A Raisin In The Sun Analysis

“Money is not the key to happiness,” no big pay amount would make much of a difference. As people in America everybody thinks you cannot afford to avoid the unhappiness of having to  life,  having plenty of cash does not make your any more enjoyable then what it is in the present. Happiness depends on how you feel towards your loved ones which in Lorraine Hansberry's Play, “A Raisin In the Sun” Walter's obsession with money often caused him to act unkindly to his loved ones. In the book Raisin in the Sun a family from the Southside of Chicago they lived in a small apartment trying to find a way out of the community they have lived in. The Younger family was dealing with living in a white dominant society dealing with poverty and prejudice acts. The Youngers’ try to ignore the obstacles and stay on their feet throughout the 1950s.

“ A Raisin in the Sun” is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry about the life of an African American family during the era of segregation. The play starts off with the Younger family receiving a 10,000 dollar check from Mr. Younger’s insurance policy. The family argues over what they are going to do with it. Mama wants to buy a house with it, Walter wants to invest in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to use the money to go to medical school. The contrast of the characters’ personalities fuels the conflict and drives the story forward. Beneatha is a young college student and the sister of Walter. She has a dream of becoming a doctor. Beneatha is a dynamic character who is easily influenced by her family and the people

The story of this play is simple and the majority of African-Americans faced such issues in the 1950’s, living on the south side of Chicago, struggles with poverty, dignity and dreams of a better life. Wanting better for your children and trying to fit in, while maintaining family values. A Raisin in the Sun is an excellent example of the relationship between family values and conflict. In this play it portrays: values and purpose of dreams, the need to fight for racial discrimination and the importance of family.

Lorraine Hansberry was a writer during the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. She was the first woman, the first black person, and the youngest person to get a show on broadway with her hit A Raisin in the Sun. The name comes from Langston Hughes’ famous poem Harlem (Dream Deferred) where Lorraine got all of her inspiration from. Harlem is about what happens when you put off a dream for too long. In A Raisin in the Sun Hansberry uses the characters Walter, Beneatha, and Momma to show the consequences of deferring your dreams.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down

Lorraine Hansberry was a young African- American playwright, activist and writer. She was born in Chicago, IL during the 1930’s. Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate broker and her mother was a school age teacher. Both of her parents were wealthy successful members of the NAACP and Urban League and contribute large amount of money to help the associations fight for the equality of African American families during the civil rights movement. Both parents were well respected and known by their peers. Lorraine Hansberry was able to attend college and discover a career as a writer. One of her most famous piece of work and till this day still is, is the playwright A Raising in the Sun which it’s title is a reference to the famous poem of Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” also known as “A Dreamed Deferred”. “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore- and the run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?” (Hughes 1951). The playwright A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the different dreams and aspirations of the Younger’s family members. Living in a restricted society during the 1950’s in Southside Chicago was not every families dream. Through each character in the play we see the hunger and hope for a better future where they each could have something to live for. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun” she uses the

The Younger family is a black family that struggles to gain middle class acceptance. When the play opens, Mama, who is the mother of the Younger family, is waiting for a $10,000 life insurance check from the death of her husband. Walter Lee Younger who is the son of Mama, shows signs of disappointment with his current living conditions “I got a boy who sleeps in the living room… and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…”(1477). Walter was desperate to attain a better live for their growing family that he

From the beginning of the play, the Youngers await the arrival of their deceased father’s life insurance check. Upon discussing the check’s arrival, Walter questions Beneatha about “exactly how much [her] medical school is going to cost.” In response, Beneatha sternly reminds him the “money belongs to Mama... and it’s for her to decide how she wants to use it.” Walter aspires

In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry portrays the Younger family as a struggling black family in Chicago at a pivotal time period for race relations in America shortly after the conclusion of World War II. Hansberry uses the three main characters of Walter, Lena (Mama), and Beneatha in order to emphasize the theme of family and the American Dream, whether that be the hard to get along with Walter and his self pity, or the kind and warm hearted Mama and her constant struggle to keep her children in line, or the educated and expressive Beneatha who just wants to find herself and explore her roots. Ultimately, by the end of the story, they work out their problems and show the values of family as they move to a new house in a white neighborhood where they will surely be oppressed.

Segregating Differences: A Voice of Distinction in David Cooper’s and Yomna Saber’s Critiques of “A Raisin in the Sun”

One of the most notable plays on the topic of racial minorities and family issues, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, has continued to be popular since it was written in 1959. The play is about an African American family, consisting of five members, who live in Southside Chicago during the post-World-War-Two era. The Younger family is crowded in a tiny, worn, and shabby apartment and they are fairly poor. They never have much surplus money until Walter’s father, and Mama’s husband, died and the family received a life-insurance check for ten thousand dollars. The play follows the family’s journey through the fights and distress that come from suddenly obtaining a large amount of money and the differing opinions on how the money

Written in the 1900s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” is seen as a “historical achievement” due to its realistic and truthful depiction of the lives lived by many African Americans in the late 1950s. In many ways, Lorraine Hansberry’s childhood contributed to the creation of this work. While she was born into a middle-class family in Chicago, she witnessed the discriminations afflicting the American society firsthand. On the surface, the play is about an African American family trying to escape the slums of Chicago’s South Side. However, Lorraine Hansberry utilizes complex characters and themes to go beyond the primary plot of the play and explore the social issues of this time period.

In the words of Jim Cocola and Ross Douthat, Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun to mimic how she grew up in the 1930s. Her purpose was to tell how life was for a black family living during the pre-civil rights era when segregation was still legal (spark notes). Hansberry introduces us to the Youngers’, a black family living in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s pre-civil rights movement. The Younger family consists of Mama, who is the head of the household, Walter and Beneatha, who are Mama’s children, Ruth, who is Walter’s wife, and Travis, who is Walter and Ruth’s son. Throughout the play the Youngers’ address poverty, discrimination, marital problems, and abortion. Mama is waiting on a check from the

What does Mama's plant represent and how does its symbol evolve over the course of the play?

All of the significant characters in the play have dreams. Walter wants to start a business in order to better support his family. Beneatha, his sister, wants to get an education to become a doctor. Mama and Ruth want their family to be happy. They all believe that their lack of money is holding them back, so when they receive the insurance check they believe they will finally be able to achieve them.