Itzel Esparza

Storer
English 3H Block 5
March 13th, 2020
My Biggest Takeaway from A Raisin in the Sun
My biggest take away from A Raisin in the Sun was how much money controls a
person’s life. The amount of money can determine a family dynamic and how a family can try to
avoid showing the actual situation to the children.
Growing up I had a pretty good childhood, well at least I thought it was. I usually thought
that my childhood was normal and that everyone had the same experience. I never knew I didn’t
have the money other people had because my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents never
showed anything otherwise. Growing up I always thought my family loved each other and that
we were your perfect dysfunctional family. They always acted so nice and loving around each
other that I never suspected anything. I think my family would make everything seem fine on the
outside and wouldn’t show the grandkids what was really happening, kind of like how Travis got
the money from his dad even after Ruth told him they didn’t have the money, “What you tell the
boy things like that for?” (Hansberry 31) This method of hiding everything from the children is
something I didn’t realize my family did.
Now that I’m older, the problems my family hid, or rather tried to hide, are much more
apparent and there isn’t much of an effort for them to be hidden. Often, I’m seen as the “beacon”
I was the neutral ground. Often it was hard because not only was I expected to be the perfect ray
of sunshine, but I was often left I situations to remind my family members to act correctly. “No
Travis, you stay right here. And you make him understand what you’re doing, Walter Lee…You
show him where out five generations done come to.” (Hansberry 147) I connected with this
quote because these situations are always so awkward, there’s the tension in the room of how
things could go but because Itzel’s here no one is going to start anything. This tension had
increased dramatically after the passing of my grandfather, my aunt and her boyfriend had
caused some problems in my Grandma’s house. There’s been a lot of rough patches and I don’t
really know how my family Is going to work out but this novel helped me realized that people
usually try to hide these problems to the people who think they are “too young”.