FREE ESSAY ON THE AMERICAN DELIMA

THE AMERICAN DELIMA

The Younger family is a sterling example of a typical black, urban, Northern United States
family living in Southern Chicago subsequent to World War II. Their life is not an easy
one, as they endure daily indignities and sufferings while trying to measure out their
existence on a very uneven playing field. Indeed African Americans face many hardships;
many of which are self-induced whilst others are imposed upon them by the dominant
culture that exists.
I. Pride is an expensive luxury that the Younger family seems to have an addiction to,
however, it later serves as a character defining "virtue" that allows the Younger family
to escape their current state of depravity and move into a new and better situation.
A. Walter Lee Younger has a great "manly pride" that gets both him and his family in a
great deal of trouble and creates huge turmoil within the Younger household.
B Mrs. Younger holds on very tightly to her "old fashioned" pride and this serves to hold
the family together, however in Walter's case it back fires.
C Benetha's intellectual pride has a positive effect on daily family life and proves to
be very important in the family's future aspirations of economic and social development.
D The varying degrees and forms of pride in the Younger family all serve as catalyst for
steamy family discussions and heated debates, however, it is the family's cultural and
ethnic pride that allows them to rise out of their depravity and destitution.
II. Mrs. Younger's hope is the primary reason for the family's ascension out of its
viscious cycle of depravity.
.A Mrs. Younger's hope was so strong and consistent in its fashion that it spread to
other members of the family, serving an important purpose in saving the family from an
eternal suffrage in their small two bedroom apartment. 
III. The differences in the stages of personal development of the many people living in
the Younger household were also a cause of conflict within that household.
It was quite amazing that despite all of he hardships that the Youngers had to endure
that the all triumphed over their adversity and all eventually self actualized to become
greater than they were before.