Lena Younger

Maya Angelou was a great actress, produces, director, poet and civil rights activist, I chose this actress to play the role of Mama because of her performance in the mini series Roots. Her outstanding job was so fascinating it caught my attention and complete devotion.

Lena Younger is the oldest character in the "A raisin in the sun", nurturing, passionate, caring, and strong are the adjectives that best describe her. she is the mother of Walter and Beneatha. her main concerns are maintaining her family together and also respecting each others perspective. Maya Angelou is the most perfect candidate to be Mama because her physical complicity matches Mama's image. Mama's strong personality would be well-projected by Maya because she would be easy influenced  personally by all the things that were happening at the time this play was written.

Mama: Oh—So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change . . .

Walter: No—it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it.

Mama: No . . . something has changed. You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched . . . You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar—You my children—but how different we done become.

The quote above is relevant to Mama's personality, this relevant discussion occurred in Act1/Scene2. Mama's perspective about money is useless, she believes that freedom and happiness are even more valuable that money itself. This emphasis her constant preoccupation about keeping her family content by giving them the minimum necessary that they needed which was a house.