Stereotypes about women- like how they should act, dress, talk, etc. - started a long time ago, but still exist nowadays, even though many women are trying to break them everyday. Feminism is the belief in the right of women to have political, social, and economic equality with men. Through the feminist lens, Ruth, Mama (Lena) from A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, both perpetuate and challenge each other’s idea towards the stereotypes of women; and Beneatha, a complete feminist.
This play tells the story of a third-class black family's struggle to gain middle-class acceptance in Chicago’s South side. When the play opens, the Younger household is waiting on an insurance check from the death of Mama’s husband, and everyone already has an opinion on how the money should be spent. The son, Walter Lee Younger, is desperate to have a better life that he wants to invest the check to a liquor store with two of his friends. Mama objects mainly for the idea of selling liquor. The disagreement results in many conflicts and arguments. When Mama decides to use part of the money as a down payment on a house in a Caucasian neighborhood. She believes that a bigger and better house will help them all. In an attempt to make things right between herself and her son, Mama entrusts Walter Lee with the rest of the money. He immediately invests it all on the liquor store, instead of helping Beneatha pay tuition but ended up losing all the money. At the end, Walter proves himself a man to the family by deciding to continue with their plans to move, in spite of their financial problems and in spite of their having been warned by a weak representative, from the “Welcoming committee” of the Caucasian neighborhood, that blacks are not welcome.
As they say a woman should, Ruth provides care for her family, especially her son. She treats him the way she believes a parent should treat their children, wake them up for school, punish them when they are bad, and to Ruth,...