Sidney Poitier
Walter Lee Younger
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A Raisin in the Sun follows a poor Black family who receive $10,000 from a life insurance policy after the father’s death. Instead of providing salvation, the money causes intense disagreements over what should be done with it.
- Lee Pfeiffer
A Raisin in the Sun: Directed by Daniel Petrie. With Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands. A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
- Daniel Petrie
- 3 min
The A Raisin in the Sun (1961 Film) Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you.
- Daniel Petrie
- Walter Younger
- Beneatha Younger
- Mama
- Ruth Younger
- Joseph Asagai
- George Murchison
- Mr. Karl Lindner
- Travis Younger
- Bobo
- Willy Harris
The protagonist of the play. Walter is a dreamer. He wants to be rich and devises 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 famil...
Mama’s daughter and Walter’s sister. Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends college and is better educated than 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. Rea...
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 fulfill her dream for her family to move up in the world. Read an in-depth analysis of Mama.
Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother. Ruth takes care of the Youngers’ small apartment. Her marriage to Walter has problems, but she hopes to rekindle their love. She is about thirty, but her weariness makes her seem older. Constantly fighting poverty and domestic troubles, she continues to be an emotionally strong woman. Her almost pessimistic pragma...
A Nigerian student in love with Beneatha. Asagai, as he is often called, is very proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to learn about her African heritage from him. He eventually proposes marriage to Beneatha and hopes she will return to Nigeria with him. Read an in-depth analysis of Joseph Asagai.
A wealthy, African-American man who courts Beneatha. The Youngers approve of George, but Beneatha dislikes his willingness to submit to white culture and forget his African heritage. He challenges the thoughts and feelings of other Black people through his arrogance and flair for intellectual competition. Read an in-depth analysis of George Murchis...
The only white character in the play. Mr. Lindner arrives at the Youngers’ apartment from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He offers the Youngers a deal to reconsider moving into his (all-white) neighborhood. Read an in-depth analysis of Mr. Karl Lindner.
Walter and Ruth’s sheltered young son. Travis earns some money by carrying grocery bags and likes to play outside with other neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and sleeps on the living-room sofa.
One of Walter’s partners in the liquor store plan. Bobo appears to be as mentally slow as his name indicates.
A friend of Walter and coordinator of the liquor store plan. Willy never appears onstage, which helps keep the focus of the story on the dynamics of the Younger family.
A Raisin in the Sun (1961) Director: Daniel Petrie. Notable cast: Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands. Daniel Petrie’s film adaptation features the original cast that premiered the play on Broadway in 1959.
The A Raisin in the Sun (1961 Film) Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you.
Daniel Petrie's A Raisin in the Sun (1961), which is based on Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking play about a proud African-American family, is a case in point. The very intent of the piece was a matter of great debate while it was being performed on Broadway, and its two leads, Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, were regularly at each other's ...
