[Music] let's talk about some of the symbols in Lorraine Hansberry is Raisin in the Sun [Music] the insurance money represents the dream of economic stability and it also symbolizes the legacy of big Walter's life of hard work by putting down a deposit on a house in Clybourn Park mama aims to get her family out of the ghetto and create a legacy for Travis by investing with the untrustworthy Willy Walter puts this legacy into peril destroying the stability afforded by the check Walters use of the check in this way gives a dark turn to the legacy of the younger men by plays end we feel the false promise of the checks possibilities it's not enough and the ominous backdrop of racial violence puts into question the viability of Mama's investments sunlight and Mama's plant the opening stage directions describe the fight for light in the younger living room stressing from the outset a basic lack of what all organisms need to grow and thrive Hansberry specifies that the younger apartment has a single little window through which light comes feebly raising the question of what can possibly grow and thrive in such dimness the plays answer comes in part through the strength of mama and the attention she gives to a feeble little plant growing doggedly in a small pot on the windowsill both the family and the plants will escape the play's initial dimness the sunlight in the new house represents a better environment not just physically but emotionally and financially at the time of the plays early productions it was a bold unprecedented move to stage a black actress wearing her hair naturally without straightening it for the character of beneath a younger this becomes a powerful symbol of resistance and independence when she changes her hair Beneatha rejects assimilating two white models of beauty and expresses her pride as a black woman three types of music in the play represent african-american community the Blues Nigerian folk songs and spirituals the saxophone blues frequently played on the radio and the younger apartment as they clean and go about their lives shows the broader african-american culture of Chicago's South Side the Nigerian folk songs from a sog I celebrate Nigerian communal gatherings and rituals along with Beneatha's robes this music introduces the rich heritage of African culture it also creates a temporary unity between Beneatha and Walter spirituals religious songs sung by the African American community and slavery and passed down through generations Comfort mama and Ruth the family sings a spiritual in the second act showing deep bonds despite disagreements the house and Clybourn Park represents a dream realized from Mama and Ruth's a dream no longer deferred and drying up like A Raisin in the Sun the dream symbolized by the house is made precarious by the play's backdrop of racialized violence and we're left to wonder whether the youngers will build a legacy of homeownership to pass along to Travis [Music]