Beneatha Younger Analysis
Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, and author who was and is one of the most popular and important literary artists of the last sixty years. After living in Ghana, Angelou was very active in several aspects of the Civil Rights Movement in the ‘60s. Maya Angelou is somewhat similar to Beneatha Younger from A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. Both Angelou and Younger learned about the culture through firsthand knowledge. Angelou learned about it by living in Africa for close to five years, Beneatha Younger became familiar with it by befriending a boy from Nigeria, and both women had their lives affected by this.
Maya Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt with her son, Guy, and her partner, Vusumzi Make in 1960. They lived there …show more content…
In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha Younger was taught about the African culture by her friend Asagai, who was from Nigeria and helped Beneatha to understand their ways and traditions. Beneatha became very fond of learning about where Asagai was from because in a way she longed to know where she was from. Beneatha wanted to understand more about her African heritage. As she learned more about her African roots, Beneatha began to wear her hair naturally and dance around their apartment to African music in the Nigerian robes that Asagai gave to her. She began to do this after Asagai told her that her straightened hair showed that she had unknowingly assimilated herself into the white American culture. Beneatha very much wanted to go against the assimilationist ideas that many African-Americans had at the time and was very outspoken about her disapproval of assimilation and the people who support it. After facing the loss of her dream to be a doctor, Beneatha begins to disapprove of Asagai’s idealism. Asagai believes that once Africa has freedom and independence, it will be a better place. Beneatha rejects this and wonders about “all the crooks . . . who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before – only now they will be black and do it in the name of the new Independence.” (A Raisin in the Sun, Scene III). Asagai believes that is a problem for another time. This answer causes Beneatha to wonder about the dangers that a free Africa will face instead of her celebrating her African
Maya Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt with her son, Guy, and her partner, Vusumzi Make in 1960. They lived there …show more content…
In A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha Younger was taught about the African culture by her friend Asagai, who was from Nigeria and helped Beneatha to understand their ways and traditions. Beneatha became very fond of learning about where Asagai was from because in a way she longed to know where she was from. Beneatha wanted to understand more about her African heritage. As she learned more about her African roots, Beneatha began to wear her hair naturally and dance around their apartment to African music in the Nigerian robes that Asagai gave to her. She began to do this after Asagai told her that her straightened hair showed that she had unknowingly assimilated herself into the white American culture. Beneatha very much wanted to go against the assimilationist ideas that many African-Americans had at the time and was very outspoken about her disapproval of assimilation and the people who support it. After facing the loss of her dream to be a doctor, Beneatha begins to disapprove of Asagai’s idealism. Asagai believes that once Africa has freedom and independence, it will be a better place. Beneatha rejects this and wonders about “all the crooks . . . who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before – only now they will be black and do it in the name of the new Independence.” (A Raisin in the Sun, Scene III). Asagai believes that is a problem for another time. This answer causes Beneatha to wonder about the dangers that a free Africa will face instead of her celebrating her African