—even in their own homes. Beneatha personifies all that must remain “beneath,” as Mama Lena pursues a particular vision of success. Beneatha’s future is sacrificed because, although Walter Lee shows little capacity for leadership, he is male and therefore his mother is determined to make a leader of him. Beneatha is not only teased for her pan-African sensibilities and denigrated for valuing career over marriage, but also, in an iconic scene, she is slapped by her mother in the name of God.

This complexity has been overlooked because theater criticism kept Hansberry preoccupied with defending Lena’s humanity. White critics’ casual vilification of Mama Lena as an emasculating matriarch revealed a lack of empathy for the pressures she faced, and led Hansberry to defend Mama Lena as fiercely as Mama Lena had defended Walter Lee.

However, if one focuses on how African Americans would encounter the work’s theme of Black achievement, the terms of the debate change. In the Younger household, success is defined in patriarchal terms, devaluing half the community. Scholars and readers rarely notice this, however, because most insist upon seeing Mama Lena as the embodiment of resistance to racism. Even the insightful biographer Perry argues, regarding Lena, that “in Lorraine’s literary world, mother wisdom is trustworthy though subtle, and paternal inheritances are thorny and overpowering.” If Lena’s behavior is examined not as a reaction to white hostility but for its impact on Black people, however, it becomes clear that when family members do not live up to patriarchal ideals, she not only withholds affirmation; she is violent. Besides slapping Beneatha, she “starts to beat [Walter Lee] senselessly in the face” for losing the insurance money. The Younger household is not a safe haven, especially for women who question (divinely ordained) male leadership.

Perry, Hansberry’s most nuanced chronicler, notes the playwright’s frustration with white critics’ failure to engage the work itself. A crucial question therefore arises: “How does one navigate racial perceptions that overlay everything … such that they effectively become part of the production no matter what the artist does? For Lorraine the answer was to become a critic.”

Hansberry could not ignore what the recent open letter to white American theater calls a “monolithic and racist critical culture,” so she wrote cultural criticism herself. Nevertheless, the complexity of her creative work proves undeniable, if examined with Black audience members in mind. Because African Americans pursue success despite the odds against them, the art they produce while doing so offers insight into how they remain invested in accomplishment despite the white rage it attracts.

Debating what constitutes achievement is part of the labor of cultivating homemade citizenship, but it is complicated work. As performance theorist Soyica Colbert suggests , Raisin ’s tense scenes expose “the conditions that enable Mama to create a house” as well as those “that establish Beneatha’s homelessness.” Beneatha is outnumbered, yet Hansberry’s play honors her struggle. With her last words, Beneatha stands firm: “I wouldn’t marry [the man everyone approves of] if he was Adam and I was Eve!” In preserving Beneatha’s bold perspective, Hansberry’s work encourages African Americans to question whether their definitions of success account for the entire community.

This message remains relevant, as Black and Brown women succeed against the odds, only to become targets for abuse . When hostility does not come in the form of attack, it manifests as erasure: Black women’s leadership is often relegated to the margins , even as their ideas set the course that many others later advocate. Meanwhile, Black and Brown women continue to be ridiculed whenever they prioritize their own goals rather than simply serve everyone else. These tensions are as deep now as they were in Hansberry’s time, and we should heed her call to address them both within communities of color and on the national stage.

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The Play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry Essay

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Beneatha: New Way to Be a Woman

Education for black people now, works cited.

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959 and became a symbol of struggle. The story weaves together the fate of a black family on Chicago’s South Side, where they try with all their might to make their way to the top. The story combines topical issues of discrimination and racism, which destroy society’s civilizing order. Hansberry’s play was voted best in 1959, and New York playwrights reviewed it favorably. The nascent equality in 1950 was unstable, and Hansberry’s sensitive story reveals the plight of black people through the complex characters of single people.

Walter Lee Younger’s black family grapples with how to dispose of a large sum of insurance money received after Walter’s father’s death. He dreams of opening his own business, his sister dreams of finishing her university studies, and his mother will buying a lovely house. The play’s central theme is how to overcome his ambition and the rejection by white Americans of their desire to live without regard to race (Hartmann). Hansberry draws attention to the already tricky lot of a black woman, Beneatha, Walter’s sister, who dreams of going to university.

Education has always been an indicator of high intelligence and wealth and showed others that the person in front of them was no ordinary person. In the immediate aftermath of the 1957 protests, Hansberry’s play was an extension of a protesting America that did not want to conform to people because of their skin color. There were few African Americans among college graduates – only 3% had a bachelor’s degree, compared to 9% of whites (Table 302.20). The civil protests brought many innovations, and Hansberry struggled to realize this chance for a dream for Beneatha.

