The Theme of Money Is Not Everything in the Lorraine Hansberry, a Raisin in the Sun.

The Theme of Money is not Everything in the Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s drama A Raisin in the Sun the round characters, which are the Younger family is finding out the hard way that wealth can be found in other forms than money. In this play the low class Younger family is shown through bad experiences that material things are worthless.

One of the main characters Lena Younger also known as Mama, lost her husband and is waiting for the arrival of the insurance check of ten thousand dollars. Mama is a retired house made and is the mother of Walter and Beneatha Younger. Beneatha is a student trying to become a doctor. Walter has a wife named Ruth and a son named Travis. They all live under same roof but there dreams are not the same.

Throughout the family there were a lot of ideas on how to spend the money. Mama’s dream was to buy a house in a nice neighborhood for the family to live in. She also wanted to put away money so her daughter Beneatha could complete medical school. When asked by Ruth what would she do with the money Mama said “Some of it would be put away for Beneatha’s schoolin…we maybe could meet the note on a little two-story house somewhere.”(p.1782)

Beneatha and Ruth loved mama’s dream, because their dream was mama’s too.. Ruth loved the idea of getting a new house in a nice neighborhood, because she hated the “rat trap” (pg.1782) they had been living in. Beneatha dream was to use the money to go medical school. On the hand Walter’s dream was to buy and invest in a liquor store.

Mama goes out and buys house using thirty-five hundred of the ten thousands dollars. She then gives the rest of the money to Walter and tells him to put aside “three thousand dollars…for Beneatha’s medical schooling.”(pg 1808) And she told Walter to put the money in a checking account with his name on it, and every penny is for him to spend as he see fit. Mama tells Walter “It ain’t much, but it is all I got in this world and I’m putting it in your hands.” (pg. 1808)

But instead of doing what Mama told him to do, Walter goes and