Mama’s insurance check represents hope of the Youngers fulfilling their dreams. Beneatha’s hair represents her acceptance of her African heritage, and race, and herself rather than assimilation into white culture.
What does the insurance money symbolize in a raisin in the sun?
Mama sees the insurance payment as a way to fulfill her dream of owning a house, which symbolizes her deep-seated yearning for “freedom” from racial persecution. Similarly, Beneatha dreams of the money as a way to fund her medical schooling, which embodies her desire to overcome racism and sexism.
What does Beneatha need money for?
Finally, Beneatha, Walter’s sister and Mama’s daughter, wants to use the money for her medical school tuition. She also wishes that her family members were not so interested in assimilating into the white world.
What was Beneatha’s plan with the money that they received from the insurance company?
She gives control over the remaining $6,500 of the insurance payment to Walter. She tells him to put $3,000 in a savings account for Beneatha’s schooling but gives him complete control over how to spend the rest of the money.
How does Beneatha feel about losing the money?
She is distraught when she learns that Walter not only lost his money in his investment scheme, but that he also used the $3000 that was to be saved for her medical schooling. Her friend Asagai explains to Beneatha that years ago his dream was to learn to read, to study in America, and to make something of himself.
What are 3 symbols in a raisin in the sun?
Some of the symbols are Mama’s plant, Beneatha’s hair, music, the phrase “eat your eggs,” the $10,000 insurance payment, and money more generally.
Who is the first person Lena tells what she did with the insurance money?
Big Walter
His death, which we do not see, causes the action within the play because the entire family awaits the $10,000 insurance check from the passing of the family’s patriarch. The first mention of Big Walter, by name, occurs when Lena tells Ruth what she has been thinking about doing with the insurance money.
How much money did Beneatha get?
Mama feels guilty for his unhappiness and tells him that she has never done anything to hurt her children. She gives him the remaining $6,500 of the insurance money, telling him to deposit $3,000 for Beneatha’s education and to keep the last $3,500.
What happened to Beneatha’s college money?
The rest of the money, she gave to her son, Walter, asking him to put part of it aside for her daughter, Beneatha, to go to medical school. Instead of doing as he was told, Walter invested all of it in a bad business deal and lost all of his and Beneatha’s money in one day.
Why did Beneatha crop her hair?
Beneatha’s Hair
Her new, radical afro represents her embracing of her heritage. Beneatha’s cutting of her hair is a very powerful social statement, as she symbolically declares that natural is beautiful, prefiguring the 1960s cultural credo that black is beautiful.
How has the loss of the money changed Beneatha’s optimism?
How has the lost money changed Beneatha’s optimism? What does she tell Asagai? What is Asagai’s response? She has no more hope or ambition left she tells him that Walter has given away the money (Page 132-133).
What does Beneatha’s dream represent?
Beneatha wants to be a hardworking woman and this connects to the American Dream because hard work is a big component of achieving what you want. Also, she does not want George Murchison stopping her from being a hard-working woman. She does everything by herself and puts her hard work into everything she does.
Why do you think Mama changes her mind and gives Walter the insurance money?
She believed the realization of her dream could eventually open the door for other family member’s dreams. When she realizes she was doing to Walter what the rest of the world was doing, not giving him a chance to be a man, she corrected her actions by giving Walter part of the money to open a personal bank account.
Why has Beneatha lost a hold on her dream?
Beneatha loses all hope in her dream, though, after her brother loses her portion of the $10,000 that is supposed to help pay for medical school. George Murchison and Joseph Asagai are the two men in Beneatha’s life, but she has no interest in marrying them.
Why did Walter use Beneatha’s money?
How does Walter plan to use the insurance money? Walter wants to use the insurance money to invest in a liquor store with his friends Willy and Bobo. Walter sees this investment as an opportunity for him to escape his exhausting and thankless job as a chauffeur.
Why is Beneatha unhappy?
Beneatha is unhappy that Walter is criticizing her because of the cost of her medical school. She does not understand all the hard work that Walter does on a daily basis and the pain that he goes through, knowing that he cannot make his Page 2 family’s dreams come true.
Who is the strongest character in a raisin in the sun?
Interestingly, Hansberry makes Mama, Lena Younger, the strongest character in the play. She always seems to have the right answers while the other characters do not.
What is the most important symbol in a raisin in the sun?
The most overt symbol in the play, Mama’s plant represents both Mama’s care and her dream for her family. In her first appearance onstage, she moves directly toward the plant to take care of it.
What does 50 cents symbolize in a raisin in the sun?
50 Cents. Walter giving Travis an extra fifty cents which is a symbol of his pride and a symbol of how the family years for money.
How much money did Lena Younger receive from his husband’s death insurance?
$10,000
She says, upon receiving the $10,000 insurance check, that, for her part, she’d just as soon donate the entire sum to her church.
Which character retrieves the envelope with the $10000 insurance check from the mailman?
The character Mama gets a check from the insurance company for $10,000 dollars due to her husband’s death and she doesn’t know what to do with it.