Raisin in the Sun essay - Beneatha

Beneatha is a character in Raisin in the Sun that faces a lot of prejudice during the book, including sexism, how she overcomes it is sticking to her dreams and staying independent. She is put down by her family and other strangers because she is a African American woman in a white-male dominated area. She has big dreams of becoming a doctor and she is determined to succeed.

Beneatha is independent because she is not influenced by the possible marriage of George, a rich husband who could take care of her, she wants the person she loves, Asagai who doesn’t satisfy Mama’s and Walter’s expectations. When the Younger family is moving out, Beneatha says, “Mama, Asagai asked me to marry him today and to go to Africa-” (Beneatha to Mama page 149). Mama, so concentrated on the heat of the moment on rejecting Linder (Linder was trying to get them to move out because they were black) brushed Beneatha off by retorting, “You ain’t old enough to marry nobody's -Darling, that ain’t no bale of cotton, please handle it so we can sit on it again! I had that chair twenty-five years...” (Mama - Beneatha page 149). Beneatha is a high school graduate that has been striving to achieve her dreams on her own, her family has given her almost no support, and Walter spent the money that was supposed to send her to school. Mama didn’t even pay full attention to the huge news, especially in a mother's’ life, when her daughter is asked to marry someone. Beneatha continues the conversation by saying how she will be able to be a doctor in Africa and she will finally achieve her dream, Walter then hears this and angrily states, “Girl, if you don’t get all them silly ideas out your head! You better marry yourself a man with some loot…” (Walter - Beneatha page 150). By calling a twenty - year old woman a “girl” he expresses how he feels about how Beneatha is not meant for anything big, even in her own family sexism is present. He then expresses how he thinks that women don’t deserve a good man, that doesn’t matter to Walter and the majority of the community at this time in age, what matters is that the women is some use to her own family by marrying someone who could financially help them. However, Beneatha expresses her independence by arguing furiously with her brother, someone who is not strong like Beneatha would simply listen to their much bigger and more powerful brother. This dialogue shows how Beneatha experiences sexism in her life.

Beneatha wants to make a change in the world by helping people, all she wants to do with her life is to make a difference by fixing people, by becoming a hero. Beneatha is devastated because Walter gave away the money that she was going to use to become a doctor, and she is talking to Asagai about why she decided to become a doctor, a childhood friend who got what appeared to be gravely injured, but he came back perfectly fine a couple of days later. She was inspired by that to help people everywhere. When talking to Asagai she explains this by saying, “That was what one person could do for another, fix him up – sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world…I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know – and make them whole again. This was truly being God…I wanted to cure. It used to be so important to me. I wanted to cure. It used to matter. I used to care. I mean about people and how their bodies hurt…” (Beneatha - Asagai page 133). She wants to help the world because she is a good person and wants to fix people, to help them, to make everyone healthy, to make peace and equality. Not many women become doctors though, just nurses, Walter tells her this very passionately he screams, “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messin ‘round with sick people – then go be a nurse like other women – or just get married and be quiet…” (Walter - Beneatha page 38). This shows how sexist Beneatha’s family is and how strong she needs to be to keep her dreams alive. Walter is saying that women are not meant for real work. Walter is saying that she should marry a man with money (in this situation, George) but she does not want to marry George and she does not want to be a nurse, she makes this very clear when the women in the family are discussing their romantic date when she says, “he’s so shallow… I know he’s rich .He knows he’s rich too.” (Beneatha - Ruth & Mama page 48). This shows how independant Beneatha is and how she does not care one bit about opinions that aren’t hers.

In conclusion, Beneatha is a strong independent women who overcomes lots of prejudice in the book including sexism. Her family has opinions that are clouded by the modern day sexism and she also faces some rasicm in the book. Her dreams of becoming a docotr will be fufilled when she breaks apart from her faimly and moves to Africa with Asagai who is not liked by her family becasue he is not rich, but Beneatha doesn’t care. She only cares about her independant, and strong equality opinions. She overcomes this prejudice by sticking with her independance, dreams, and her soon-to-be husband, Asagai.