Lena Younger s Authority and Her Role As Head of the Family
Born and raised during the Great Depression in Chicago, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born into a wealthy black family. ... Lena role in the family is to settle the chaos happen in the family and give them good values in their minds. There is several ways show in the play that Lena is act as the authority in the family, but there are some negative effects on the family member because of the authority she has. Lena always monitors everything happen inside the family and need people to follow and obey her way to act. Like Lena asks to Ruth ：What you fix for his[Travis] breakfast this morning? ... 962) this revels that Lena need to give her affection on what Ruth cook for her son-Travis. Moreover, under her authority she need everybody to follow her believes, nobody in the house could deny what she believe. Due to this kind of her believe, this induces a lot of clashes between Lena and her children [Walter and Beneatha]. As when Lena says that her daughter will become a doctor is ：God willing； Beneatha answers that ： God hasn・t got a things to do with it. ... After that, Beneatha still not agree what her mother thought, so her mother gives her a slap across her face and force her repeat what Lena said :：In my mother・s house, there is still God.； (2,1,979) This shows that Lena doesn・t allow any idea besides her believes. Lena is absolute authority in the family; no one can challenge her idea. In addition, when Walter wants to get involved in business liquor store, Lena reason to refuse is that no Christian will be involve in that kind of business.