A Raisin In The Sun Gender Roles

A Raisin in the Sun was first produced in 1959 and brings forth many of the issues which were to divide American culture during the 1960s. Lorraine Hansberry, the writer, was an unknown figure who achieved her success when her play became a Broadway hit. Not only were successful young black women writers were rare at the time, but they were also virtually unheard of. Despite the unpopularity of colored women writers, the success of A Raisin in the Sun was stunning. Hansberry’s ability to articulate words make her successful and well known across the world.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

German-born, American psychologist, Erik Erikson, said, “Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.” Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun (1959), is a story of an African-American family that is struggling with their dreams and the fight to move up socio-economically and the barriers the majority has put in place for them. Lorraine Hansberry reveals one of her themes through the character of Beneatha.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

In different countries gender roles can vary on how much they are utilized. Some countries do not think a woman is supposed to have a certain place in the world. In other countries gender roles can be a problem, meaning women are only supposed to have a certain job, a certain pay, and they are supposed to be married. In A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, It is based on a African American family The Youngers who go through challenges with money, family, and the death of a loved one. Lorraine Hansberry challenges traditional gender roles through the characterization of Beneatha. Beneatha does the complete opposite of what an average woman in the 1940’s/1950’s is supposed to do with their life and school.

There are many hidden and sub-surface meanings in life. Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is no exception to that fact. As the title of the novel suggests, the novel is about the rise of a new generation that breaks away from the societal conventions of the previous generation. Though The Sun Also Rises seems to be simply about the rise of a new generation, a closer look at the relationship between Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley suggests a queer relationship produced out of gender role nonconformity. Their relationship enables one to see the blurring of the lines that divide the conventional gender roles.

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’s Raisin in the Sun is a monumental play in the theatrical world. Produced in 1959, it became the first play written by an African-American woman to hit the stage and was later nominated for several Tony Awards. The play touched many controversial themes of the time including racial discrimination and poverty. The design of Raisin in the Sun, including scenic, costume, lighting, and sound elements, were crucial to developing the plot and emphasizing these themes. All of the elements are vital to the message and audience interpretation of the production, and overall, the Playmakers Repertory Company executed them well.

A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry and is a play about an African American family who are struggling in the 1950’s to keep the family together. Although the play is portrayed in the 50’s many issues like the economy, racism, and family dynamics the characters had to face; these issues are still issues in the 21st century.

A Thousand Splendid Suns jumps right into the problem many women seem to face in in the Middle East, but gains pace over the course of the work, not as soon as the novel begins. This problem that they are facing is difficult to expose because women are constantly being oppressed due to the religious views of these countries. By going through their stories and their beginnings, Khaled Hosseini does an amazing job of exhibiting how they defy their traditional gender roles and come together as a team to defy their husband's misogynistic views. In Part One of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is introduced.

Lorraine Hansberry, a female playwright and black activist, spent almost all of her life dealing with American racism, poverty, and lack of social mobility. As a person who witnessed the daily struggles of African Americans, Hansberry wanted to expose the hypocrisy in the idea that America was the land of equal opportunity. As a result, in 1959, Hansberry wrote the play, A Raisin in the Sun, which details the Youngers, an African American family, who experienced racism, poverty, and the lack of social mobility during the 1950s in Chicago’s Southside. Throughout the play, the Younger family members try to make their respective dreams come true and try to deal with the problems that surround them. However, the process of one family member achieving his or her own dream stifles another family member’s respective dream. Hansberry uses the Younger family characters to argue that America is not a land of equal opportunity due to racism, poverty, and the lack of social mobility and to make American society aware of the disadvantages that African Americans are faced with.

In a time of immense racial strife, Lorraine Hansberry -a well respected African American author, civil rights and sexual equality advocate- wrote some of the most influential works of her time. Tenacious and resilient, Hansberry explicitly shared her views on sexual identity, race relationships and identity. Being a successful, black, woman playwright during the 1900’s meant that she had encountered not only racism in her time, but also had to go through deciding just what being black meant during the Civil Rights Movement. A Raisin in the Sun follows a black family in Chicago, which what Hansberry was born into. She was the youngest of four children, born in 1930, in Chicago (Biography.com). Like the Younger family, her

A Raisin in the Sun is written by a famous African- American play write, Lorraine Hansberry, in 1959. It was a first play written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the white section of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 1938. The struggle of Lorraine Hansberry’s family inspired her to write the

A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry presents statuses of men and women in value along with their positions throughout the play. This is often seen with Walter, who uses manhood as an argument for dominance, for why his wife, Ruth, should support him more, why Mama should give him the insurance money from his late father, and why he needs a better career, referring to his aspiration of owning a liquor store. The play also represents various women: the traditional Mama, the supportive, yet timid Ruth, and the progressive Bennie, who are either praised or demeaned for their following or disobedience to feminine standards and stereotypes, almost like dogs. We see frustration with and belittling of women when wealthy George Murchison comes

Lorraine Hansberry was a forward thinker for her time in the 1950’s, which was evident in her writing. “It is believed that hidden behind her work was Hansberry’s own personal struggle with gender” (Wiener 10-11). After many years of marriage and eventually divorce, it was discovered that she was a closet homosexual (Wiener 11). Male and female gender roles are heated topics that have been debated for generations. Women in the United States are still regarded as taking care of and nurturing children as well as the responsibility for taking care of the home. The majority of women in America have a career outside the home, yet still