Searching for one's identity can be a painstakingly lengthy process, usually experienced during the tumultuous teen years. However, various circumstances can force the process to carry on for a much longer period of time. In Lorraine Hansberry's drama, A Raisin in the Sun, various characters struggle to find their place in the world, as well as their passions and heritage. Beneatha Younger is caught in between two strikingly different cultural worlds. She searches for her passion in life, both in hobbies and men. Finally, Walter Younger, her older brother, attempts to find where he belongs in the Younger family, as well as society. Growing up African American in a segregated American society force one to question many aspects of their very existence.
Beneatha Younger is a young woman growing up during a difficult era in American history. Although the situation for African Americans had improved, the Civil Rights Movement had not yet hit its peak. As more and more people of color gave in to the immense pressure to relinquish their past customs and traditions, the African culture became lost and forgotten among the new mixing pot of various ethnicities. Beneatha is speaking in the family apartment with Joseph Asagai, an intellectual from Nigeria. Asagai says, .
"You came up to me and you said . . . Mr. Asagai - I want very much to talk with you. About Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity! . . . Well . . . it is true that this is not so much a profile of a Hollywood queen as perhaps a queen of the Nile - But what does it matter? Assimilationism is so popular in your country" (Hansberry 62). .
Beneatha replies, "I am not an assimilationist!" (Hansberry 63) Beneatha is, despite what she may claim, confused as to who she is. Even though Beneatha says that she has retained her African heritage, much of it has been forgotten. Beneatha would like to find that heritage once again.