Beneatha is a strong heroine and the most educated in her family, making her seem a little arrogant. She expresses her views boldly because she does not deny her origins and believes this makes her who she is. As she develops, Beneatha encounters Asagai, who teaches her to accept her roots (Hansberry 56). She explores her identity and gradually agrees with the value of her origin. She later uses it to prove her value as an individual to her family. Beneatha’s mood can be fickle, and sometimes her hobbies are somewhat crazy. She takes on a new identity-an independent woman (Hansberry 89). Her strength lies in recognizing the conditions of life around her and accepting a reality where she can change for the better. Her selfishness is a good trait, even though she seems hysterical and foolish at first.

There are many values for Beneatha that make her atypical of African American society. She becomes more educated and well-read and gradually becomes part of something bigger. She wants to become a doctor and help people, genuinely believing that skin color is not a barrier (Hartmann). She reasons about civil rights and often argues with her mother to prove her independence. Beneatha can be called a feminist because she recognizes herself as an African woman and fights for her life from this social position.

The young African woman’s relationship with men is a sign of a small protest against reality. At the beginning of the play, she is attracted to rich George, who insists on giving up her African ancestry and realizing herself as an American (Hansberry 131). Gradually, however, Asagai changes her understanding of reality, and Beneatha is not shy about her ties to Africa. She argues with George, trying to prove the necessity of acknowledging her origins, but he does not consider her opinion significant. As a result, the educated and intelligent Beneatha chooses the sincere Asagai, with whom she is not shy about leaving her hair curled and dancing to African music.

Reports show that the percentage of black students attending U.S. colleges and universities is slightly higher than the percentage of the black U.S. population. Decades of segregation and biased admissions policies have resulted in only 26% of black Americans holding a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2020, compared with 40% of white Americans (Table 302.20). People keep fighting for racial equality: holding institutions-educational, government, and social welfare accountable when they don’t deliver on their promises (Horowitz). Hansberry’s play is valuable for understanding the historical condition of black Americans. It explains why it should not be forgotten and why people should continue to fight for the rights.

Thus, Beneatha is a strong heroine who is not ashamed of her background and tries her best to move forward. She invests in her education and tries to help people because she believes race is not essential to support. Together with Asagai, she stops being ashamed of her background and actively promotes the national idea of Africa. Thus, Hansberry’s play is important in understanding why educational inequality continues to exist.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun . First Vintage Book Edition, 1994.

Hartmann, Matthew. “A Raisin in The Sun – Criterion Collection.” High-Def Digest , 2018.

Horowitz, Juliana Menasce. “Most Americans Say The Legacy Of Slavery Still Affects Black People In The U.S. Today.” Pew Research Center, 2019.

“Table 302.20. Percentage of Recent High School Completers Enrolled in College, by Race/Ethnicity: 1960 through 2020.” National Center of Education Statistics.

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IvyPanda. (2023, April 7). The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-play-a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/

"The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry." IvyPanda , 7 Apr. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-play-a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry'. 7 April.

IvyPanda . 2023. "The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry." April 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-play-a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry." April 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-play-a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/.

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IvyPanda . "The Play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry." April 7, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-play-a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry/.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Raisin in The Sun — Themes in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”

Themes in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in The Sun"

• Categories: A Raisin in The Sun Racial Discrimination

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Published: Jun 6, 2024

Words: 700 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the pursuit of dreams, racial discrimination, family dynamics, body paragraph 4: gender and social expectations.

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What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over -- Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy [...]

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A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine hansberry, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on the fulfillment of an African-American family’s dreams. The play centers on the Youngers, a working-class family that lives in Chicago’s South Side during the mid-twentieth century. Shortly before the play begins, the head of the Younger family, Big Walter , dies, leaving the family to inherit a $10,000 life insurance payment . The family eagerly awaits the arrival of the insurance check, which has the potential to make the family’s long deferred dreams into reality. However, the members of the Younger family have conflicting ideas—conflicting dreams—regarding the best use for the money, which causes tension.

At the beginning of the play Mama , Big Walter’s widow, expresses uncertainty regarding the best use for the money. Mama tells her daughter-in-law, Ruth , that she and her late husband shared the dream of owning a house, but that poverty and racism prevented them from fulfilling this dream during Big Walter’s lifetime. Mama’s daughter, Beneatha , aspires to attend medical school and become a doctor, a considerable challenge for an African-American woman at that time. Beneatha’s older brother, Walter Lee , belittles his sister’s dream, instead suggesting that she simply get married. Walter wants to use the insurance payment as an investment in a liquor store, an idea that Mama and his wife Ruth both dislike. Ruth, worried about her troubled marriage and the family’s cramped living situation, shares Mama’s hope for a house, although she is willing to support her husband’s dream because, as she tells Mama, “He needs this chance.” Walter finds his job as a white man’s chauffeur demeaning and he sees the liquor store investment as the only path towards a better future.

