When one assimilates, does it improve the quality of life, or does it sacrifice or damage the spirit and soul of the person who accepts the culture of another ethnicity? This is the dilemma of A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry.
In her play set in the 1950's, there is an African American family living not very well in the South Side of Chicago. Their apartment is clean, but it is dark, small, cramped with five people, and in need of paint and repair.
Mrs. Younger and her husband believed that patience was a key element in working toward a new life. They worked hard for many years, one eventually dying, the other retired in pursuit of that dream. Mr. Younger's expected $10,000 life insurance check would help the family finally achieve the dreams of the parents. Mrs. Younger believes that leaving the ghetto to a house in the suburbs will help the family's quality of life. She seeks assimilation for a higher level and standard of living, not just daily survival. That assimilation also happens to be in a white neighborhood, a fact that appalls the entire family.
Each family member has his or her own dream of what should be done with the money. Walter Lee, the son, wants to assimilate most of all. His dream of owning a liquor store is the epicenter of the play. Every family member is forced to respond to Walter Lee's business ambition. It's all he talks about every day. Coincidentally, it involves a substantial financial investment with his other partners.
Walter Lee, who must chauffeur his boss around all day every day, has no patience to wait for his dream to be fulfilled. He is tired of working for The Man, and wants his own business. His dream to assimilate is so powerful, he overlooks who he is dealing with, the details of the liquor store business investment, and the possibility that one person's dream is another man's hustle.
The daughter Beneatha swears she does not want to assimilate. However, her foot stays firmly in both worlds, safe either way she chooses. She is not studying to be a schoolteacher, the traditional career for African Americans in those days. She has not entered missionary service. Rather, she attends medical school. Her boyfriend George Murchinson, an African American man, is so far assimilated that he taunts Beneatha about her stand against it. Yet, she continues to date him. Despite flirting with an African suitor who encourages her to seek her African roots, Beneatha's dream is to use the insurance money to finish medical school.
Ruth, Walter Lee's wife, just wants a better life. She wants to support her husband's dreams, but also believes that Mrs. Younger should decide what to do with the insurance money. Discovering she is pregnant, she stays quiet about it. Fearing that a baby may tear the already stressed out family apart, and feeling strangled by her cramped and impoverished life, Ruth almost has an abortion. Unlike most of the adults, she ultimately finds the strength to stick to her values.
Each member almost succumbs to their desires, sinking to new lows. To Mama's horror, Beneatha declares she does not believe in God; Walter Lee can't tell his wife not to have an abortion when she tells him she is pregnant again. He also takes the bulk of Mrs. Younger's insurance money and invests it with his partner Willie Harris, who leaves town with it.
In the end, Mama's aspiration of homeownership in the suburbs prevails over each member of the family's selfish and competing dreams. At least for this family, assimilationism seems to be the right decision. It appears to have saved them, just in time.
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