African American Literature: The Battle of Ideologies in A Raisin in the Sun

Although Booker T. Washington's ideas were initially attractive to many African-Americans, it was only when people were able to open their minds to the more radical and often scarier views of W.E.B. DuBois that real progress was possible. Booker T. Washington was a champion of the working class. He struggled for many years to help his fellow African-Americans the best way he knew how. His intentions were certainly good when he said "no race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top" (196). However, there are a number of flaws in logic in his statement. The first sentence in his aforementioned quotation attempts to set farmers and poets on an equal level, but the second sentence equates farming with the bottom and writing with the top of society. Certainly there is a certain sense of dignity and satisfaction that comes from working the land and being close to nature. However, being so uneducated that farming is the only occupation open is not something that carries much dignity and pride along with it. Booker T. Washington's policies did become very popular. The policies appealed to many white people as well as African-Americans. Many white people liked Booker T.'s message that black people should be happy as uneducated farmers, seeing it as equivalent to saying that blacks should be content in "their place" in society. W.E.B. DuBois, a highly educated African-American man, was highly opposed to the pacifying stance taken by Booker T. Washington. DuBois argued that "Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races" (200). DuBois succinctly points out that "Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, First, political power, Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education of the Negro youth" (200). DuBois saw no future in Washington's focus on economic gain without any sort of political or social gain to accompany it. Washington was simply making too many concessions to the white society of the time to effect any real changes for African-Americans.

In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Mama is a good example of a follower of Booker T. Washington's ideas who is then able to open her mind to the ideas of W.E.B. DuBois. At the beginning of the play she says "we ain't no business people, Ruth. We just plain working folks" (42). This resonates very strongly with Booker T.'s ideas of keeping one's nose to the grindstone and accomplishing everything through simple hard work. Later on, Mama gets disgusted with Walter and says "once upon a time freedom used to be life - now it's money" (74). A bit further down the page, Mama speaks of trying to "preserve a pinch of dignity" and how Walter and Beneatha talk "'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy." She immedietly goes on to lament that they "aren't satisfied or proud of nothing we done." Achieving freedom and some dignity were great accomplishments of Mama's generation, but Beneatha's generation wanted much more than that. The new generation was not content to sit on the laurels of the previous generation. Beneatha and others recognized that there were still many issues that African-Americans needed to confront before they could attain equality and recognize their full potential. Beneatha is trying very hard to break through racial, as well as gender, conventions by studying to become a medical doctor.

Like Mama, Walter is stuck in the old way of thinking, the Booker T. Washington manner of thinking, for most of the play. On page 84 while talking with George Murchison, Walter serves up an angry indictment of higher education. He asks George if "they teaching you how to be a man?" Although Walter is drunk and bitter, George's style of thinking is no better than Walter's. George gives away his status as an unthinking animal in the herd of followers of Booker T. Washington at the beginning of Act II Scene Two. He is frustrating that Beneatha is rejecting his sexual advances and wants to have an actual conversation with him. He sees no point in having philosophical discussions because he believes that the situation of the world is basically hopeless and that "people will go on thinking what they think regardless" (97). When Beneatha asks him why he even bothers going to school he explains the education system as "you read books - to learn facts - to get grades - to pass the course - to get a degree" (97). George's privileged status seems to have given him the complacent and unenlightened viewpoints of an immature high school student who sees no relevance to the course material beyond passing tests.

Although there are many characters who make comments that support the Booker T. Washington philosophy, Mrs. Johnson is by far the worst offender. She strongly believes in his viewpoints and, unlike many of the other characters, never has a change of heart. Due to Mrs. Johnson's dual status as a near carbon copy of Booker T. Washington and the typical busybody neighbor, the audience gets to hear an earful of Booker T. rhetoric. Mrs. Johnson is against the Youngers move to the white neighborhood, going so far as to suggest the disastrous headline of "NEGOES INVADE CLYBOURNE PARK - BOMBED" (102). Further down the page, she criticizes higher education saying "you know how some of our young people gets when they get a little education." At the top of the next page, Mrs. Johnson makes the claim that there "ain't nothing wrong with being a chauffeur," which is very reminiscent of Booker T.'s claim about having dignity doing even the most menial of jobs. Mama disagrees with her, marking the turning point in Mama's way of thinking. Confronted with an extreme, uncompromising version of Booker T. Washington thought, Mama is disgusted and sees that that is no way for people to live. Just like W.E.B. DuBois, she now wants more for her family and her people. Mrs. Johnson is so exasperated with Mama's change in thinking that she actually quotes Booker T. Washington, "Well - I always thinks like Booker T. Washington said that time - "Education has spoiled many a good plow hand" (103). This only cements Mama's new manner of thinking, as she says "well, it sounds just like him. The fool" (103). Beneatha also recognizes the folly of the thinking of Mrs. Johnson and Booker T. Washington, saying "Mama, if there are two things we, as a people, have got to overcome, one is the Ku Klux Klan - and the other is Mrs. Johnson" (104). Beneatha could easily have substituted the name Booker T. Washington for Mrs. Johnson and kept the same meaning. Booker T.'s ideas as so dangerous because they seem to offer African-Americans hope for economic improvement, but without also considering political and social aspects, the hope is ultimately a false one. After Mama's ideological transformation, she recognizes that she has been treating her son Walter much too much like white society has been treating him. She decides to give him the rest of the insurance money in order to show her love and trust for him. She wants to empower him and make him feel like a man. This elicits a similar transformation in Walter. He is so ecstatic that his son Travis fears he may have been drinking again. Walter responds that "Daddy ain't never going to be drunk again..." (107). Walter then goes on to encourage his son to aim high in his dreams and aspirations and promises his the world. There are no longer any traces of the pervasive vibes of depression and worthlessness that Walter had previously emanated through his words and actions in the earlier parts of the play. After this empowerment, Walter strongly rebuffs Linder, the man from Clybourne Park who would like to keep blacks out of his neighborhood, telling him twice to "get out" (119). Walter's self-confidence and sense of empowerment are strongly shaken when his friend Bobo tells him that their former friend Willy took all of their investment money and skipped town. In a moment of weakness, Walter calls Mr. Linder. He feels like the dreams of the family have been shattered beyond recognition and wants things to return to the status quo. He plans to give into Mr. Linder's request so that the family can at least get their down payment, plus the extra money Mr. Linder promised, back. However, when the moment arrives, Walter thinks both of his father and of his son Travis and realizes the necessity of his family moving to the new house. He has to keep the family pride and hope alive and decides not to sell the house to Mr. Linder after all. While one can anticipate that the Younger family was in store for many more hardships based upon the hardships experienced by Lorraine Hansberry herself when she was in a similar situation, the Younger family has decided to side with DuBois. Their move to begin the racial integration of a neighborhood is much scarier than just staying where they were as Mrs. Johnson did and Booker T. Washington would have suggested, but they are making a great contribution to the hope and pride of their family as well as the civil rights of many others.

Works Cited
Scott E. Casper and Richard O. Davies. Five Hundred Years: Exploring American Traditions Third Edition. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2000.
Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.