Anthony Eghterafi
9/10/14

Block 2

Mrs. McKelvey

The Different Women of the Same House

In A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry the three main women of the book have so much in common. Due to the fact that they have lived in such a small house for such a substantial amount of time, it is expected for them to be so similar. The astonishing detail is how different these three women are given the time and place they resided in. Ruth is the first female lead we learn about who is so different from the other two because of out passive she is compared to the other two. Mama is the second and arguably the most important female character, who is a overprotective mother who seems to have control over everything that happens in the house and seems to know everything that happens in the house. The third and last female lead is Beneatha, who is the radical female rights activist, who has ideals that even though are looked down upon by the other two women of the house, are surprisingly advanced for the time period she is in.

As a lackadaisical mother in a house with two other women who are very motherly, Ruth stands out as a very lazy mother on frequent occasions. This is one of the prevalent ideas through the story, because Travis is usually tended to and over watched by Mama and Beneatha. This is surprising that an actual mother is less motherly than a younger female who has never had kids. This main difference is a evident fact that Ruth was grown up in a different house hold than Beneatha and Mama. Even though Ruth is a very uninterested mother and tends to never check up on Travis, she and Mama are very protective mothers because if they find out a mistake their child has made they get extremely heated and usually resort to irrational and excessive violence. Even though they do not hold back when punishing their child, they are very protective of others comments towards their children and will always deny to others that their child has made a mistake. Another huge difference between Ruth and the other two is that she is very passive which does not even compare to the other two women who are very outspoken and always speak their mind. There are so many times throughout this play where Ruth doesn’t speak up and does as told.

Just like her nickname would suggest Mama behaves as if she is the birth mother for the entire house and tends to know and be involved with almost everything that happens in her house. This is what makes her significantly different from the other two women of the house. Mama’s main characteristic is her motherly attitude towards the entire family and motherly pride of her family. Beneatha is evidently her daughter, because throughout this play Beneatha is consistently concerned with the affairs and whereabouts of Walter, Travis and even Ruth, even when they don’t pertain to her. Another distinguishing detail between Mama and the others is her attitude towards Walter. After receiving the 10K Mama gives Walter 6K to spend on Beneatha’s tuition and tells him to keep the rest. However no one else in the play would’ve trusted Walter with this money especially after all his talk about wanting the liquor store. Also the rest of the characters cannot stop