Racism. It’s a word you hear a lot of these days. Yet society throws it around so much that it loses its meaning. The true definition of racism is ‘prejudice and discrimination towards members of a different race based on the belief that their race is inferior.’ Unfortunately, racism has been a huge part of American history. Ever since white people brought over the first slaves from Africa, they have been treating members of other races terribly. White people kept black people in chains to do their work for them. Slavery was so important in the 1800s, that it was one of the reasons why the country went to war. When the slaves were freed in 1863, many white people were furious. They lynched and burned black people for no reason other than …show more content…
This quote shows that even though people would still be prejudiced and discriminatory towards her, she and all the other black people living during this time would have to fight hard to rise above it and ensure a better future for themselves and their families.
Between the 1930s and the 1960s, things had gotten slightly better. Black people were no longer being lynched or killed, and white people had finally started to treat them like humans. However, there was a catch. During this time, black people were considered second-class citizens. Raisin in the Sun and “Hidden Figures” are two pieces of evidence why. As stated before, though they are fictional, the stories are based off real events and real experiences that black people had to go through during the time. Raisin in the Sun is a play written in the late 1950s that details the life of a black family after their husband/father dies and the insurance money they receive because of it. For example, in the midst of the story, Lena Younger, the leader of the household (and whose husband died), decided to buy the family a new house. The problem is, she chooses a house in a all-white neighborhood. Their new neighbors apparently had an issue with
During the time period when a lot of the African American population moved from the South to the large northern cities in hope of better jobs and a chance of a better lifestyle, residential segregation was a big issue. At the beginning the African American population thought it was great to have their own neighborhoods where they could live and be themselves. In Southside Chicago there are famous buildings such as the Regal Theatre and Hotel Grand, which are located right within the “Black Metropolis”. Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun takes place in Southside Chicago in the 1950s. It revolves around the Younger family who bought a house in a white neighborhood with the money of Big Walter’s insurance check. But they are facing problems from the neighborhood as the “welcoming committee” offers to buy the house of off them just so they will not move into the neighborhood. In the play A Raisin in the Sun one of the many issues the Younger family faces is residential segregation.
The play A Raisin In The Sun shows a lot of insight into the historical events and practices that were taking place in that time period. During the play, author Lorraine Hansberry touches on topics that are historically relevant and important to understand and fully grasping the events in the play. For example, during this time in Chicago a practice called Redlining was very common. Redlining was when insurance companies and other people refused to sell homes to African americans because of their race and they would often be deemed to poor and financially risky to sell a house to. The practice of redlining is seen in Hansberry's play when Mama goes to buy a house, but since there's limited options because of redlining, she can only find
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.
Another theme and issue that arrives from the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is racism. During the 1950’s blacks and whites were segregated. The house the Younger’s purchased was in the Clybourne Park neighborhood, an all white neighborhood. When Lena told the family they were moving to Clybourne Park they stood with amazement. “Mama, there ain’t no colored people in Clybourne Park” (p.734). The family heard of other colored families’ houses being set on fire in this neighborhood, they were concerned that the same thing would happen to them.
The 1960’s were a harsh time for African Americans and females. A Raisin in the Sun which was written by Lorraine Hansberry shows this very well by introducing different characters that represent different values during the time. The play involves an African American family that is struggling to survive with the way that their situation is. The characters shown throughout the play introduce key ideas from the 1960’s. The characters also introduce different contrasts that can be analyzed. The play also introduces an interesting topic on dignity. The three big points to analyze are the characters in the play, the contrast between characters, and the importance of dignity.
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
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
Published in 1959, The Raisin in the Sun appears to be a simple story of a poverty-stricken African-American family of the 50s and their everyday adversaries; however, Lorraine Hansberry uses the Younger family to show how similar the family was to families of different racial backgrounds. Despite the Younger’s racial differences, they were still a family that had real family issues and they strived to fit the status quo of the American Dream. Throughout the story the Younger family continuously clash because of their over varying dreams that have to do with money. By taking a closer look at the Younger family and comparing their lives to the 1959 issue of Ebony, readers are given a better comprehension of life in the 50s from an African-American
A Raisin in the Sun is play written about a family in the 1950’s, and the focus of the play is how racism affects that family. The family in the play tries to buy a house in a white neighborhood, and they have to deal with discriminatory housing practices and the threat of racial violence. A Raisin in the Sun is relevant today because a lot of the insights it makes about racism are still debated over today. One of the issues it tackles is racial violence. In the play, the family deals with the threat of racial violence from people who don’t want them to move into their new house. Today, many feel that racial violence is being done by the police. The story also deals with the family’s struggles to buy a house and the abuse they face for
How could an individual describe racism in America today? One could describe it as systematic. The process brought on by hundreds of years of oppression because of a superiority complex. It is the removal of basic rights and enslavement. It is the forced labor of a race to build a country that would not acknowledge them as people, only property. That was America in its most unethical form; it is the reason there are still problems today. Without out fully acknowledging the history of America’s past, the country cannot fully understand the racism that is going on today, such as the mass incarceration of the African American population and the killing of innocent black lives. Those are facets of racism in America today.
The story of A Raisin in the Sun is fundamentally concerning visions, as the major characters struggle to deal with the domineering condition that is ruling their life. The name of the play recommendation an assumption that Langston Hughes distinctively posed in a poem he compose concerning visions that were forgotten or postpone. He speculates whether those dreams shrink up "like a raisin in the sun." each associate of the Younger family has been divided, each one vision Beneatha desires to be a doctor, for instance, and Walter desires to have money so that he can give material things to his folks. The Younger's exert more effort to reach these dreams during the play, and much of their delight and despair is straightly connected to their achievement of, or failure to achieve, these dreams. In the last part of the play, they found out that the dream of a home is the most significant vision as its bonds the family.
The late 1950s was filled with racial discriminations. There was still sections living as well as public signs of Colored and Whites. Blacks and Whites were not for any change or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells a story of a black family that is struggling to gain a middle class acceptance in Chicago. The family of five, one child and four adults live in a tiny apartment that is located in a very poor area. Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals is two key parts played out throughout the whole play. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends met to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter
African-Americans have experienced racism since the 1600s and throughout American history. However, not many books have been able to display the ethnic ignorance that white people have towards blacks. One of the more successful stories is A Raisin in the Sun shares a compelling story about an African-American family during the 1900s and offers many themes about social class and race. In A Raisin in the Sun, a negative legacy is left on modern drama due to the many examples of poverty and the message of money in the novel; though some people may believe that the play was an accurate depiction of the African-American lifestyle and their culture, they are wrong to believe this impractical belief because it leads to many white people assuming
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.
A Raisin in the Sun was a play written in the late 1950’s analyzing the cruel effects of racism amongst the Younger family. The younger family suffers from racial discrimination within their living space, place of employment, and the housing industry. Racism has been going on for a very long time in the United States and will always continue to exist. Racism has not only led to political but also social issues. "A Raisin in the Sun confronted Whites for an acknowledgement that a black family could be fully human, 'just like us."(qtd. White fear.) The setting took place in the ghetto, south of Chicago where mainly African Americans settled. In this division, apartments and houses were overly priced, crowded and poorly maintained. Crime rates were extremely high and most families lived in poverty. Due to segregated housing, it was a daily struggle for black families who had hopes in leaving the ghetto for better lives.