Beneatha as a paradigm for African American Women in A...

In Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun a number of social issues are both explicitly and subtly exemplified through out the characters experiences and relationships. Living in a cramped Chicago apartment, the Youngers’ display both influential goals and conflicting restraints. Beneatha Youngers is a controversial character; she complicates society’s typical gender roles, introduces the wrestle between assimilation and ancestry of African-Americans, but specifically serves as a paradigm for her generation in the play. When Beneatha is first introduced in the play, we see her waking up on a regular morning; she is living under the same confined circumstances as the rest of the characters. Prior to Beneatha’s entrance, the†¦show more content†¦She makes it clear she has acquired a higher education with her word choice and her ability to smoothly blend her Mid-Western accent, that at the same time she has not seemed to unfasten. As we s ee from her first entrance, Beneatha is a loud and outspoken character. She is a single young female living in a home with Ruth and Mama. Quite similar as characters, they share traditional values and believe women should care for the wellbeing of their family. Ruth and Mama take pride in doing domestic service work as their source of income and are continuously seen putting their children’s needs before theirs. Hansberry uses Beneatha’s character to contradict these values and introduce a character with modern feminist views. Beneatha fiercely fires back to anyone who questions her life goals. She is constantly found bickering with Walter about her dream of becoming a doctor. She is reminded by him that â€Å"girls† shouldn’t be doctors. Beneatha voices her feelings on male dependency when she mentions to Mama and Ruth â€Å"Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet - if I ever get marriedâ € , and they respond with a shocked â€Å"if!†(50). The idea of a woman not wanting to get married was shocking to Mama and Ruth. Beneatha feels that she does not need to be dependent on a man; she has one goal, to become a doctor. She does not need a man in her life, she feels perfectlyShow MoreRelated Stereotypes and Identity in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun3301 Words   |  14 Pagesdescribes a â€Å"deferred† dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and â€Å"turned black† (Jemie 63). This idea provides Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. As the poem goes on, Hughes depicts the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. According to Onwuchekwa Jemie, this may be an allusion to the American Dream and its empty promises (JemieRead MoreAmerican Dream in a Raisin in the Sun4319 Words   |  18 Pageselse, in the same perspective, people mistake Beneatha for somebody she is not especially because of her hair, her nigerian clothes gifted onto her by Asagai. As they consider her to be who she is not, they will expect or even compel her to behave as the one they mistake her for 2. One’s Own Conception on Identity The poem â€Å"Harlem† captures the tension between the need for black expression and the impossibility of that expression because of American society’s oppression of its black population