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Pride And Prejudice In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Pride And Prejudice In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
One of the most powerful motivators in life is pride. People will go against their wants, desires, and even die for what they are prideful about. Pride can encourage a person to do something so small that has very minimal effect on anything or something so large that the world is changed as a result. Prejudice is one of many things that challenge the idea of pride. Prejudice is prejudgment that is not based on reasons or actual experiences. In simple terms, prejudice is judging a book by its cover. A person can feel prejudice towards a single individual or to an entire group of people, but in either sense the effects are felt by the victims none the less. Both pride and prejudice are major themes that Lorraine Hansberry weaved throughout her play A Raisin in the Sun and in turn these themes have affected the main characters in many different ways.

The first time I noticed pride appear in the play is right at the beginning of act 1, scene 1 when the stage director is illustrating the setting. He …show more content…
At this point of the play Walter is coming to realization that he is doing a lousy job of supporting the family and he truly believes he can do better. He thinks that in order to do better though he needs money and because of this he believes "life is money." Lena replies to Walter shamefully, "You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done" (). Obviously, Walter, not being happy about where he is in life, upsets Mama greatly. Lena and Big Walter had worked really hard to provide a future for their children and now Walter is ashamed of their rundown apartment and lower-class lifestyle. Walter longs for a bigger and better future. Even though her children are losing pride of their lives, Lena continues to be proud of where she and her family have
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