The novel A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is about an African American family on the southside of Chicago,that struggles through poverty. Soon after buying a new house, a white man, Mr. Lindner comes to their door offering to give them their money back in exchange for them not to move in. Hansberry uses Mr. Lindner to represent society, because he singles out the Younger family because of their race and that they are from a different background than those from Clybourne Park. This is reflective of society, because people mask their misguided beliefs behind the supposed best interests of others.
You could say that our country is growing in knowledge over the years, but the one fact many people lack is that all men and women are created equal no matter their race. Looking back into the history of the U.S. many of the most memorable building/structures were built by foreigners that we felt were not the same to whites. We issued them the title of slaves. Although in the past 100’s of years we have abolished slavery and slowly adopted them into our ways of living, there are many cases in which we still do not.
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
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
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.
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.
In the 1950’s African Americans faced many hardships like economic problems and racial discrimination against Caucasians. These problems have left many African Americans working for white people as drivers, maids, or butlers to them making them inferior to the white man. In “The Raisin in the Sun” they face the same trial and tribulations that many African American families were struggling with which were economic hardship and racial discrimination in America. “The Raisin in the Sun” is a play about a struggling family trying to make it into a world where they are inferior to others.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play that displays housing discrimination in Chicago during the 1950s. Housing discrimination was partially an effect of the Great Migration. This was an event during the 1950s that resulted in about six million African Americans “migrating” from the south to the north, Midwest, and west regions of the United States. This caused the population of black people in major northern cities to increase rapidly. They are then only able to live in certain neighborhoods, which keeps their communities segregated.
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.
A Raisin in the Sun portrays multiple examples of African Americans being discriminated against in the 1950s. The play reveals an obvious example of this. In scene 1 of act 2, Ruth states, “Mama, there ain’t no colored people living in Clybourne Park” (Hansberry 57). This quote reveals that the Younger family is afraid and ashamed of moving into a house in an all white neighborhood. Ruth’s excitement switched to sadness and disappointment real quick when she found out the location of their new home. However, towards the end of the play, the family agrees to do anything in order to not be put down by the whites and survive in Clybourne Park. In
Racism is the trend of thought, or way of thinking, which attaches great importance to the notion of the existence of separate human races and superiority of races that are usually associated with inherited physical characteristics or cultural events. Racism is not a scientific theory, but a set of preconceived opinions they value the biological differences between humans, attributing superiority to some according to racial roots. Even in such ethnically diverse country as the United States, racism continues evident against people of different ethnic traits and skin color. According to Steinberg (Steinberg, 1995), racial discrimination has been the most important cause of inequality between whites and blacks in the U.S. Because of that, minorities in American society have been fighting over years for equal rights and respect, starting with the civil rights movement in 1960s. Also, public policies implemented since 1964 in the United States have been instrumental in reducing economic inequality between blacks and whites, such as the affirmative action, a federal program that tries to include minority groups by providing jobs and educational opportunities (Taylor, 1994). From this perspective, does racism still play a dominant role in American values and American society? If so, what are the consequences of this racism that still remain in American society? What is the impact of the Barack Obama presidency on the unending fight against racism in this country?
In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, a story about an African American family living in Chicago. The book illustrates what the daily problems of an average black family had to deal with while living in America in the 1950s and their struggle of overcoming obstacles to reach their “dream”. Hansberry use this novel to address topics such as racism, racial inequality, and racial discrimination. In 1954, many people during that time supported segregation. People perceived whites and blacks completely different and people wanted them to be separate. Everywhere in the south had “whites only” or “colored”, and many wanted to keep it that way. History will always repeat itself and people are not
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