Essay 3 Peer Draft

Evan Corson

4/3/2018

Peer Draft

Raisin in the Sun Analysis

One social issue I want to focus on throughout this book is stereotype threat against women. There are many sexist remarks when it comes to women that are belittling to their role in society. Stereotype threat is a situational predicament where people feel themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group. A strong example of this in The Raisin In the Sun is how Walter constantly shoots down the idea of Beneatha becoming a doctor and told her to take a more stereotypical role in society for women at the time.

Stereotype threat is very important in this book because it walks hand and hand with the title ‘The raisin in the sun’. In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and “turned black”. Throughout the book stereotype type threat is deferring her dreams of becoming a doctor. This is shown when Walter says, “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round / with sick people then go be a nurse like other women or just get /  married and be quiet…" (1.1.125) Here it shows Walter belittling Beneatha's dreams of becoming a doctor and telling her to conform and be a what every women grew up to be at the time.

The idea of failed ambitions was quite a popular theme, especially during the mid-1900s, because this was when the "American Dream" concept was spreading in American society. This is true when talking about the household because it is a household of failed dreams. Walter is the one that struggles the most with his failed dreams and constantly puts down his wife for being a woman. Walter reiterates putting down his wife for being a women by saying, “…See there, that just goes to show you what women understand / about the world. Baby, don’t nothing happen for / you in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!” (1.1.81) Walter says that need for money is a man’s thing, and that Ruth, being a woman, just wouldn't understand. This sexist remark, I feel, comes from the need to put people down in order to feel more powerful.