On the same day that the check arrives, Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, which makes her question whether the family can afford to raise another child. Knowing that Ruth is considering an abortion, Mama begs Walter to convince his wife to keep the baby. Walter is unable to say anything and leaves the apartment. As Mama watches her family “falling apart,” she makes the decision to place a down payment on a home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, hoping that her choice to “do something bigger” will bring the family together.

Mama’s decision to purchase a house only sends Walter deeper into despair as he sees the opportunity to fulfill his dream disappear. On the other hand, the new house fills Ruth with joy and hope for her family, helping her to imagine the possibility of a happy future for her unborn child. Several weeks later, Walter continues to grow more despondent and skips work three days in a row. As Mama realizes that “I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you,” she decides to transfer control of the household and the rest of the insurance money to Walter, asking only that he set aside a portion for Beneatha’s schooling. Mama’s decision reinvigorates Walter.

A week later, the family is happily preparing for its move when Karl Lindner arrives and tells them of Clybourne Park’s offer to buy their new home as a way to dissuade the family from moving to the neighborhood. The family confidently refuses the offer. Moments later, Walter’s friend Bobo enters and tells Walter that Willy Harris has disappeared with the liquor store investment. Without heeding Mama’s advice, Walter had invested the entirety of the insurance money in the liquor store, and the loss leaves the family on the brink of financial ruin.

An hour later, the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai visits Beneatha and finds her distraught over the lost money. Asagai asks Beneatha to marry him and “come home” to Africa with him, a sudden proposal that Beneatha says she will need to consider. Soon after, Walter informs the family that he will accept Lindner’s offer, which greatly disappoints them. However, as Walter and his son, Travis , face Lindner, Walter reclaims his dignity and refuses Lindner’s offer. Excited but well aware of the dangers that await them, the Youngers leave their apartment and head to their new home.

Raisin in the Sun, A

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A Raisin in the Sun

By lorraine hansberry, a raisin in the sun essay questions.

The American dream means something different to each character in A Raisin in the Sun . Discuss these differences and how they conflict with one another.

Lorraine Hansberry is often viewed as a visionary because of her ability to predict many of the relevant issues to the African-American community today. Identify some of these issues and explain how they are the same or different from how Hansberry portrayed them.

Within the Younger household, there are three generations of women. Compare and contrast how the characters each form their unique identities.

Critical reception to A Raisin in the Sun was not all positive when the play first came out. One of the major points of contention was that the play was pro-integration. Some segments of the African-American community felt that integration actually was not the end-all answer to America's race problem. Discuss the ways in which the idea of integration is presented throughout the play. Is Hansberry's presentation one-sided, or does she raise issues relevant to both viewpoints?

Although Travis does not have many lines, his character is significant. Discuss Travis' importance to some of the prominent themes throughout the play.

Discuss how the Youngers' environment impacts their life.

In 1959, abortion was a taboo topic. Discuss how the issue is presented in the play, and how the audience might have reacted.

How do you think Lorraine Hansberry's own life influenced A Raisin in the Sun ?

Many critics assert that the art of Hansberry's play is that it is less about race than about humanity. Do you think the play would be equally compelling if the actors were white, or some other minority group? Explain why or why not.

Even though Walter Sr. never appears in the play, he is an important character. Discuss his significance.

A Raisin in the Sun Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Raisin in the Sun is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

I'm sorry, what passage are you referring to? Please include all information in your posts.

Mama tells Walter that something is eating him up, Something that has to do with more than just money. What do you think it is?

Although Walter has a family, wife, and a job, he continues to live with his mother. As a result, he feels emasculated. Walter believes that nobody listens to his dreams or wants to give him a chance at being a "man".

Walter says that pride is old-time stuff what would Walter consider modern day thinking?

Walter believes that only doing things you can be proud of is old-fashioned. In his eyes, pride has nothing to do with accomplishment, and you do whatever it takes to reach your goal.

Study Guide for A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun study guide contains a biography of Lorraine Hansberry, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Raisin in the Sun
• A Raisin in the Sun Summary
• Character List

Essays for A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.

• The Aspirations of Women in A Raisin in the Sun
• Viewing the World from Different Angles: Generation Gaps in Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun
• Women, Black and Proud
• The Struggle of Finding a Home in African-American Literature
• A Dream Deferred: An Analysis of "A Raisin in the Sun"

Lesson Plan for A Raisin in the Sun

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to A Raisin in the Sun
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• A Raisin in the Sun Bibliography