A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, contains many conflicts and prejudice injustices through out the story. It draws your attention to each characters dream, aspirations, and their individual characteristics. A Raisin in the Sun is symbolic, shows Walter’s progress as a dynamic character, the development of Mama’s understanding of herself and her harvest (children) and finally the influences Big Walter had on their lives. There are many different instances where the title is symbolic. African Americans are black like a raisin. They work even at an old age like Mama. It sort of represents slavery. How you must suffer and toil under the sun while you get older and more depleted. Does your dream shrivel like a raisin in the sun? Sometimes they do. Dreams are our seed of hope and endurance. Sometimes it’s what keeps us going and gives us a purpose/challenge in life. Mama described them as plain working folk. After much debate and hardship Mama relents and gives the rest of her money to Walter because she believed in him and still had trust in him. At first she didn’t want to give him the money because she didn’t think selling liquor is respectable or proper. She finally saw the situation from her son’s eyes and gave him the shot/money he needed. At the end she finally turns over her place as head of the household to Walter. At first she thought her children prideful. Even though Walter had disgraced the memory of his father she still found a way to forgive him. She started to slowly understand her children’s perspective on things. By relenting her authority over the family to him it allowed Walter to grow and to take his place as the head of the family. Just as she tends to her poor plant she attends to her family who is so much like her little plant. Big Walter was the epitome of an honest, hardworking man, who stuck to what he believed in and had pride in who and what he was. He was also the one to have left them with $10,000. This was his