Wednesday, October 29, 2008
a hopeful play?
So often this week, we have asked if A Raisin in the Sun is a hopeful play. I just don't know if I can answer this question yes...or no. The Youngers overcome their specific experience of institutional/systematic racism with Mr. Lindner and the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. But what is to come? The Youngers assimilate, and after all of Beneatha's talk about "assimilationist Negroes!" Or do they? How do we know the answer? I know it makes me question the hopeful aspect of this play. But what's the alternative? Are all minorities supposed to struggle through the hard times to find the light at the end of the tunnel? Does this make us a stronger breed, more prepared for the feat of living in a society laced with racism, classism, sexism, agism, and any other "ism" out there? I know, as a woman, I struggle with strength and being independent, because it would be so easy to depend on a man to support me. But I do not want that. But I still want someone to take care of me, so long as I can take care of them as well. Is is possible to have both? Can we sort-of assimilate into the standards and expectations of whatever our sociological group is? How are American minorities supposed to bend and fit into the standards of their kind, as well as get what they want? Maybe Obama has the answer, I don't know...
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2 comments:
I think this has to be a hopeful play, if not then there is nowhere to go. If they give up, take the money and stay, they are right back where they started. If Walter Lee doesn't have hope to own the Liquor store then he too, stays in his rut.
It is the hope of Mama that causes the Youngers to move to a nicer house in a potentially dangerous white neighborhood. Benethea's hope allows her to study hard to one day become a doctor.
Without hope, they're just a bunch of unmotivated people sitting on 10 Grand!
Maybe Obama has the answer, but the real question is, do you?
Perhaps instead of worrying about whether we are being assimilated or not, we should worry about living lives of "quiet desperation." It's one thing to live for a cause and stick up for a group of people; yet it is quite another to chart one's own course regardless of what everyone else says.
We kind of alluded to this in class, but Beneatha is kind of the militant evangelist of the play. I contend that the future is not really that hopeful for her, because lives of prophets and culture changers rarely end well. Perhaps it has something to do with never being satisfied with the great things in the world, because their prophetic ideals are never met.
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