Comparing the Mothers in The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the ideas of the “American Dream” of the American 1950’s. Though the idea of the “American Dream” commonly refers to white suburbia, Hansberry takes a different stance on the idea. Set in the South Side of Chicago, the play details a few days in the life of an African American family known as the Youngers. The Family consists of the grandmother, known as “Mama”, her two children, Beneatha and Walter, and Walter’s wife Ruth and son Travis. The family lives collectively in their tiny apartment, where much of the play takes place. After the Patriarch of the family passes away and leaves $10,000 to Mama, the Younger family debates about what the money should be put towards. Ultimately, though their ideas compete, each individual's goal ultimately aims at escaping poverty and

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is a Drama about a generous insurance check that could mean either a profit-making gain for the younger family or destroy the already suffering family. “The Younger family comprises of Mama, Beneatha, her son Walter and his significant other Ruth, and her grandson Travis.” (Synopsis) “The family has lived in the same cramped Chicago dump for quite a long time”.(Synopsis)Walter is a taxi driver and Ruth fills in as low maintenance house keeper. Mother has recently resigned as she is expecting a $10,000 check from her croaked fathers allotment. There are many themes of this play, but the one that stood out most to me is the theme hopes, plans and Dreams.The Younger family is given a chance to realize

A Raisin in the Sun is more than a play about dreams, but rather a dramatization of Walter Lee’s coming into manhood amidst the conflict of Mama’s generational idea of freedom and Walter Lee’s generational idea of financial stability. Walter Lee comes to an understanding that his mother wants stability for the family just as he does. However, it takes for him to humble himself in the midst of his mistakes in order to make the ultimate decision of keeping the house for the benefit of his family.

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is a play about African American family living in Southside Chicago. A Raisin in the Sun portrays different ideas of the American dream through the Younger family members, and shows how these individuals struggle to achieve their personal dream in times of racism and social inequality. The character Walter Lee Younger dreams of becoming a successful businessman and providing more for his family.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. Each individual of the Younger family has a separate dream-Beneatha wants to become a doctor, Walter wants to open a liquor store, and Ruth and Mama want a new and better home. Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation.

The play, A Raisin in the Sun, is written by Lorraine Hansberry. The setting of the play is in Chicago’s Southside and the time is in the 1950s. Walter and Mama are the two characters that influence the plot the most. The characters are involved in a series of conflicts which issue this. One of those conflicts include the family fighting over money and who are falling apart without even realizing it.

A Raisin in the Sun is a play written in 1950 by Lorraine Hansberry, an African American writer. The main characters are the Younger family; Mama, her son Walter Lee, her daughter Beneatha, Walter Lee’s son Travis, and Walter Lee’s wife Ruth. The play dramatizes a conflict between the main characters’ dreams and their struggles in poverty. The characters’ lives as a low income working black family contribute to their connection with poverty. One’s work identifies who you are in society.

A Raisin In The Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry. In this play, the Youngers were a poor African.American family living on the South side of Chicago. An opportunity to escape from poverty comes when the family receives a $10,000 life insurance check that the Mama gets after her husband's death. Each of the family members has their own dream. Mama wants to have a new house with a garden, but instead she lives in an apartment with one window and a little plant. Walter wants to help the family by opening the liquor store, Ruth just wants the best for her new family, and Beneatha wants to finish school to become a doctor. When mama invests the money on a new house and not

The American dream is a goal that is constantly chased by many people, and Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays it through numerous characters throughout the story. A Raisin in the Sun is a play that follows the Younger family living in the South side of Chicago during the 1950’s as they struggle with poverty. The African American family centers around a man named Walter Younger living with his wife Ruth, his son Travis, his sister Beneatha, and Mama Lena. The family of five are crammed into a tiny apartment having to share a bathroom with another family living in the same building. However, the poor family eventually receives an opportunity to escape poverty when they collect a ten thousand dollar check after the death of Walter Sr.

“A Raisin in the Sun” is about the Younger Family who live in a small apartment in Chicago. The family is torn apart as every member has different dreams and goals, yet Mama and her daughter-in-law Ruth desperately attempt to hold the family all together. In both the movie and the play, the family’s dreams remain the same. Mama wants her family to get along and she wants to purchase a house. Her son, Walter, wants the life insurance money from his father to invest in a liquor store to achieve his goal of becoming a businessman. These dreams remain the same, but in the movie, certain scenes are added in order to give Walter a motive for his desire, other than pure greed. The additional scenes make it less obvious that his friend Willy is going to scam them. The movie visually displays the apartment in a better light than the play describes but still had the characters talk about the roaches and cracked walls. In “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the differences in script between the original play and the movie increase the family’s desperation to get out of their apartment, and add to the complexity of Walter’s motivation, all which make the movie more powerful overall.

