A Raisin in the Sun

Class and Generational Conflicts
I know he’s rich. He knows he’s rich, too. Class and Generational Conflict happened through-out the play repeatedly. Teens and young adults began to see life in a new light and thought in much different ways than the older generation did. They began to play around with idea of God and religion. The classes also had a large differences, the rich got to explore the world and see other cities while the poor barely had time to things other than work and taking care of the family. Beneatha Younger was the epitome of the change in generations. She would use God’s name in, what the older generation would call, vain. By simply shrugging and saying how much cleaning can a house need, for Christ’s sake, she was using God’s name the wrong way. This was a problem for Beneatha because she didn’t believe that God was the one and only. He wasn’t the one who did the work, paid the bills, etc. But Mama and Ruth got mad when she simply stated her opinion. The belief of the older gen. was that God was the representation of life and He gave every person what they have. (46, 50, 51) Beneatha was also being pressured by her family to marry the rich boy, George Murchison. Bennie felt like George was too shallow to marry and she was unsure if she wanted to marry at all. He knew he had wealth and he liked to use it. When he brought Bennie to the theater, he was bragging about how the curtain time was earlier than it was in New York and says that he goes to New York a few times a year while Bennie and her family have probably never left their home city. (50, 80 - 85) Class and Generational Conflicts is a re-occurring theme in A Raisin in the Sun. This was the time when young adults and teenagers began to branch out. They had less beliefs. The rich, the middle class, and the poor also had major differences in housing as well as many other things.