A RAISIN IN THE SUN

• 'She's me, eight years ago.' 


  Hansberry on Beneatha
• 'her identity is the merging of Africanism and Americanism and none of them should be sacrificed.' 


  Nowrouzi and Faghfori on Beneatha
• 'her preoccupation with Walter eating his eggs (and dictating how they're made) prefigures her unplanned pregnancy, while working enslaved women's reproduction being used to generate more slaves.' 


  Obsborne on Ruth
• 'her children are her 'harvest' and the character of Walter was 'hills and valleys' 


  Osborne on Mama
• Mama has 'a love that connects interpersonal healing to larger social contexts.' 


  Rose
• 'i could no longer imagine myself allowing the youngers to accept his obscene offer of money than i could imagine myself allowing them to accept a cash payment for thier own murder.'

  Hansberry on Lindnder
• 'You see, our people dont really have a choice. We must come out of the ghettos of America, because the ghettos are killing us, not only our dreams, as Mama says, but our very bodies.' Hansberry
• 'black people ignored the theater, because the theatre ignored them.'

  James Baldwin.
• 'entrenched attitudes about race make the challenges its characters face still relevant.'

  Claire Brennan.
• 'the primary target of her scorn for capatalitic values is George Murchinson.'
• 'Hansberry seems to be making a claim that African Americans are able to exist between these two extremes.' Brady
• Beneatha is a 'walking contridiction.' Brady
• He represents how assimilation may benefit AAs financially, but strips them of their culture - Brady.
• George normalizes a standard eurocentric appearance, distancing himself from an AA identity, and acting upon internalized racism - Brady.
• Whilst Joseph Asagai is presented in a more favourable light than George, he is still presented as patronizing and contributing to patriachal ideologies - Brady
• Asagai holds the patriarchal attitude that romantic love should be 'enough' for a woman: he claims all she needs is for him to grant her infatuation. (Brady)
• Asagai stifles Beneathas self creation: telling her what she needs and who she should be: 'queen of the nile' (Brady)
• Brady argues that both Asagai and George seek to influence Beneatha into doing what they think is right for an AA woman: they share intentions.
• Brady argues that their shared intention of controlling Beneatha becomes even clearer in Asagais case at the beginning of the Act3.
• Brady argues that Asagai is flawed in the same way that Afrocentrism is flaws: it is loft and unattainable.
• Brady argues that Beneatha provides an insight into a shared experience of AA grappling with their cultural identity.
• 'though Beneatha may be naive, her identity crisis is a valid experience created by an oppressive culture: and she deserves to be taken seriously' (Brady)
• Brady argues: Beneatha wants to find her community and a label for who she is: which is likely why afrocentrism is appealing to her: it is an evocation to the part of her soul that longs for a distinct identity.
• Brady argues it is notable that her character does not have a singular identity. and thats part of what makes her a multifaceted character
• Beneatha is a 'walking contridiction' (Brady)