The African-American Family

Each individual has there own set of ideals and values that motivate them towards specific and non-specific goals, and luckily for everyone, the goals themselves can be molded to these values. Values can be influenced by a plethora of factors, from environment to predispositions, and can range from relationships to materialism. Values and goals may represent a person, or a person may represent the values and demonstrate the context that formed these values. Family, pride, education, finances, and identity ideals are all present in the “Raisin in the Sun”, and the characterizations that take place in the realistic play expose these ideals. A “Raisin in the Sun” uses a mid to late twentieth century African American family to portray each character

Family systems theory is useful when working with families who are impacted by an ASD diagnosis. The family systems theory focuses on the shift of an individual perspective to a family systems perspective. Family is the most important support system for a child. Family is looked at as a unit, therefore by using the family systems theory the professionals are able to identify the family’s influences on the individual. The family system impacts a child’s development as family members affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one another (Paylo, 2011).

The idea of family is a central theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry alludes to the Old Testament book of Ruth in her play to magnify “the value of having a home and family”(Ardolino 181). The Younger family faces hardships that in the moment seem to tear them apart from one another, but through everything, they stick together. The importance of family is amplified by the choices of Walter and Beneatha because they appear to initiate fatal cracks in the Younger family’s foundation, but Mama is the cement who encourages her family to pull together as one unit. The hardships of the family help develop a sense of unity for the Younger household.

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.

There are invaluable life lessons to be learned before one even reaches the age of eighteen; lessons that range of the difference between right and wrong, which friends are the right friends, and the importance of faith. But what influences the questions and answers asked and given during this critical beginning to an individual’s life? Family values built around the influence of the modern age, ethnic background and religion shape an individual and the values they will pass on to future generations.

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

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

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.

My objective for writing this essay on the black family was to examine and interrogate a myriad of stereotypes surrounding this family structure. Slavery and its inception need to be explored because it enables one to acquire a better understanding of the modern day black family. It is my hope that once we achieve this level of understanding, if not acceptance, that we may be able to start the healing process that is so necessary.

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 adage “age is just a number” is true for the most part, a generational age gap can result in diverse ideas, as such is the social and technological advancement of society. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Youngers, an African-American family that is financially struggling, is given an opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty when Mama, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar insurance check upon her husband’s death. Disagreement as to what to do with the money arises, and the Younger family struggle to set aside their problems and differences in order to reunite as the family that they were before. In the play, Hansberry effectively communicates the idea that people harbor different opinions on varying ideas depending on the generation by revealing the opinions of Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha on the ideas of religion and marriage.

In the book A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, racism is portrayed is from the viewpoint of an African American Family, the Youngers, which includes: Walter Lee, Ruth, Beneatha, Travis, and Mama. This family goes through many hardships in order to put food on the table and have a roof over their heads, which becomes incredibly difficult for a colored person in a racist community. A quote that really portrays how much family means for them is: “When the world gets ugly enough- a woman will do anything for her family”(75). This quote shows the distance Ruth will go in order for her family to be happy and for everyone to have what they need, despite the fact that they have low income. Another quote that provides insight on how little this

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

Author Lorraine Hansberry is a master of manipulating the language of her characters in order to further illustrate the impact of the Harlem Renaissance through the experiences of a single family. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of black culture, and the return to African American roots after years of slavery. Hansberry creates each character with unique diction and syntax threaded through their speaking, leading to themes of the importance of racial identity and assimilation. In addition, Hansberry also includes many exquisite stage directions that change atmosphere of her play. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, describes African Americans’ raise against white oppression in the most reliable way possible: through the average american family.

Murray Bowen's family system theory was one of the first comprehensive theories of family system functioning. It was developed in 1974 and it believed the family can be defined as a set of interacting individuals who are related by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption and who interdependently perform relevant functions through roles. Relevant functions of the family include values and practices placed on health system theory is used to explain patterns of living among the individuals who make up the family systems (Edelmen, 2006).