A Raisin in the Sun- blog 5

          In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter and Beneatha Younger both want a better way of life for either themselves and/or their family. They each have their own approach and each desire to gain something different from it. Walter has been talking to his friends about starting a new business, a liquor store. He brings it up many times because he wants Mama to use the insurance money to sponsor the liquor store. Throughout the play, Walter is becoming crazy with the idea of this project and when he sees that he is not getting his way, he becomes a madman. He changes the mood of the story from having a  hardworking, sincere family to having a broken up, crazy family. As the play continues, his desire to reach his goals bring him to trust his supposed "friend" to keep the money and in return is fooled by his "friend", who steals all of the money. Beneatha wants the life of a white person. She wants to be modern and wants to be able to do all of the things that rich people do. The problem with this is that the Youngers don't have money for her to be pleasing herself this way. Beneatha has to learn that things can't always go her way and that if they do, she must be thankful. By the end of the play, Beneatha has learned that in order for her to earn what she has, she must work for it. Asagai asks her critical questions, "But did you earn it? would you have had it at all if your father had not died?" I think Asagai makes a great point here about how everyone is fighting over this money that if it weren't for Big Walter, they would not have. I think at this point Beneatha has to understand that she can not be selfish and mad about Walter losing the family money.