Raisin in the Sun Subtext

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A Raisin in the Sun Subtext is the underlying meaning of a character or a what a character says. It is the thing that you find when you read in between the lines. Subtext is the true essence of a character. It is the personality with no boundaries. In every good piece of literature subtext is used. It gives the writing more depth. In, “A Raisin in the Sun” the characters sometimes have a hard time conveying their emotions properly. So the subtext in the book shows how they are truly feeling. For example, the line where Lena (Mama) is looking at her plant. She says, “Well, I always wanted me a garden like I used to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home. This plant is close as I ever got to having one.” (Hansberry, 52) There is subtext within this line. The literal message of this quote is that she does not have a garden in the back of her house and she wishes that she did. All that she has is a little plant. The emotional message of this quote is that she saw what other families could have, a nice house, success, love, and of course a father who was still living. At this point in the book she feels as though her family has not reached its potential. No matter how hard they tried, they still haven’t gotten to that place yet. It is obvious that this is the subtext because earlier on Mama and Ruth were talking about how the children have spirit even though they haven’t had the best circumstances. Lena loves the plant but she wishes she had something more. But she won’t let down her wall of pride so she wouldn’t say that. Many people today feel the same way about their lives. They love the people in their life but they wish that there were different things in their life. Even though Lena didn’t have the big garden in her back yard, she was still content with her plant. The people who were not willing to settle were her children. This also occurs in

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