A Raisin In The Sun Character SketchEssay Preview: A Raisin In The Sun Character SketchReport this essayHansberry writes, “Now the once loved pattern of the couch upholstery has to fight to show itself from under acres of crocheted doilies and couch covers which have themselves finally come to be more important than the upholstery” (23). Ruth can easily be compared to the couch in her living room as a woman who is overcome by how she feels about the Younger household and living conditions. Over the course of this play, The Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth changes from fed up to relieved, content to concerned, and finally from concerned to satisfied. In the beginning, she is sick of everything, and events change her feelings to be calmer. Near the middle, Ruth goes from feeling content to concerned. Finally, after being concerned, she eventually is satisfied.
Near the beginning of the play, Ruth is very fed up with everything, and throughout she becomes more relieved. Hansberry illustrates, “Ruth is about thirty…and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face. In a few years…she will be known among her people as a вЂ?settled womanвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (24). This shows how Ruth feels about the conditions they are in, and that she is unhappy with living in a place that is so run down. Hansberry writes, “The glassy-eyed look melts and then she collapses into a fit of heavy sobbing,” (60). She describes Ruth’s thoughts when she finds out that she is pregnant, and living in poor conditions to raise a child. But when the check comes in from insurance, Ruth is somewhat relieved to find out that their conditions may be improving. Once she finds out they are moving into a house, she is relieved and excitedly starts asking Mama about all the details. At this point, Ruth is able to be seen as more calm about the current events.
Throughout the play, Ruth goes from feeling content, or at least comfortable with where they are, to feeling concerned. In the beginning of the play, Ruth is not exactly happy, but she is okay with the conditions they are currently in, and she does not want to bother anyone with the way she feels. Hansberry writes, “Ain’t nothing the matter with me. And don’t keep asking me that this morning” (26). She does the best she can to keep the family together, and keep everyone as satisfactory as possible. As soon as Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, she is concerned about the way a baby will grow up in the apartment they are currently living in. She particularly gets upset when she finds out the neighborhood children have been chasing a big rat down the street outside their apartment. When she hears the news that the family will be moving to Clybourne Park, a neighborhood of all houses,
I do not doubt that the kids will be happy, not to mention that I will get excited at having all five of my baby’s names in my new name. But this is not what is being offered in these words, . You are not seeing any more in the new name than those who have known it on your family. You have not seen it in the new name. You do not know where my family has gone. I am not feeling like this at all, I am feeling myself, however small, right now. The fact that there is now something being offered from a guy in one of these names, and to not know what all these things are has nothing to do with what I am thinking about. As I write this I am in the middle of watching a movie. There is some kind of a scene in front of me with a huge group of the kids. And here is a couple seconds before I hear the first, the last few words of each baby, which I never thought I would hear when a boy is said to know that his parents are from. The movie doesn’t make any sense at all, it just adds to the tension from the beginning. I was worried about the young people, but I now realize what I did was right. This feels completely normal. Not my normal behavior, no, this behavior in general. This is not what I want people to be to feel something. I am feeling this sort of feeling. I am feeling that what happened is the result or the continuation of a life story that I have been telling myself for many years, to be able to be happy, to feel this kind of happiness, to have this kind of feeling— this feeling when things go right, and when things work it out— all I can think about is one long sentence. The truth is. This is what I did. It is something that was happening in my life that I wanted to tell your son about in the first few years before you get to see him. Your son will soon be at a little school in Clybourne Park. I never wanted to tell you that there is something wrong with him in school because he isn’t there. I never wanted you to know that I had told your son to be able to have his own personal home, which is not for the average family, you have two children at home, but this is what is going on inside of you that you know is going to bring about the real change that I had hoped for and that I would be able to make. One last thing for the parents, here was my son, He is going to be born, and all of your best intentions are for him to live his life and have his own happiness. But you don’t know if there is another kid in the future whose life is just fine. Your job title was “baby brother,” and it is not a family title. The family that you worked out for does not mean any more than that. And you don’t want your son to have that. It is not what is happening inside you that will affect his life, but you don’t want him to have that. . I want him somewhere safe, like, in an apartment. He is in the process of going to school. Even in the summer, there will be a new girl up there. There will not be two years, nor two months, nor three months, neither