Analysis of A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun skillfully exemplifies many aspects of ‘black’ culture, especially how different ‘black archetypes’ may make different decisions based on how they see race and themselves within a culture. This is impertinent as a plot device in the play, and in the culture itself which the play is expressing. Black men at the time were forced to consider themselves into a certain way both for themselves and their families, and this play show’s how that unnecessary consideration can affect their decision making and overall desires. There are three ‘black man’ archetypes given in the play; Walter, George Murchison, and Asagai, and they are all similar in the fact that they are black men, but differ in how they believe black men should act, especially when it comes to family and heritage.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.

The situation that play out in Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun can be put side by side in situation that is happening in modern America, and we can see how each of the characters have characteristic that we still see in people today. Using Reader-Response Analysis we can see that how people act, think, and handled problems in the play A Raisin in the Sun is still how people today still handle problems.

Welcome to the Windham High school drama club revival of A Raisin in the Sun!

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun features an African American family in the late 1950’s as they look forward to achieving their individual dreams in the era where racism and economic hardship among African Americans was the norm. While Hansberry doesn’t directly mention well-known events in the civil rights movement, she illustrates the realistic struggles an African American family would have faced during this time. In the introduction of the play, Robert Nemiroff illustrates several themes and issues that are addressed throughout Hansberry’s play. One of the subjects Nemiroff mentions is the “value systems of the black family”(Nemiroff, “Introduction,” 5-6). A main value that Hansberry illustrates throughout the play is the

In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the story is set in 1950s Southside Chicago, in a red-lined neighborhood. Although the majority of the story is set within the scope of the neighborhood, the perceptions of the world held by the inhabitants of that neighborhood vary greatly. Mama and Beneatha, two quintessential members of the Younger family and cohabitors of this neighborhood, have vastly disparate perceptions of the world, likely because of the discrepancies, fueled by changing times, in what they each consider to be the baseline of society , from which they wish to improve.

    Lorraine Hansberry faced many obstacles in her life which has made her  write this book A “Raisin in the Sun.” As said in Blooms Literature “She was the youngest of four children whose parents were well-educated, middle-class activists centrally engaged in the fight against racial discrimination. Early figures in the Civil Rights movement.” In the book “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first play written by an African American she made through experiences of  black people who live on Chicago’s South Side, Hansberry used members of her family as inspiration for her characters. Lorraine Hansberry life had comparisons in this book dealing with poverty

In the Southside of Chicago in the 1950’s, the Youngers are a typical poverty stricken family that works hard to be able to rise out of poverty. Each family member has a different dream of being able to reach this goal. Mama has the dream of owning her own house, Walter wants to be able to open a liquor store, Beneatha wants to go to school to become a doctor, and Ruth wants to move out of their current apartment. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows the effect of a deferred dream in Walter Lee’s character.

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry many character have dreams. Beneatha’s to become a doctor, Mama’s to buy a house and Walter’s to own a liquor store. These dreams affect each character differently. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry illustrates Walter Lee’s dream of owning a liquor store affects him negatively by causing him to constantly be thinking about money and causing him to make bad decisions, it also affects him positively, by teaching him an important life lesson.

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.

Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what

Hansberry's play captures how Chicago (and America in general) was around the 1950’s; although Chicago claimed to be anti-racist, Hansberry shows what life was like for black families in that day and age. It also has elements from her own life in it, making it a more realistic story. Hansberry used many techniques to create a build-up of tension until Karl Lindner came out with what he had to say, which was racially prejudiced and very discriminatory towards the family. This was the turning point in the play where everything they worked for was starting to go wrong.

Throughout the play of A Raisin in the Sun, racism is experienced and defended by the Younger family. This essay will therefore go on to describe some examples of racism that appears in this play and how the Younger family defends the issue of racism. As it can be seen in the excerpt given in the assignment question, a character by the name of Mr Lindner is portrayed as a racist man. The character of Mr. Lindner makes the theme of racial discrimination prominent in the plot as an issue that the Youngers cannot avoid.

When looking at the origins of African-American Dramas specifically in Mulatto, Native Son, A Raisin in the Sun, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Great Goodness of Life, and Dutchman, the emotions of all these characters created the sense that everyone in this time were still searching for their identity. Each character in the plays had to overcome difficulties relating to their skin color, thus causing either confusion or confidence in their search for what defines them as their self. It created internal conflicts and they often blamed society for specific expectations and stereotypes. How the characters decided to express their feelings in emotions demonstrates a sense of realism and how they viewed themselves. In each play, we are able to see how the characters deal with the searching of their identity through various emotions and internal conflicts through their life choices.

Amiri Baraka’s The Dutchman would be considered a historical allegory that could be understood as this poetic and dramatic expression of the relationship between whites and blacks throughout the existence of the United States. These patterns of history are symbolically acted out by the two characters Lula and Clay; Lula represents white America and Clay seems to stand for the modern day Uncle Tom, who has over time been shaped by white America and this slave mentality.