oppression

It is apparent in A Raisin in the Sun that the Youngers, a working class urban black family in Chicago's Southside struggles to escape the lower class because of the social immobility of black people at the time. It is easy to say that this family will not escape from their house in the city which is too small for their family because society is set up to restrict progress and success from black people. However, in my opinion, race is not the factor that is holding this family back. I think that the family is oppressed by the overarching female totalitarianism present in the family. The father, Walter Younger, has very realistic aspirations to get this family out of poverty. He wants to buy a liquor store with his friends and leave his job as a limousine driver. However, his goal is restricted because besides his son, who has little say, the household is dominated by females. His wife, his sister, and his mother all are opposed to the idea and thus, the family will get nowhere in life. This family has a lot of potential, they even have the startup money necessary to put the plan into action. However, everything is cut short because of the female pessimism present in the family. So while it is easy to blame race, that is the obvious answer and there might be an underlying force that holds this family back, that being female dominance.

progress report

As we all know, the school year is approaching the half way mark. Everyone talks about junior year being the hardest year and so far it has lived up to its expectation! Every year I look back at the previous year and think about how easy I had it. When I was in 9th grade, 8th grade seemed like preschool, when I was in 10th grade, nothing was missed more than Human Geography and Bio A, now when I am sitting here in the thick of 11th grade, I miss APUSH, Chemistry, and 10 Honors English. Every year we long for what we once had even though we hated it while we were in it. This year has been consumed by ACT and SAT prep, sports, extracurriculars like stugo and peer mediation, and the endless amounts of homework that come from all 6 angles (6 classes). Even though I am about to self implode, somehow I manage to live another day, write out another essay, and finish another mindless worksheet that I learn nothing from. So to everyone who feels like you would rather be water boarded than go through another week of Junior year, just know that everyone else is going through it, will go through it, or already has and have gotten out with only minor permanent brain damage:)