A Raisin in the Sun (1)

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

In Raisin, two main character's who strive to change their current situation are Walter and Beneatha. While Walter dreams of more simple and selfish ideas of achievement, Beneatha wants to become greater in a more radical and social way.

For Walter, his greatest motive throughout the play is the most greedy one of all, money. Although he speaks of aspirations of owning yachts and heading board meetings, all these center strictly around his accumulation of cash. It is what he believes to be the biggest provider of happiness and the most satisfying end there is. What seems to drive Walter towards this goal is his great amount of pride violently mixed with the inferior life he has been living. When confronted about his job by his mom, he answers, "A job. Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, "yes,sir; no, sir... Mama, that ain't no job"" (Hansberry 73). Instead of that chaefuer, he wishes to be the fat cat banker riding backseat.

As for Beneatha, she strives to gain an intellectual intelligence that will then propel her to make advancements and move big worlds in the oppressive time period. In this play, she completely represents the ambitious woman of this new age of civil rights, who wants to excel out in the real world. Although Beneatha's goals of making enduring changes to the culture may contain some selfish aspects, her hopes are still much less greedy than Walter, who ignorantly just wishes to gain money and power. At least Beneatha has a part in her dream in which she wishes to give back.