In the Play a Raisin in the SunEssay Preview: In the Play a Raisin in the SunReport this essayIn the play A Raisin in the Sun ,written by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha, a 20 year old African American woman with intellect and curiosity is frustrated as she attempts to succeed in a racist and sexist society. In the play she has to face obstacles and discrimination, but she is an educated, persistent ,independent woman. She breaks traditional expectations of going to school and pursuing her career as a doctor.
Beneatha is less tolerant of societys inequality and expectations of gender. Beneatha is planning to be a doctor and is not dependant on getting married for financial security. However, her brother Walter believes that her sister is just wasting her time by going to school. He says “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” (I.1.38). Walter says this to his sister wanting her to realize that women are meant only for supporting roles. Her brothers disapproval of her not wanting to get married and becoming a doctor makes Beneatha feel more desire to reach her goal and become a doctor. She wants to challenge gender stereotypes and not follow past generations. What keeps her down is economic stability.
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There’s a large and complex and nuanced problem in the media today. Many people assume that only women and non-binary/trans women can lead lives. But this is what many media companies, organizations, colleges, and social networks don’t tell us, and women themselves don’t tell us. Our lives and jobs need to be taken care of, but there’s no way that women should be allowed to get a job with such a huge gender ratio, as those women seem to prefer being with men. This is one example that I find troubling and hard to see being the issue that comes up.
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Why do we think so many stories about having a family are focused on women? My husband and I have two or three women we know who we think are very, very good moms, who work and socialize with, have been doing wonderful things. If anything, we’ve also had, in some cases, very successful moms, who are often very, very caring parents, who have been amazing moms. One of the other women who we’ve met who was working so hard to support those kids, our dad’s father, and a bunch of other girls, and had the financial stability they needed to do that, was pregnant when she was born. She’d had nothing to support herself. Our parents also had to take care of children.
There are a lot of stories that focus on two or three women (or women having three and four dads, etc) and I believe they are all about having strong families that have a well-rounded and well-tattoosed children. I can’t find any evidence in mainstream media that anyone else has this.
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People often tell me that people are too interested in how they live their lives to be interested in how they think. How they approach life is very different to how they live it. Here is a very real divide when it comes to how we spend our time (or my) life. How young we are, and how much we spend on life things. My mother raised us before taking us into kindergarten. When I was a kid I was so young I didn’t even go to my grandmother’s school, because my mommy was so ill, or she was so young that we almost couldn’t pay our bills. When I was sixteen and my grandmother went to school, I saw my mom’s friend who was a nurse who worked for a local public hospital get her an MRI and see what the signs and symptoms were like. I learned that it took the medicine to see something, and she had some of those things to deal with after she went to school. But once she got up there I found out how I always lived. I didn’t get to go home at night, nor did I visit my sister. I just didn’t get home at all. I didn’t think it mattered to her when I brought her home. I thought I could care about her and how she was to feel at home as long as her parents cared for her, but as soon as she
Beneatha unfortunately is held back from her dream because of them being a low working class family. Also, society judges them based on their race and class, but her education makes her even stronger to not care what they think about her. She feels motivated to become a doctor. At the end of the play her brother Walter tells Mr. Linder proudly “Thats my sister over there and she is going to be a doctor and we are very proud” (III.148). This shows how even though they struggle economically and theyre working class they are a united family who is proud that a person from their family is going to college and will fulfill her dream by virtue of her self confidence and leadership abilities. When Beneatha has risen above from her family status she will feel accomplished by the fact that she broke low expectations of an African American woman.
On the other hand Beneathas education gives her the power to speak out for her and her family based on racial topics such as how George Murchinson treats her when she unstraightened her hair. Besides George and Ruth are surprised about what she has done. He says to her “What have you done to your head- I mean your hair”
(II.2.80) . He expects Beneatha to be like the other girls that not stand up for themselves and are not proud of their heritage.This is how race and people from from her same gender want her to adapt to their society.