Katelyn Farvour

Composition II Final Paper

December 19, 2022

Home is Community

The people you surround yourself with have influence over who you are, how you

express yourself, and the decisions you make. In the words of sociologist G. H. Mead, “[t]he

structure, then, on which the self is built, is this response which is common to all, for one has to

be a member of a community to be a self,” (Mead 162. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine

Hansberry illustrates this social principle in fine and broad strokes with two characters: Walter

and Beneatha. They come from very similar backgrounds, growing up in the same home, same

city, and same time while brought up by Mama and their late father. Their differences- which are

many- come from somewhere else, from who they have chosen to make important in their life. In

Raisin, Beneatha and Walter socialize in very different communities: she engages in education,

he in a service job without peers. The differences between them, an intellectual community and a

social one, show that one’s chosen community does not have nearly as much influence over who

they are as their home does because, in the end, the siblings are not all that different. Beneatha

and Walter are of the same kind no matter how different their lives are because they were raised

and shaped by Mama.

Outside of their home, Beneatha’s community is her fellow students who may not have

similar backgrounds but do have a shared interest in expanding their minds and creating a

foundation for a career. Because she is immersed in a contemplative and analytical community,

Beneatha knows who she is, and can recognize why she does what she does and whether it is the

right path for her. Walter, whose chosen community is in the men he drives around and his

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intended business partners, does not have this self-awareness and cannot see where he has made

errors until it is too late. This contrast has no impact on the quality of their persons. Different

communities do not make better or worse people, simply ones who employ varying means of

expression and have alternative methods of and standards for being successful. Both Walter and

Beneatha are part of many communities, including their home, their peers, the city they live in.

Each of these communities have overlapping and conflicting impacts on each of them.

Chicago is a community that encompasses all the smaller ones within, all the ones the

characters in Raisin are part of. In the mid-twentieth century, it was not a welcoming place for

the Youngers because the city was deeply racist despite the work of the civil rights movement.

The city has a history of striking down all actions to dismantle segregation or encourage

diversity. When the Great Migration reached Chicago, the white residents and Board of Real

Estate, “attempted to prevent Blacks from moving into their communities [with] block-busting,

unscrupulous real estate agents’ scare tactics, and other racially divisive strategies,” (Maly 133).

The problems the Youngers would face, the racism in Clybourne Park, were embedded in their

community. It was not just Clybourne. It was the entire city that was trying to exclude Black

people and minorities from ‘white areas’ so those places could stay the same. During the 50s and

60s, when Hansberry wrote Raisin this was a prominent issue, and it was not being tackled as it

would in later decades (Maly 136-137). Racism boxed the Youngers into their place, leaving

them with nowhere they were ‘allowed’ to or ‘supposed’ to go; if it were up to those with power

in Chicago, the Youngers would have stayed in that apartment like Mr. Lindner asked them to

do. For any of them to make a change in their life was brave because the Chicago community

had taught them that it would be asking too much, that they should not. For Beneatha and Walter

to have dreams beyond what their family had done in the past or what their peers were doing was

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born of the same unrest as the civil rights movement and had transformative effects on each of

their life’s paths.

Beneatha’s path crossed with many in the community that is her school. While we don’t

see her in this environment in the play, we do see her interact with one classmate she is close to.

He is a regular character in the play: Asagai. He is a Nigerian man she seems to be friends with,

though he’s also a potential love interest- if she’s willing to reciprocate the feelings he shows

her. He comes to the Youngers' apartment a few times throughout the course of the play, and on

one occasion they talk about her hair while discussing appearance in their cultures. He calls it

“mutilated” and accuses her of being an assimilationist because rather than wearing her hair

naturally like “a queen of the Nile,” she has it styled the same way as everyone else in America

