With the loss of the money to fund her dream, Beneatha appears to have lost her pride in her identity, which was intimately tied to her dream of becoming a doctor.
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.
What is Beneatha struggling with?
Her lack of conviction in her own identity allows the characters of George and Asagai to influence her thoughts. By the end of the play, there is no concrete closure to Beneatha’s struggle for identity, which is likely intentional. In Act III, Asagai proposes to Beneatha and asks her to return to Africa with him.
What is Beneatha’s struggle in A Raisin in the Sun?
One character, Beneatha, faces an obstacle that is out of her control. This obstacle is gender inequality. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, gender inequality is experienced by Beneatha and reflects the struggles women faced in the 1950s.
What did Beneatha gain?
When she realizes this dependence, she gains a new perspective on her dream and a new energy to attain it in her own way. This realization also brings her closer to Walter.
What does Beneatha say when Walter loses the money?
Beneatha laments that with the loss of the insurance money her dream for the future has been stolen “right out of my hands.” Asagai asks Beneatha whether the money was hers, inquiring more specifically whether she earned it or would have received it if Big Walter hadn’t died.
What does Beneatha do at the end of the play?
When we leave Beneatha at the play’s conclusion, she is even considering marrying Asagai and practicing medicine in Africa. We never get to find out what ultimately happens to Beneatha, but we here at Shmoop hope somehow she finds that thing she’s looking for.
What is Beneatha’s personal conflict?
Throughout the play, Beneatha struggles to find her identity. We also see her trying to assimilate into the dominant white culture in American society, and then to Asagai’s African society. This internal conflict between assimilation and identity shapes Beneatha’s character.
Why does Beneatha change her hair?
Rather than force her hair to conform to the style society dictates, Beneatha opts for a style that enables her to more easily reconcile her identity and her 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.
How has Beneatha changed throughout the play?
Beneatha’s search for her identity is a motif carried throughout the play; the closer she gets to Africa via her relationship with Joseph Asagai, the more she develops into a pleasant, likeable, and less egocentric person.
What is stopping Beneatha from becoming a doctor?
Beneatha grieves for her dying dream of becoming a doctor. She no longer believes she can attain her goal because the source for tuition money has dried up. She explains that, in her view, curing people is a real way of providing miracles for others.
Why did Beneatha say she wouldn’t marry George?
Why did Beneatha say she wouldn’t marry George? He was too conceited. He was too poor. He was too shallow.
Why is Beneatha looking for her identity?
In “A Raisin in the Sun”, Beneatha’s search for her identity is used as the play’s vehicle to explore one of the play’s themes of the challenges of finding one’s identity and culture, while trying to overcome the pressures to assimilate into the dominant culture of the society you are living in.
Did Beneatha change or stay the same?
Hansberry makes the characters have a tough life so when they achieve what they want, it’s a greater reward than someone who had an easy life. The main reason Beneatha changed so much during this play because of how people treated her. Beneath goes through major changes in the play.
How was the money lost in raisin in the sun?
How does Walter lose the insurance money? Walter loses the insurance money to Willy, a crook that he mistakes for a friend. Mama entrusts Walter with all the money that remains after the down payment on the new house.
What does Beneatha’s nickname mean?
When Asagai says goodbye, he calls Beneatha by a nickname, “Alaiyo.” He explains that it is a word from his African tribal language, roughly translated to mean “One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.” He leaves, having charmed both women.
What does Joseph do when Beneatha is upset about losing her college money?
Lesson Summary
Beneatha is forced to change her dream after Walter loses all of her tuition money. Joseph Asagai has a solution. He asks Beneatha to go with him to Nigeria to practice medicine there, as his wife. Mama is beginning to think that the house was not meant to be when Walter comes in after contacting Mr.
What does Beneatha most want mama to do with the insurance money?
Finally, Beneatha, Walter’s sister and Mama’s daughter, wants to use the money for her medical school tuition.
Why does Beneatha call Walter a toothless rat?
Since the first scene, Walter’s sister Beneatha has been set apart from the rest of the family. Beneatha is ambitious and plans on becoming a doctor, but plans change once her brother loses all of her school money, and she consequently call him, “ nothing but a toothless rat” (ARITS 3.1. 117).
Is Raisin in the Sun a happy ending?
A Raisin In The Sun Ending At the end of the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the family is getting ready to move into their new home. Although the family just lost all of their money, this is a happy ending to the story.
Why does Beneatha want to express herself?
She is constantly seeking ways to express herself because she is under the false impression that she can access all the world has to offer. The culture of the time wants to force her into stereotypes that fall short of her visions. Bennie suffers from an arrogance and an ignorance about her dreams.