Brief Biography of Lorraine Hansberry Bobo

Hansberry was raised in an African-American middle-class family with activist One of Walter’s partners in the liquor store plan. Bobo appears to be as mentally slow as his
foundations. The granddaughter of a slave and the niece of a prominent African-American name indicates.
professor, Hansberry grew up with a keen awareness of African-American history and the Willy Harris
ongoing struggle for civil rights. In 1938 Hansberry’s family moved to an all-white neighborhood A friend of Walter and coordinator of the liquor store plan. Willy never appears onstage, which
in Chicago and suffered violent attacks from neighbors, who had signed a restrictive covenant to helps keep the focus of the story on the dynamics of the Younger family.
exclude black families from the community. Hansberry’s family fought the covenant all the way Mrs. Johnson
to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Hansberrys in 1940. Hansberry attended the The Youngers’ neighbor. Mrs. Johnson takes advantage of the Youngers’ hospitality and warns
University of Wisconsin for several years before dropping out and moving to New York in 1950 them about moving into a predominately white neighborhood.
to pursue writing and social activism. Hansberry’s best-known work, A Raisin in the Sun, A Raisin in the Sun Summary
premiered in 1959, making her the first African-American female playwright to have a play A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on the fulfillment of an
produced on Broadway. Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at 34, in 1965. African-American family’s dreams. The play centers on the Youngers, a working-class family
Historical Context of A Raisin in the Sun that lives in Chicago’s South Side during the mid-twentieth century. Shortly before the play
In the 1920s and 30s the discriminatory “Jim Crow” laws in the South prompted many African begins, the head of the Younger family, Big Walter, dies, leaving the family to inherit a $10,000
Americans to relocate to Northern cities, a movement called the Great Migration. Nonetheless, life insurance payment. The family eagerly awaits the arrival of the insurance check, which has
while the North did not have laws demanding policies of segregation be followed, discrimination the potential to make the family’s long deferred dreams into reality. However, the members of
persisted also in the North, leading to segregated housing, education, and employment. In 1949 the Younger family have conflicting ideas—conflicting dreams—regarding the best use for the
the United States Congress passed the National Housing Act to address substandard housing money, which causes tension.
and to provide adequate and more integrated housing options for minorities. In 1954 the At the beginning of the play Mama, Big Walter’s widow, expresses uncertainty
Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation was regarding the best use for the money. Mama tells her daughter-in-law, Ruth, that she and her
unconstitutional. late husband shared the dream of owning a house, but that poverty and racism prevented them
CHARACTERS from fulfilling this dream during Big Walter’s lifetime. Mama’s daughter, Beneatha, aspires to
Walter Lee Younger attend medical school and become a doctor, a considerable challenge for an African-American
The protagonist of the play. Walter is a dreamer. He wants to be rich and devises plans to woman at that time. Beneatha’s older brother, Walter Lee, belittles his sister’s dream, instead
acquire wealth with his friends, particularly Willy Harris. When the play opens, he wants to invest suggesting that she simply get married. Walter wants to use the insurance payment as an
his father’s insurance money in a new liquor store venture. He spends the rest of the play investment in a liquor store, an idea that Mama and his wife Ruth both dislike. Ruth, worried
endlessly preoccupied with discovering a quick solution to his family’s various problems. about her troubled marriage and the family’s cramped living situation, shares Mama’s hope for a
Beneatha Younger (“Bennie”) house, although she is willing to support her husband’s dream because, as she tells Mama, “He
Mama’s daughter and Walter’s sister. Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends needs this chance.” Walter finds his job as a white man’s chauffeur demeaning and he sees the
college and is better educated than the rest of the Younger family. She dreams of being a liquor store investment as the only path towards a better future.
doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well-educated Black woman. On the same day that the check arrives, Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, which
Lena Younger (“Mama”) makes her question whether the family can afford to raise another child. Knowing that Ruth is
Walter and Beneatha’s mother. The matriarch of the family, Mama is religious, moral, and considering an abortion, Mama begs Walter to convince his wife to keep the baby. Walter is
maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance money as a down payment on a house unable to say anything and leaves the apartment. As Mama watches her family “falling apart,”
with a backyard to fulfill her dream for her family to move up in the world. she makes the decision to place a down payment on a home in the white neighborhood of
Ruth Younger Clybourne Park, hoping that her choice to “do something bigger” will bring the family together.
Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother. Ruth takes care of the Youngers’ small apartment. Her Mama’s decision to purchase a house only sends Walter deeper into despair as he
marriage to Walter has problems, but she hopes to rekindle their love. She is about thirty, but sees the opportunity to fulfill his dream disappear. On the other hand, the new house fills Ruth
her weariness makes her seem older. Constantly fighting poverty and domestic troubles, she with joy and hope for her family, helping her to imagine the possibility of a happy future for her
continues to be an emotionally strong woman. unborn child. Several weeks later, Walter continues to grow more despondent and skips work
Travis Younger three days in a row. As Mama realizes that “I been doing to you what the rest of the world been
Walter and Ruth’s sheltered young son. Travis earns some money by carrying grocery bags and doing to you,” she decides to transfer control of the household and the rest of the insurance
likes to play outside with other neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and sleeps on the money to Walter, asking only that he set aside a portion for Beneatha’s schooling. Mama’s
living-room sofa. decision reinvigorates Walter.
Joseph Asagai A week later, the family is happily preparing for its move when Karl Lindner arrives and
A Nigerian student in love with Beneatha. Asagai, as he is often called, is very proud of his tells them of Clybourne Park’s offer to buy their new home as a way to dissuade the family from
African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to learn about her African heritage from him. He moving to the neighborhood. The family confidently refuses the offer. Moments later, Walter’s
eventually proposes marriage to Beneatha and hopes she will return to Nigeria with him. friend Bobo enters and tells Walter that Willy Harris has disappeared with the liquor store
George Murchison investment. Without heeding Mama’s advice, Walter had invested the entirety of the insurance
A wealthy, African-American man who courts Beneatha. The Youngers approve of George, but money in the liquor store, and the loss leaves the family on the brink of financial ruin.
Beneatha dislikes his willingness to submit to white culture and forget his African heritage. He An hour later, the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai visits Beneatha and finds her
challenges the thoughts and feelings of other Black people through his arrogance and flair for distraught over the lost money. Asagai asks Beneatha to marry him and “come home” to Africa
intellectual competition. with him, a sudden proposal that Beneatha says she will need to consider. Soon after, Walter
Mr. Karl Lindner informs the family that he will accept Lindner’s offer, which greatly disappoints them. However,
The only white character in the play. Mr. Lindner arrives at the Youngers’ apartment from the as Walter and his son, Travis, face Lindner, Walter reclaims his dignity and refuses Lindner’s
Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He offers the Youngers a deal to reconsider moving offer. Excited but well aware of the dangers that await them, the Youngers leave their apartment
into his (all-white) neighborhood. and head to their new home.