Raising in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

Characters

Lena Younger,

Lena Younger is the mother of two children, Beneatha and Travis. A dedicated hard working lady who is God fearing. Lena lives in a small apartment with her two children, daughter in law, and grandson. Lena has a strong loyalty to her family but is experiencing some emotional turmoil as she has recently lost her husband. Lena has discovered that she will inherit a lump sum of money from a life insurance policy. This additional money has placed Lena in a situation where she is divided on how to spend the money, she wishes to give it to the church, but giving her living conditions with her extended family and her loyalty to them she decides to purchase a bigger house (A Raisin in the Sun, 1961). I believe that her family is dependent upon her and takes advantage of her loyalty.

Beneatha Younger,

Usually self-sufficient Beneatha struggles to gain approval from the society she lives in as well as the African American world. Beneatha is well educated and is living with her family while she attends college. Beneatha's conceited attitude toward her family member's awareness for the Africans way of life and culture is ridiculed when she accepts a gift from her Nigerian friend and neglects to wear it to honor the genuine African American style. To compensate for a understanding, Beneatha made a remark to her Nigerian friend Asagai, she asserted, "I am looking for my identity," this indicates that Beneatha is in fact confused because she is enduring mental clashes between her family's social and economic status and their ethnicity in their community in which for the most part is all Caucasian (A Raisin in the Sun, 1961).

Walter Younger

The son of Lena, Walter is 35, married and has a son. Walter is employed as a chauffeur, but dreams of being a successful business owner. This dream is obstructed by a lack of education, and economics. Walter works hard for little pay during the day, he spends his nights thinking of get rich quick ideas so he can take care of his family like he feels a man should. Walter believes that money will solve the family problems, however Walter mismanages money. The family including his mother respects him as the man of the house. The family maintains their faith in him and considers him a hero. Walter makes a poor decision and gets his mother to give him the insurance money to invest which falls through which compounds his feelings as a financial failure to the family.