An Analysis of Poverty in "A Raisin in The Sun"

Throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry a very prominent theme is poverty. This theme is exhibited through the difficulties the Younger family have balancing all their needs due to financial difficulty.

The author starts to show how poverty affects the Younger’s from the very beginning of the play. She does this by having a scene of the family getting ready in the morning. During this scene the family’s home is described to the reader. The home is only a miniscule amount of rooms that they’ve broken into sections and a bathroom they share with the neighbors (Hansberry 920). Another thing the author does is describe the state of the furniture in great detail. For example, when speaking about all the furnishings in general Hansberry says that they’re “typical and undistinguished” (Hansberry 920) and that they have had to accommodate the living of too many for too many years (Hansberry 920) implying all the furniture was rundown due to age. All these descriptions make the home seem not only small, but also appear to have a dull and depressing atmosphere. But, the family hadn’t been able to afford anything better before receiving the insurance check from the father’s death.

On top of their cramped living situation there is also the situation of each of the family member’s jobs which cause tremendous stress. All their jobs must working undemeath someone, as a subordinate, with very little room for moving up to a move respect and profitable position. For example, there’s Walter’s job as driver for a rich white man, whom he has to kiss up to. This jobs cause stress to Walter for a multitude of reasons. For one the fact he doesn’t make enough money to support his family as the only man in the house. Also, the fact he has to kiss up to his boss may be stressful considering it somewhat strips him of his opinion and as that also seems to happen at home Walter seems to never have his opinion valued which can be stressful , due to the fact little money he earns can’t support his family causing them to have to live with him mother leading to the stressful living situation and making Walter feel inferior as man and as a person in general, there is Ruth’s job as a maid who cleans the homes of the rich. This job might be stressful as one doesn’t know where they will be working every time they go to work. Also, due to the fact work may be inconsistent. Also, Beneatha as a student, which could be construed as her job, works beneath others having to complete assignments to hand into professors, whom could be regarded as her superiors.

The lack of communication between the family members about the internal stresses they are each dealing with due to their individual work live and shared home live is was causes most of the conflict in the play. For example, in the beginning of the play when Walter gives Travis the fifty cents for class despite Ruth telling him they didn’t have it, telling her “What are you telling the boy things like that for?”. Thus throughout the play, Lorraine Hansberry uses the Younger family’s struggle to show what habitual poverty can do to people and the conflicts that can derive from the desperation to escape it.

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