Character Analysis Of Mama In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a novel and play about a black family in the early 1900s. They get ten thousand dollars of insurance money because their father died. Throughout the book Walter wants to spend the money on a liquor store but Mama wants to buy a house and support the family. In Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun Mama is a religious, righteous and hopeful character. This influences her family especially her son Walter. First of all mama is religious this helps her family cope with the situation by believing someone is helping them. One of the best demonstrations Mama is religious is shown when ruth is telling her how she wants to be a doctor but Beneatha questions god's existence. “...God is just one idea I don't except. (Mama absorbs the speech... rises slowly and crosses to …show more content…
Near the start of the book Mama and Walter are arguing if they should open a liquor store. Ruth is concerned about Walter so tries to convince Mama to go along with it. “Well… people going to be buying themselves some liquor. Well whether they buy it or not ain't none of my buisness but I ain't going to be selling it to them.” (43) If the liquor store went through they would surely profit from it. However everyone had a bad feeling about Willy Harris. Walter already has a drinking problem so a liquor store will only make it worse. This kind of righteousness led to decisions around her family's future especially travis. She went out and bought a house for travis because it was better long term than a liquor store. when walter asks her if she wasted the money she pulls over travis and tells him. “Guess what mommy did today?… She went out and bought you a house.” (91) This shows how much she cares more about her family than money and how this house definitely saved them. This led to many good decisions and she almost did not let walter waste the
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