Lorraine Hansberry Essay Questions

The script shows ordinary people with everyday situations that many people would be able to relate to on one level or another. The experiences on display throughout the play can be understood by those who may live in small towns like the one in the script or those who reside in major urban areas.

At the beginning of the play, Beneatha is independent, over-confident, and arrogant. This can be seen when she exclaims, “Oh, I probably will … but first, I'm going to be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that's funny. I couldn't be bothered with that. I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that!”( ; ) At this area of the play, Beneatha, Ruth, and Mama are conversing about George Murchison and his appearance, personality, and family's wealth. Beneatha’s statement reflects her individualistic mindset and belief that she will get where she is going on her own. Another display of Beneatha’s self-centered personality comes when she tells Mama, “I mean it! I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He got to do with anything? Does he pay for tuition?” ( ; ) This rant of Beneatha takes place when Mama tells her that she will become a doctor God willing. Her feelings towards God are indicative of disregard for the thing Mama values

In life people have ups and downs; the characters in A Raisin in the Sun experience many highs and many lows. Throughout the story there are many decisions that the characters toss around and debate. Mama, the mother of the family, receives $10,000 which is a very large sum of money for their family. It is up to Mama to decide where the money should go. The Characters in the story developed and their true desires are shown through the choices they make. The characters are faced with many obstacles and these hurdles reveal their character and help to shape the overall plot. In Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the struggle to overcome oppression in order to actualize one’s dream is revealed through the character developement of Walter, Beneatha, and Mama.

     Family values are the context of Mama’s second nurturing lesson to Beneatha. After a conflictive encounter with her brother, Beneatha expresses a lack of respect and love for Walter. Lena Younger first quickly ensures that she correctly heard her daughter. Although Mama does not come across as gentle as she has in the past, her

The concept of struggling was another theme that occurred within this play. We can witness it through observing all the instances in which Beneatha, Walter and Lena, were subjected to difficult circumstances. They were each faced with hardships that caused their

One should not judge another on the color of their skin, but by their character. One’s character builds itself through numerous moments of struggle and how one overcomes said situation. Some people build good character through good deeds and sacrifices for the betterment of others, while others build themselves up, by diminishing somebody else. Walter’s family define what it means to have good character, through means of hardship and how they overcome said hardship. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, faces struggles of racism, assimilation, personal pride, and dreams for the future form major themes influencing and developing the characters throughout the play.

Since the 20th and 21st century the film/ Play has since been enhanced and adapted in many versions as is the case in this production by the UCF theater who decided to set the play in a 1930 's metropolis in and around the speakeasies where races could mingle, but also spark clashes, and tell the tale of two lovers who were caught in the fight between their families ( both alike in dignity) for the control of the clubs , the distribution of alcohol (Even though it was during the prohibition era ) and their piece of the well known American Dream. Although they incorporated a later era which gave more realism to today 's society, the underlying scenes and most recognized plots were that of the original play .

In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry portrays the Younger family as a struggling black family in Chicago at a pivotal time period for race relations in America shortly after the conclusion of World War II. Hansberry uses the three main characters of Walter, Lena (Mama), and Beneatha in order to emphasize the theme of family and the American Dream, whether that be the hard to get along with Walter and his self pity, or the kind and warm hearted Mama and her constant struggle to keep her children in line, or the educated and expressive Beneatha who just wants to find herself and explore her roots. Ultimately, by the end of the story, they work out their problems and show the values of family as they move to a new house in a white neighborhood where they will surely be oppressed.

Yomna Saber’s review “Lorraine Hansberry: Defining the Line Between Integration and Assimilation” on Hansberry’s screenplay “A Raisin in the Sun” depicts the struggles of segregation and racism an African American family is thrown into when they receive a large sum of money from an insurance claim. Whereas David Cooper’s review “Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun” on the same screenplay mainly focuses on the tensions caused from being an optimist and always looking for a silver lining. Saber’s paper goes through several strong impacting scenes in Hansberry’s play, and points out the emotions the characters are experiencing and how relatable it is to people; Cooper focuses on several strong scenes and yet does not mention the relatability of the screenplay. The relatability of the characters portrayed is one of the main reasons it went down in such a historical way, all while carving Hansberry’s name into the book of great writers. The relatability to the African Americans touched close to their heart, they have all endured unspeakable acts of injustice merely due to the color of their skin.

