A Raisin in the Sun: Characters and Characterization; Literary Devices; Language and Style

Characterization/Character

1. Lee Walter Younger –He is the protagonist of the play. Walter is a dreamer; he wants to be rich and he devices plans to acquire wealth with his friends, particularly Willy Harris. When the play opens, he wants to invest his father’s insurance money in a new liquor store venture.  He spends the rest of the play endlessly preoccupied with discovering a quick solution to his family various problems.

2. Beneatha Younger (“Bennie”) – Mama’s daughter and Walter’s sister. Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends college and is better educated then the rest of the Younger family.  Some of her personal beliefs and views have distanced her from conservative Mama. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well – educated black woman.

3. Lena Younger (“mama”) – Walter and Beneatha’s mother. The matriarch of the family, Mama is religious, moral, and maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to fulfil her dream for her family to move up in the world.