Set in 1950’s Chicago, Illinois, the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is considered one of the best African American dramas. Centered around an African American family living in the Southside of Chicago the play portrays the family’s struggle for a better life. When Walter and Beneatha Younger’s father, Big Walter, dies their mother, Mama, is left with a ten-thousand-dollar life insurance check. However, each family member has their own idea of how to use the check to achieve a better life. Mama believes that leaving the slums will ensure a better life for her children while Beneatha trusts that education is the best way to end their poverty, but Walter believes the only way to advance in life is by incredibly wealthy. After Mama

A tragic hero can be described as a person of honorable or heroic qualities who has a flaw in character that is eventually the persons demise in a play. In the play, “The Glass Menagerie”, the mother of Tom and Laura, Amanda, is the modern tragic hero of this play. Published in 1944, The playwright, “The Glass Menagerie” was written by Tennessee Williams and was first performed in 1945. The play takes place in St. Louis, Missouri, during the Great Depression, which is important to understand why the characters are who they are. The play is all from Tom’s prospective who is an inspiring poet that works at a warehouse in order to support his loving but controlling mother Amanda, and his younger, shy sister, Laura. Out of all the characters in

I chose the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry because in my perspective the play symbolizes the struggle of the African American meaning we had to work twelve times as hard as a white person. Being an African American back then you had to live the stereotype of living in poor housing, poor education, poor jobs that paid almost nothing while the Whites lived the high, rich life with all the best schooling, jobs, pay and housing. The struggles of the African American family losing the main breadwinner also known as the husband means that the oldest son took on the responsibility of providing for the family which was the actor Walter. Walter had to face the world alone trying to take care of his mother, the character names Mama and his wife Ruth and the rest of the family. The $10,000 came from the deceased husband of Mama’s life insurance policy and she wanted to use the money to buy a house for the family and create stability for everyone, but everyone had their own idea of what they wanted to do with the money and not being on one accord. Now that I have given an overview, let’s start with the explanation of actors/ actresses, set (including venue,

A Raisin in the Sun, became the first drama written and produced by an African- American to be played on Broadway, reflecting the issues that not only blacks faced but the American people. Lorraine Hansberry, precisely projects the struggle of the Youngers, a poor African American family living on the South Side of Chicago. They live in a one-bedroom apartment where the building is run down, battered, and roach infested. An opportunity to escape from poverty comes from a life insurance check that Lena Younger (Mama) receives upon her husband’s death. This tragedy raises hope for a family that has a lot of ideas and dreams for the future.  Lena's children Walter and Beneatha each have their own plans for the money. The oldest son Walter wants to invest in a liquor store. The younger sister Beneatha, currently a college student, wants to use the money for medical school. However, Mama has plans to buy a house for the family and finance Beneatha's medical school. The Younger family goes through several conflicts involving the money, but the scene closes with the family finally moving out of the apartment to a better, primarily white neighborhood, where despite negative reactions from their soon to be neighbors, they will hopefully start a better life. A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, portrays the reality of housing segregation in the play's plot, authorial time as well as in modern time.

The McCourt family is a family consisting of one female and four male personnel, not including the dead members, and it is depicted in the novel that Frank, the oldest brother, to take the of “breadwinner” of the family and everyone is dependent on him. The call for Frank to become the breadwinner was a huge role for him an example of this dependency is during when Angela, the mother, was sick and wanted to drink lemonades and in response, Frank took initiative and stole lemonade for his mother, but also stole bread and jam for his likewise helpless brothers. This scene from the book showcases how Frank was anticipated to accept the role of the Father since the main cause of income, the Father, has left. Similarly, in Glass Menagerie, Tom is unwillingly forced to take the role of the “breadwinner”. An example of Tom being the Father of the family is, “House, house! Who pays rent on it, who makes a slave of himself to—” (Pg. 24, Tennessee). The mindset of the society at the time when this play and novel was produced, is that the male would be the one in charge of making the money and the females doing house work, this family culture greatly affected both the protagonist as they are to provide instead of