1. Wrapping Up A Raisin in the Sun
A close look at the characters and symbols in Hansberry’s play
Wrapping Up A Raisin in the Sun

2. Mama
Freud: Mama is the ego, the balance between the strong voice of Walter Lee Sr. and her son
She struggles to maintain tradition in an evolving world, tries to keep religion in the home
Yet, she has disassociated herself with Africa (her roots) and remembers little of history (as seen with Asagai)
The matriarch of the family, she wants to bring all together through a house
Inspite of her struggle, she tends to her plant, and feels it represents her
Against her better judgment, she leaves Walter to control the money
The money isn’t as valuable as the lesson to teach: how to claim ownership of his manliness and assume his father’s role

3. Walter Lee The relentless dreamer: run by id
His biggest battle is not supporting his family financially, but vocalizing his dreams of success
He abandons his family for alcohol and jazz (chaos ensues as control is lost)
Is pressured to assume his father’s position
Once his “selfish dream” of owning a liquor store is broken, he realizes that reality is better
He is most powerful when speaking to Lidner

4. Beneatha “ The Black Sheep” The most academically educated of all
A modern thinker, feminist
Struggles to find her identity
Doesn’t know her place between the “old world” of Africa (a life of domesticity and compliance) and the “new world” (of independence and opportunity)
Experiments with different past times to find herself
Dates George Murchison(“slave master”) and Asagai (“strong slave”)
Asagai shows her the ways of the past, of her roots and this is where she discovers herself (“there’s no place like home”)
Dream of being a doctor, of helping, of changing
not just about curing illness, but close-mindedness

5. The Plant Represents both Mama’s care and her dream for her family.
In her first moment onstage, she moves directly toward the plant to take care of it.
She admits that it is missing light and water, and is proud of the way it doesn’t cease to flourish
Her care for her plant is akin to the care for her children, unconditional and unending despite a less-than-perfect environment for growth.
The plant also references her dream to own a house and, more specifically, to have a garden and a yard.
With her plant, she practices her gardening skills. Her success with the plant helps her believe that she would be successful as a gardener.
The garden of opportunity, where hope is sewn and dreams are grown

6. Ruth She’s “Ruth”less when it comes to Walter’s dreams and imagination
Works to help with finances
Lost her identity to being a wife and mother
Tired
Considers abortion, but doesn’t do it
She wanted to abort as she was facing more struggle and despair
She is hopeful with the prospect of a new house

7. Beneatha’s Hair At the introduction her hair is straightened
Once Asagai questions her hairstyle, she cuts her after Caucasian-seeming hair.
Her new, radical afro represents her embracing of her heritage.
Beneatha’s cutting of her hair is a bold social statement, as she symbolically declares that natural is beautiful, foreshadowing the 1960s cultural philosophy that “black is beautiful”.
Rather than force her hair to conform to the style society dictates, Beneatha prefers a style that allows her to embrace her identity and culture.
Beneatha’s new hair is a symbol of her anti-assimilationist beliefs as well as her desire to shape her identity by looking back to her roots in Africa.

8. The apartment
The Younger apartment is the only setting throughout the play, highlighting the centrality of the home.
The lighting changes with the mood
With only one window, the apartment is a small, dark area in which all the Youngers feel closed in by.
While some of the play’s action occurs outside of the apartment, the audience sees this action play out in the household.
Most of what happens outside of the apartment includes Travis’s playing out in the street with the rat and Walter’s drinking and delinquency from work.
The home is a electrifying force for the family, one that Mama sees as key to the family’s unity.
The audience sees characters outside the family—Joseph Asagai, George Murchison, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Lindner, and Bobo—only when they visit the apartment. These characters become real through their interactions with the Youngers and the Youngers’ reactions to them. The play ends, fittingly, when Mama, lagging behind, finally leaves the apartment.

9. The comfort of food “Eat Your Eggs”
A command from Ruth to Walter to quiet him.
Walter criticizes this comment to show how women keep men from achieving their dreams
Being calm and eating one’s eggs represents an acceptance of the harsh conditions that Walter and the rest of the Youngers face in life. Walter believes that Ruth, who is making his eggs, keeps him from achieving his dream, and he argues that she should be more supportive of him.
The eggs she makes every day symbolize her mechanical approach to supporting him. She provides him with nourishment, but always in the same, predictable way.
She wants to nourish him, but can’t keep him full and satisfied
She doesn’t see that he hungers for more than food, for love and acceptance

10. Music and Dance
Walter’s jazz is chaotic, he listens to it in the “outside world”, showing his need to let loose of the constraints he faces inside the home
Beneatha plays a blues melody, that Mama doesn’t like; quite literal: “they all have the blues”
Asagai brings Beneatha back through music and dance, she is one of “her people” as she performs a tribal dance
Walter says he is going to perform a “tap dance” for Linder, a reference to minstrelsy

11. Comparing raisin to “the help”
Choose 3/5 following questions and answer in full sentences.
1) Compare Skeeter to Beneatha. (similarities and differences in persona and dreams) /10
2) Compare Ruth to Abeline. (similarities and differences in persona and dreams) /10
Compare Mama to Minne (similarities and differences in persona and dreams) /10
3) Compare the end of Raisin to The Help. Who has the happier ending? Why? (compare and contrast) /10
4) The movie cover for “The Help” is of 3 birds. Who are these “birds”? Who is a “bird” in Raisin? Explain. /10