A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

The American Dream is “the belief that hard work would bring opportunity and a better life” (Warren and de Blasio 1). A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is from the perspective of the Younger family, and is set on Chicago’s Southside sometime between World War II and the present. The Younger family, led by Lena Younger includes her children Beneatha and Walter, as well as Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son Travis. The play is about this African American family and their everyday struggles with racism and poverty. The Youngers display how despite the difficulties they face they continue to strive for a better life for themselves. The Younger family proves that achieving the American Dream is possible.

The play “ A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry shows three generation of women under the same roof and the struggle each women face, the dreams that they had and how they overcome the obstacle in their life to move on to something better. The women in the family has had to sacrifice a lot to make the family either happy or progress further in life.

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin In The Sun, one is able to see the positive and negative effects that the American Dream has on the Younger family. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters while portraying the daily struggles of a black family in the 1950’s. Within the play Hansberry is able to effectively show the large impact each member of the family has with every diminutive decision one of them makes. By portraying it through the characters in the play Hansberry is able to convey the message that the American Dream is always achievable.

In Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun,” she uses the Younger family to show that as characters strive to reach their dreams they often disdain the determinations of others but they may eventually learn to care one another in effort to better their lives. 'A Raisin in the Sun' by Lorraine Hansberry is a play about a family in the late 1940s that struggles through lack and discrimination to find the American Dream. American Dream the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. This message explores their hopes and dreams. As it shown in the book that everybody wanted to pursue their own dreams and goals. They weren’t thinking about anybody else but their self. The absence of the American Dream does infiltrate much of the play. Each main character in the play seeks to appropriate the "American Dream" in their own lives. The family consist of the Mama, the deeply Christian grandmother; her son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth and son Travis; and Beneatha, her daughter.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, “Why? You want to know why? 'Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don 't know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!” (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-American community for the 1960’s, is built upon a loose ideology that is a brutal cycle that infects the lives of those who inhabit the area; tired of all the commotion from the Caucasians who, to them, miraculously achieve a life of ruling and

There is no doubt that Lorraine Hansberry uses her play, A Raisin in the Sun, as a platform to give her opinions and observations on the black community and of the racism they faced in the mid-1900s. Her play is filled with commentary

A raisin in the sun is a book that explains the life of a family that is in hard times but some how gets through it. The Younger family is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to economic status this affects the whole family and dreams and values, but the one thing they are good at are arguing and keeping their dreams alive by being a family and loving and caring for one another when nobody else does. The book a raisin in the sun written by Lorraine Hansberry is about a family that are at the bottom of the economic ladder they have a lot of people in the family so it's hard to tend to everybody's needs. The younger family is getting money, the family starting to become a family, Walter gets the money

Throughout many works of literature, characters are described to go through a rite of passage, developing the plot and solving conflicts. A rite of passage is when a character goes through life changes, realizing his/her flaws and maturing as a person. Walter Lee Younger is a man that goes through many different character changes, which cause conflict amongst the other characters. Once he goes through his rite of passage, he is able to fix his flaws and mature. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, characterization is used to portray that one must experience a rite of passage in order to mature.

The struggles of being African American have been very evident throughout history. To present day many African Americans (commonly referred to as "black") endure injustice and inequality. As many racial protests and movies have been made to depict such hardships, so have books. The controversial topics of racism and gender roles are spread throughout A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry lived through such a time where racial and gender discrimination was at its highest point; which she portrays in her book. As the Younger family eventually developed into a family so do the gender issues. My goal in this paper is to identify gender injustice as it has been dominantly illustrated, whether that be where the women stand or what the men should be doing as opposed to the women having higher power.

"A Rasin In The Sun" is written by Lorraine Hansberry. Most of Hansberry's work is about the struggle of African American's during 1950's. Hanberry was the first African-American women to have her play played on Broadway. "Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile" as said by Lorraine. A Raisin in the sun is about a family who is facing economic hardship and racial prejudice. The theme of the play is Dream; American dream for the colored family.

Money is a major struggle for some families in the 1950’s. Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin In The Sun, shows that in multiple ways. The father in the family, Walter Lee Sr. passed away, and all the family has to look forward to is the life insurance check of ten-thousand dollars. The younger family is Mama, Walter , Beneatha , and Ruth. Ruth is married to Walter and they have a son named Travis. Another thing that causes major problems is the fact that Ruth is pregnant. This causes more problems because there is barely enough room in the house to begin with.

Broadway in 1959. A character named Walter Lee invisions to buy a liquor store in his poverty.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s play “Raisin in the Sun” many of the characters struggle to achieve their dreams and often have them deferred due to race and gender. In the play, an African American family must learn how to live in a time period where racial segregation and gender inequality is normal and obvious. In the 1900s, men saw women as less superior. In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem”, it explains how dreams are deferred when it comes to the African American population. Hughes writes: “Does it dry up, /like a raisin in the sun?”(2-3). Hughes and Hansberry want to let everyone know the hardship African Americans dealt with and that at often times, their dreams were deferred. Racism made it difficult for some African American families to make

Travis Younger, Walter and Ruth’s young son is a unique character in the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. He was identified as a spoiled child because his parents gave him whatever he wanted as they don’t want Travis to think they don’t have enough money but later, he becomes devoted. Towards the end, Travis becomes the symbol of the “future” for the Younger family because his future represents the possibility of ending the burdens of frustration that have accumulated over the generations.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in The Sun”, the three womanist themes are marriage, motherhood, and education. The first theme is marriage. Lena Younger’s husband Big Walter died, and Ruth Younger and her husband Walter Lee have been married for eleven years. In addition, motherhood is also a relevant theme. Ruth and Walter Lee have a son named Travis Younger. Additionally, Ruth is pregnant with their second child and has already put a down payment on getting an abortion. Lena is the mother of little Claude, her first child whom she had a miscarriage with, Walter Lee, and Beneatha, and grandmother of Travis, and the mother-in-law of Ruth. Finally, education is another important theme. Beneatha is a young womanist college student who