A Raisin in the Sun (2008)

A Raisin in the Sun does a good job showing an African American family’s struggle with poverty in the 1950’s. The family lives in an apartment that is not very nice and doesn’t enough room for them. They share a bathroom with two floors of people and the little boy has to sleep on the couch in the living room. They do not have a lot of money, but, in the beginning of the story, they are about to get a check in the mail. They are getting the check because it is an insurance check because Lena Younger’s husband died. The dreams of his children depend on this check. Walter Younger wants the money so that he can start a liquor business with his friends. Beneatha Younger wants to be a doctor and the only way they can pay for her schooling is by giving her some of the money. Ruth, Walter’s wife, is going to have a baby, but they do not have the money for a second child in the family and they have no room left in their little apartment. Walter is not caring toward Ruth anymore and doesn’t seem to care about the child and Ruth decides to have an abortion.
The family also has to deal with racism. Lena goes to the market to buy groceries and gets treated badly.
****************************Spoilers************************
With the money that they received Lena goes out and buys a house. She bought the house in an area that has no black people and a white man comes to their house and says that he will pay them a lot of money to not move into their new house. Most of the movie Walter has been fighting his family for the money so that he can invest in his liquor store and eventually Lena decides to let him have the rest of the money, the part that she did not spend on the house. He does not spend any of it wisely. He does not set any aside for his son’s education, but spends it all on his liquor store investment and the man heading up the investment runs away with the money. However, they still move into the neighborhood and into their new house, the house that they are very happy about. So, while the movie has a sad ending because they lose the money, it ends on a happy note, the family moving out of what they feel causes misery and into a better home.