(Hansberry 62-63). At this moment, through Asagai and his comments and perspective, readers

get an intimate look into how her community affects her. When he teases her for her choices, this

does more than make her think about what her hair looks like, but why and- as we see later in the

play- if that is how she wants to portray herself. His words alone aren’t the sole reason for her

cutting her hair, but they certainly factor into why she did it. This surface-level change had

deeper roots than just a style change, it represented an evolution of her vision of herself that tried

to incorporate where she came from with who she is and wants to be. She didn’t get defensive at

his words and stop listening, but instead considered his ideas and gave them weight, felt out if

she agreed, and acted accordingly. Asagai also gives her traditional Nigerian to wear clothes and

music to listen to. When she does, this is making her existence- if momentarily- represent who

she is, or at least a part of herself she wants to nurture. In her most passionate moment, “she

parades for RUTH […] fanning herself with an ornate oriental fan, mistakenly more like a

Butterfly than any Nigerian ever was,” and “listens, enraptured, her eyes far away— ‘back to the

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past,’” (Hansberry 76-77). She doesn’t quite know what she’s doing, the clothes and beats do not

belong to her in the same way they do to someone like Asagai who grew up in the culture, but

she knows enough to try. This gives her the chance to learn, to enjoy this way of dress and how

the robe moves when she dances. She allows herself to explore and experiment with the feelings

and motions, maybe following that up with learning more from Asagai himself, in a way that

indirectly reflects the research she is used to doing in school. Just as Beneatha’s community has

made her listen and respond consciously- and Walter’s has not- her community has also given

her the tools to explore others’ lives and perspectives- while Walters has not.

Listening and considering isn’t the process Walter follows when encountering conflicting

opinions. His community has not taught him to do so. Holding a service job for many years,

Walter has become dissatisfied with his life, working as a chauffeur where he cannot move up in

the ranks or become more successful. His career, and life, have become stagnant and this leads

him to look for new opportunities. He speaks to the monotony of his job when explaining, “I say,

‘Yes sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the drive, sir?’ Mama, that ain’t no kind of job… that

ain’t nothing at all,” (Hansberry 73). Every day he does the same thing, serving people with

repetitive actions that go largely unnoticed and unappreciated. He feels this and it is demeaning

because everyone wants their work to feel important. He works hard, driving requires focus all

day and maintaining decorum in another task in and of itself, and so do Ruth and Mama. He

mentions to Mama that they clean other people's houses and how that is not a job he wants them

to have to do- and opening a successful liquor store would allow them to work for themselves

rather than someone else. He wants a more fulfilling and profitable job and sees potential in an

idea presented to him by his other community, the friends he drinks with at the bar. This is how

he thinks he can serve his family best, even if it comes off in the wrong way, a way Mama would

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tell him she had taught him better than to do. Walter has been urged by his community to invest

in a liquor store with them. This presented him an investment opportunity to make more money

for a long time in a business he would care about. He quickly became passionate about it: before

it was a sure thing, on the day the check arrived one of the first things he said when he returned

home was, “Mama—look. Old Willy Harris put everything down on paper—,” (Hansberry 70).

He is more concerned with his plans for the money, which he had not discussed with them, than

Mama’s plan or Ruth’s ideas or maybe Beneatha’s input. Walter’s passion has outpaced his

grace and before considering that the money is not just his he assumed they would follow his

lead. This plan is a way out of his job and into a better one. But what about getting out of their

tiny apartment and into a home that fits their family? It’s not that Walter doesn’t care about his

family’s wants and needs, his effort is simply consumed by his vision, one that he won’t be able

to see around until it has come to pass. He is more passionate than he knows what to do with,

than he knows how to express with care for his family’s feelings. Walter may be more aggressive

in his argument to convince them of his plan than Beneatha in hers about her choices, but they

ultimately reflect the same values. When you break down what they are saying to the intent

behind the statements they come back to a desire to be their best selves and make their family

proud.

They have these similarities because Mama raised them to be loving, respectful,

hardworking people, and these core values cannot be overshadowed by how others affect them.