Written in the 1900s, “A Raisin in the Sun,” is seen as a “historical achievement” due to its realistic and truthful depiction of the lives lived by many African Americans in the late 1950s. In many ways, Lorraine Hansberry’s childhood contributed to the creation of this work. While she was born into a middle-class family in Chicago, she witnessed the discriminations afflicting the American society firsthand. On the surface, the play is about an African American family trying to escape the slums of Chicago’s South Side. However, Lorraine Hansberry utilizes complex characters and themes to go beyond the primary plot of the play and explore the social issues of this time period.

Do you know what life was life for average African American families in the 1940s? In the play Raisin in the Sun the Youngers lived a small apartment with 5 people. This play was taken place in the 1940s and as a poor African American family living in this time is a hard struggle. Each member of this family has a dream yet they all struggle to achieve it due to their economic status and racism of this time so they are forced to put there dreams aside. What gives their family hope to achieve their goals and over come their obstacles is the insurance money from “Big Walter’s” death.

This play showed an array of emotion as well as an incremental amount of toll the environment around them took upon this single family. Life surely hasn’t been easy for millions of people back in time nor in today’s world. I realize that life has never been a walk in the park but a character such as Beneatha has shown that it takes one strong willed person to change the ideals of a stubborn man like Walter. She wished to go into the medical field and become a doctor on top of that she was a female and had a black heritage. Women at the time didn’t even have the right to vote politically, women were expected to cook, clean and care for the children-at home. It appals me at the lack of freedom that could be expressed by women not that long ago or even the fact that abortion was illegal. Things like abortions seem to be a normality in this world, from watching television shows with women getting abortions to billboards regarding Planned Parenthood. These clinics are for the aid of young women who are struggling with keeping their baby; yet, back then, the only doctors you could go to are female doctors who were doing this procedure unpracticed and in a dangerous manner. It seems as if our environments have haltered the way we view the American dream. The American dream use to be one of finding one’s freedom of speech and religion in a new land where job opportunity and wealth were a reachable demand; but, it seems as if now that many people have that, they want more. The rich or better known as the white people of these neighborhood associations were gaining land, money and politics while the minority races were falling behind in almost every aspect of life. Today I’ve found from reading books like A Raisin in the Sun, that African Americans may legally have the rights of a civilian

The setting for the play takes place in Alphabet City New York in the early 1990’s where diseases like AIDS and poverty for the community was at an all-time high. This tragic situation left some members of the community with no jobs, food, or homes to survive with. Some individuals through the play experienced different endeavors from dealing with finding themselves to learning how to excel at a film career. The struggles they faced in the city made for a good setting and situation to highlight the adversities people living in Alphabet City endured during that

In various forms of literature, many find that the most inspiring characters are the ones who build themselves up from nothing- those who are not meant to succeed, and yet still find a way to. They are the characters that, when the world throws the worst at them, they rise above it. The nature of the 1950’s in the United States of America is a prime example of harsh and unequal times. A plethora of literature forms portray the African American struggle in their works and the dreams their characters have in those trying times. In A Raisin in the Sun (1959), Lorraine Hansberry envisions three different dreams for characters caught in a crucible of racism and poverty: prosperity, identity, and the unity that comes from living a life of faith. Hansberry demonstrates that with her characters Mama, Beneatha, and Walter Younger.

Independence and dependence symbolizes a commitment that creates reassurance of poignant affluence intolerance of exotic meanings in the play. The audience can depict and expect comprehending retrogressive attitudes for Ruth and Walter Younger. An organizational illumination accommodates the brave spirit of Walter Younger to stand up for himself as a man with an ironic twist. The metaphorical transformation of Walter Lee’s responsibilities for Ruth demonstrates a reflection of superiority and the prosperity of different changes in speech, clothing, and behavior. The vital significance of slavery within the aristocracy governing ceremony shocked the characters’ nobility and refined language of willpower. The cruelty game of deception between