Answer to Question #203428 in English for Emmanuel Egbuagha

Question

Discuss how gender contributed to the tensions that are manifested within the Younger in the novel "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry.

Answer 1

Gender greatly contributes to the tensions manifested within the Younger family in Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun". Hansberry's work scouts controversial issues affecting women at the time of the plot's writing, including: abortion, the value of marriage and morphing gender roles for women. One of the tensions in the play is Ruth's pregnancy. She considers abortion so as not to place more financial pressure on her family even though abortion was illegal in 1959. Beneatha's great ambition and independence despite being female also builds a point of conflict in the story. She pursues her dream to become a doctor even though it's a male-dominated profession at the time. Her brother, Walter, criticizes her career dream, citing that she should just get married. Beneatha also dates two different men and shares that she's not concerned about marriage, which does not sit well with her mother and sister. This denotes the conventional view of marriage at the time and women's role in it. Poverty is one of the causes of tensions in the play, and gender plays a role in advancing it. Mama and Ruth work as domestic workers to earn a living, one of the limited jobs open to African-American women at the time.