a raisin in the sun podcast audio

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tells the story of a poor black family in Chicago. Benicia Younger, Mama's daughter, is a complex character who is independent, feminist, and struggles with her identity. She is determined to become a doctor and challenges societal norms. Benicia feels overshadowed by her brother and confronts issues of racism and sexism. Her character represents the voice of youth and inspires others. The play encourages people to pursue their dreams while staying grounded in reality. Hello, my name is Mary Schardt. Today's topic is going to be about A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, more specifically, Benicia Younger. In this play, this character is Mama's daughter and is a young, independent college student. The story goes through the many events of a poor black family living in the South Side of Chicago. It illustrates the many hardships they must overcome and has a constant theme of dreams. Everyone in the family has their own dreams and tries to achieve them all in different ways. The play demonstrates the consequences of these different methods and encourages people to never lose sight of their dreams, but to also never lose sight of reality. Benicia is a very complex character with a strong personality and, in my opinion, could be very easily misunderstood. She's an independent feminist, she was always hidden in her brother's shadow, and throughout the story, she was in a constant struggle to find her identity, which is common for anybody around her age. To start, Benicia was clearly a very independent woman. Her dream was to become a doctor, and that's what she was going to school for. She didn't care what anybody said about her dream. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to help people, and her determination shown during the play definitely showed that she was capable. Along with this, she was a feminist, and she definitely let people know. For example, she states, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm not worried about I'm not worried about who I'm going to marry yet. This is from Act 1, Scene 1. This explains her priorities did not align with what society's priorities were. To go even further, Benicia's character represented the shifts in ideologies during this time about women. This is time periods when women were starting to fight for their rights more and more, as well as break social norms by doing what they wanted to do, instead of just getting married and staying quiet. To illustrate, Benicia had the opportunity to marry a rich man, George, but instead she didn't pursue him for very long because she said that he was a fool. On top of that, her main goal in life was to become a doctor, and she cared little about getting married in the first place. Another key point that is slightly hidden, but it's not at the same time, still very important though, is that she was always hiding in her brother's shadow. We see this even in the beginning of the play. Although Walter never seemed to have many impressive achievements under his belt, Benicia never got her brother's attention over him. Multiple times in this play, we see Mama clearly take Walter's side, or immediately understand his view. However, with Benicia, it takes a lot more. At one point, we even hear that Benicia actually points this out to Mama. It's, be on my side for once. You saw what he just did, Mama. This is from the only scene in Act 3 when Walter takes all of money's Mama, all of Mama's money, and loses it. Mama still takes his side over Benicia's. Personally, I know how frustrating this can feel. I come from a family of four brothers, and I often find myself trying to compete for more attention, or for my mom to take my side over my brother's constantly. This feeling can sometimes create an unwanted resentment towards your brother, which is exactly what happened in the play. Benicia even went as far as to say that he is not her brother anymore. A third aspect of Benicia's character is that during the whole story, she was struggling to find her identity. Not only did she challenge social norms by wanting to become the doctor, she also rejected assimilationist ideas from the start. Along with this, her new boyfriend, Asagai, only intensified this, especially when he gifted her a traditional Nigerian robe. This kickstarted even more rejection of social norms, like wearing her hair naturally instead of straightened. She even talked to her own family. All of this together not only shows her dedication to positive social change, it represents the voice of youth. When looking back into the past, the younger generation always seems to be the one to bring about change in this world. This is exactly what Benicia wanted to do. She confronted issues of racism and sexism proudly, without hesitation. Ultimately, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a very compelling play about the struggles of the Black family living in the South Side of Chicago. What's even more compelling, though, is the character of Benicia Younger. She's very stubborn and independent, as well as a feminist. She also seems to be hidden in her brother's shadow all her life. To add on even more, she finds herself struggling with her identity. She represents young women in this time period as a whole because of her ideologies. The strong and determined college girl working to become a doctor, all while fighting racism and sexism at the same time. Personally, I think that her character can be looked up to as an inspirational person for many, and everyone can learn a thing or two from her.