Planet Earth… a world full of choices and consequences. A single choice can make a person either feel dignity or disgrace. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows readers that dignity is a struggle for people because of their race as seen through Beneatha wanting to be a doctor and nobody believing in her and Walter being a disgrace to the family for having a bad job and losing $10,000 worth of inheritance following the death of his father. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is about a black family’s experiences living in poverty in Chicago until they receive a $10,000 check from the life insurance of their previously deceased father. The title of this book was based off of the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes which is about having a dream and pursuing it which is also an accurate summary of this book. Everyone has their own dreams and goals for their life but whether they decide to live it or not is up to them. Free will gives us choices to show dignity or disgrace. Whether a person shows dignity or disgrace can cause a person to feel honor and fight or they feel shame and fly away from their problems. Walter Lee and Beneatha have points of dignity and disgrace and they chose that path. A person in the real world can choose to fight or flight.
Throughout the book, Walter Lee Younger shows many cases of disgrace which causes him to run away from his problems. But he can also have points of dignity if he is put to the test, but when you think about it Walter just wants to live the American Dream of being successful and being able to provide for his family, this is not easy though. There is a lot of luck and chance involved. When a person gets to such a low place of not reaching their goal, than they feel they have to numb those feelings in a way. Walter uses drinking as relief, Other people use other methods. These ways are not healthy and can cause a family to fall apart. My family has fallen apart when they found out my ways of numbing the pain. It is not healthy but sometimes a person has to hurt their family and themselves just to feel something. I don’t fully blame Walter. I think we can all agree he did not always make the best decisions, but he drank to feel something even if it was anger. During this part of the story, Walter shows disgrace when talking to George. “No he don’t! Excuse me for what? What you always excusing me for what! I’ll excuse myself when I needs to be excused!”(83) Walter should not have talked to his wife like that. Sometimes a person is acting in a certain way that other people need to apologize for them. I’m not defending Walter though. Sometimes a person can show disgrace by not saying anything. When Ruth wanted to get rid of the baby Walter did not say anything. Both Mama and Ruth were wanting to have Walter say something to have her keep the child. But instead Walter decided to leave and run away from his problems. Maybe he was thinking if he were to run away maybe his problems they would disappear. That is not how the world works. Mama is telling Walter to tell her no but he doesn’t. ” if you a son of mine, tell her!’ (Walter picks up his keys and his coat and walks out.) ‘ you… You are a disgrace to your father’s memory.” (75) Walter needs to learn that sometimes being sober and facing your problems will help the cause and not create more problems.
Mama is a strong women who constantly shows dignity. Even when she is mad about something she figures it out in the right way. No matter how many stupid things Walter does somehow Mama still finds decency to love her son. In this section of text Mama is talking about her past and how it changed her. “No… something has changed (She looks at him) You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too…Now here come you and Beneatha – talking ‘bout things we ain’t never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar – You my children – but how different we done become.” (74) Mama wanted to tell her son what she had to go through to fully understand. She wants to tell her son about it because she knows history repeats itself. Through the two different generations they have had different experiences and pain changes people. If Walter knew one thing about Mama he didn’t already know his outlook on life and how he looks at her would be completely different. Often it is hard to have people admit that they are wrong. No one likes to say “ I’m wrong” Some think it shows weakness but in reality it is dignity. Mama needs to let her son know that she was wrong and apologize for what she said. “Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you. (She turns off the radio.) Walter-What you ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing as precious to me. There ain’t nothing worth holding onto, money, dreams, nothing else-if it means-if it means it’s going to destroy my boy.” Mama thinks she is wrong to keep the money from Walter. Mama is a strong woman who loves her children so much. She is the kind of person I want to be one day.
Beneatha shows cases both of dignity and disgrace sometimes it causes her to flee from her problems and sometimes leads her to fight them. In this first quote, Beneatha shows dignity when she stands up for herself. She tells George that it is not okay for him to talk to her like that. She is not property to the man. After George and Beneatha arrive home after their date, Beneatha wants to talk to George and wants to have an intelligent conversation but George says “ I know it and I don’t mind it sometimes… I want you to cut it out, see- The moody stuff, I mean. I don’t like it. you’re a nice looking girl… all over. That’s all you need, honey, forget the atmosphere. Guys aren’t going to go for the atmosphere– they’re going to go for what they see. Be glad for that. Drop the Garbo routine. It doesn’t go with you. As for myself, I want a nice– (Grouping)– simple (Thoughtfully)– Sophisticated girl… not a poet– OK?” In more of direct way George is saying he wants Beneatha as a pleasure toy that makes him breakfast and does what “every women” should do. After more of the conversation goes on Beneatha says “ I see. (he starts to sit) Good night, George.”(97) Obviously that is not alright with Beneatha and she just lets him go because one of the most important things in a relationship is that you have some of the same viewpoints. Often with finding what you want to do in life, you make mistakes. Beneatha is only human so she does make mistakes in the path to self discovery. When she is talking with Asagai about what Walter did with the money, she starts to give up on her dreams of being a doctor. “Because it doesn’t seem deep enough, close enough to what ails mankind! It was a child’s way of seeing things–or an idealist’s”(133) A famous quote says “When I was a child I thought like a child and acted like a child…” This is true. She wanted to be a doctor when she saw her friend injured. She wants to help people. She doesn’t care what the world says that women cannot be doctors. She doesn’t care at all. What exactly happened that made Beneatha give up on her dreams? What hurt her caused her to stop trying?
Dignity: a sense of pride in oneself or the state of being worthy of honor and respect. This is the definition of dignity. If a person feels dignity and honor you will choose to fight for what they believe. If a person feels disgrace you tend to flee from their problems. Finding dignity can be a lifetime struggle but in the end it’s worth it. Walter has many points of disgrace but that doesn’t make him the worse. Mama has a lot of cases of dignity but that doesn’t make her the best. And Beneatha has cases of both, that doesn’t make her incomplete. It just makes them all human. If she did not have Asagai as a support system she would have fully given up or put it off. What exactly happens if a dream is put off… Does it dry up? Does it fester and run? Does it stink? Does it crust and sugar over?… Or does it explode?