Letter to Walter

In my last unit of my sophomore year, we learned about racism and segregation. During this pandemic, we have dealt with racism by police brutality and violence from the authority who abuse their power. we also had a lawyer or attorney who experienced racism in the real estate business and had to work with others who suffer from racism. The story we were assigned to create a perspective letter is the famous play, Rasin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. This play, set in the south side of Chicago, is about a 5-person, black, family suffering from a 2 bedroom apartment until they receive a $10,000 check from the mother's late husband's life insurance. Throughout the play, the family goes through many obstacles before the mother spends her money on a new house but it is in a place where it is majority white and it’s his choice if he moves into the house and lives in a nice-sized house or sells the house to a white man who says the community around their house is “uncomfortable” for a black family to live there. My letter is the perspective son's sister Beneatha.






Good morning my dear brother,
I think you should move in the house, no matter the price Mr. Linder will give you. I think  First, Ruth will be happier in that house because we will have more space for the new baby,  now that she is pregnant.   Second, Mama always had the plant by the window representing her dream of having a garden of her own.  Finally, Travis finally will have a bedroom instead of sleeping on that dirty, old couch. For once in your life, listen to me and let us move into the house.

It is a good choice to move in the house because I feel like you and Ruth will grow closer together. In our apartment, you guys argued as much as we did. You argued about money all the time. Remember Ruth telling you, “They said Saturday and this is just Friday and I hopes to God you ain’t going to get up here first thing this morning and start talking ‘bout no money” (531 Act 1). You were dying to get that money in your hands so you could spend it on that liquor store. But before moving day, you made up all the hardships, and it became happy memories. “But we went last night. The picture wasn’t much good, but that didn’t seem to matter. We went --- and we held hands.” (567 Act 2). Ruth told me it has been so long since y’all went to the movies, and it seemed better than the brawls y’all had every day.

Even though it was Mama’s idea to move into the house on Clybourn Avenue, it is up to you to make the final decision as the man of the house.  You wanted mama to be satisfied with the big, wide garden, knowing she had that little, old plant on the windowsill. She said, “Like this little old plant that ain’t never had no sunshine or nothing and look at it” (544, Act 1). Mama took care of the plant like she took care of the family. When she saw how the apartment was in shambles, she took the insurance money from daddy and bought a house to support this family. I think you should help her as well by letting us move into the house.

Travis might as well have been born on that couch since he’s been sleeping on the couch all his life. You said you were tired of putting “him to sleep on the living room couch” (552 Act 2). So moving in the house will give Travis a nice new bed to sleep in. You and Ruth don’t have to worry about Travis and where he sleeps. He will have a room when he starts to grow up. He needs his own room because he will go through puberty and one of those things he needs is privacy. So overall, giving Travis a new bed and a room will support the whole family.

To sum up, this letter, moving into the house will benefit the family. I think you can be a good father, husband,  and son by moving into the house. Even though we have multiple arguments, I still believe you are a good person, and you can make good choices.



With love,
Your Sister, Beneatha


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