A Raisin in the Sun- Study Question 8

"Talk about -oldddddddddd-fashioneddddddddddd- Negroes!" PAGE 112

Study question 8 concerns characters who contrast from one another. In a raisin in the sun, Mama and Beneatha contrast each other. They have differing beliefs and philosophies in life. Mama is old fashioned and traditional. Beneatha is more cool and hip. Beneatha does not like Mama's view on some things because she believes she is out of touch and too old fashioned to understand. Beneatha is more of a free spirit who wants to make something of herself. Mama also has a much stronger faith base than Beneatha. She urges Beneatha to think about her faith and think about the reasons God has done something to her but Beneatha does not go with it. I think the contrasts between Mama and Beneatha are successful in that is shows the differing ideals and attitudes in the generation gap. They do not seem to understand each other which consistently brings about disagreement and arguement. Also, the differing views characterize each of them because it relays their thoughts and ideas on a subject to the audience. In the play, there is not an omniscient narrator to tell the audience the thoughts of the characters so the arguments must happen to portray how a character reacts to a certain topic.