When Beneatha and Walter's relationship is at its most strained, when he’s talking about how

dissatisfied he is and Beneatha is disgusted by his display, Mama says to her, “[t]here is always

something left to love,” because there is more to a person than their worst moments (Hansberry

145). She doesn’t judge him by this one moment or the anger he feels but instead by what led

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him to feel this way. She goes on to ask Beneatha if she has considered everything Walter has

been through, recently and in his lifetime, and if that has factored into how she is treating him

now. “Always” signifies an infinite source of considerations, as you can never be done looking

for reasons to support someone or reasons to have empathy for what they’re feeling. That

“something” can be anything, replenishing that infinite source every time you look in a new

direction; a person can never be nothing or even only one thing, so there can never be nothing

left to love. Mama shows this value through her own actions earlier in the play, when she gives

Walter money from the check, saying, “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on

like you supposed to be,” (Hansberry 107). She didn’t get angry with him for wanting more than

he has or trying make his plans happen, and instead empowered him to do so. Giving him the

remaining money showed trust in him and thoughtfulness for why he wanted this responsibility;

he wanted to feel important in the family, to feel like their leader. This opportunity may not have

gone the way she hoped, but the action represented what she has spent decades teaching her kids.

She maintained a consistent approach to loving her kids and made them do the same- even if she

needs to remind them of it sometimes.

This is of the utmost importance for Beneatha and Walter in the play, as well as anyone

else who comes from a loving home because, “[h]ome is where we could or can be ourselves,

feel at ease, secure, able to express ourselves freely and fully,” (Tucker 184). Mama has

provided a place for both Beneatha and Walter to do this. When they get home, she will always

be there with love and support, a listening ear to make them feel heard. Beneatha comes home

with her random hobbies and tells her family all about them because she isn’t afraid of judgment

or scorn beyond a little teasing (Hansberry 47-48). Walter comes home and talks about his big

ideas because he knows they will always be there to listen and ultimately support him, even

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when he acts like they don’t (Hansberry 70). They both want to be appreciated and have their

community care about their interests and ideas, and this is exactly what the home Mama has

created gives them. They remember all of Beneatha’s hobbies because they were listening, and

Mama gives Walter the money because she has listened to all his grievances and how they have

affected him. She wants each of them to be their best, and her way of helping them is to provide

a stable community at home, one that they will always be able to rely on.

Hansberry makes Mama central to each of her children’s characters to reinforce the

family unit. The community that exists within the home is the focus of the play, it is where

readers see all the action of the play happen. Walter and Beneatha’s ultimate loyalty to family

values presents her message on the strength of the family and the value of that unbreakable

community. Everything the Youngers go through, from the loss of their patriarch to the money

being stolen to the racism from Mr. Lindner, they face together. They don’t let it shatter them,

though it easily could if they played the blame game and became resentful. They are held

together by their love for one another. They wouldn’t have this or without Mama, both

everything she has taught them and everything she continues to remind them of are essential to

how they continue to show up for all the member of their family no matter what they are

struggling with. Walter and Beneatha’s external communities do not reduce either to simply one

way of being. The men in Walter's community are thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create

a business and do well for themselves and their families. Beneatha is curious and critical because

that is how she learns. Ultimately, though, it is up to the individuals and their core community to

decide the best course for themselves. Beneatha and Walter are each able to do this with Mama’s

guidance, using all that she has taught them to do their best for themselves and their family.

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 Works Cited

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Vintage Books, 1994.

Maly, Michael, and Michael Leachman. “Chapter 7: Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, and
Chicago Lawn, Chicago.” Cityscape, vol. 4, no. 2, 1998, pp. 131–160.,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41486480.

Mead, G. H. Mind, Self, and Society. 1934.

Tucker, Aviezer. “In Search of Home.” Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 11, no. 2, 1994, pp.
181–187., https://www.jstor.org/stable/24353979.