Group 3

In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun she addresses a number of issues facing the African American community.  First, she discusses the problem of how African Americans should go about in order to achieve full equality. Second, Hansberry also considers whether or not African Americans should assimilate into mainstream American culture. Due to the legalization of segregation through Jim Crow and “separate but equal” laws, racist America tends to the “separate” while disregarding the “equal.” In turn, America has made no progress even with the implementation of laws that supposedly equalize blacks and whites.

In A Raisin in the Sun, different characters offer different views on how African Americans should continue their struggle for more freedom.  Walter believes that African Americans will eventually achieve equality through acquiring a significantly larger income.  Ruth explains to Mama that: “Walter Lee says colored people aint never going to start getting ahead until they start gambling on some different kinds of things in the world – investments and things” (42).  So, Walter thinks that African Americans best path forward is for them to become successful business people and get more dignified jobs and lives.  However, some African Americans in the play, including Beneatha and George, see going to school as the best way to pursue freedom and do this.  But Walter disagrees and gets on to George for going to school, asking him, “They teaching you how to be a man? How to take over and run the world? … Naw just to talk proper and read books…” (85).  Mama is more content with the current situation than her children are.  She says to Walter, “You aint satisfied or proud of nothing we done” (74). This reflects how each new generation expects more freedoms than the last. Mama expresses her concern over remaining “alive” and having “a pinch of dignity,” but her children want an education that will ensure them stability, as job opportunities would enable them to move up in the world. Although they disagree about how best to go forward and get more freedom, the younger generation expects more freedom than the older one. 

 In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry also includes the issue of assimilation. When Asagai converses with Beneatha, he mentions that “assimilation is so popular in your country, she gets seriously offended (63). Beneatha retaliates by saying that she “hates assimilationist Negroes” (81). She believes that African Americans should hold onto their heritage and continue to fight for freedom without the need to assimilate to a suppressive America. She explains that mainstream American culture is “oppressive,” so African Americans should definitely not concede to it, but remain strong and true to themselves (81). However, George considers this as ridiculous and mentions that African Americans’ heritage is nothing special.  He states, “African Americans’ heritage is just “a bunch of raggedy ass spirituals and some grass huts” (81). However, Beneatha responds by saying that Africans were the “first to smelt iron on the face of the earth” (81). Nevertheless, the presence of the debate within the African American community over the significance of their African heritage and whether or not they should maintain that part of their identity and try to avoid assimilation into mainstream American society remained an issue throughout their efforts towards full equality.