Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Many people go through different moralities in there life some that they believe can change their life for the better but don’t know the consequences. This ties in with issues involving money. Many people believe that money is the way to happiness and do what they can to get money even if it means to hurt your loved ones. In the play “Raisin in the Sun” Walter Lee Younger is man that lives in South Side Chicago and at point in life that he’s in, he wants to do something in his life and make a difference for colored people. The way he believes he can accomplish that is by opening a bar to make money for his family while believing money is the only source of happiness. Walters ideal morality was to make sure he got his hands on the insurance money so he could open up the bar even if it meant his family would suffer when things went wrong.

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” (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, “Why? You want to know why? 'Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don 't know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!” (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-American community for the 1960’s, is built upon a loose ideology that is a brutal cycle that infects the lives of those who inhabit the area; tired of all the commotion from the Caucasians who, to them, miraculously achieve a life of ruling and

The play “ A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry shows three generation of women under the same roof and the struggle each women face, the dreams that they had and how they overcome the obstacle in their life to move on to something better. The women in the family has had to sacrifice a lot to make the family either happy or progress further in life.

The struggles of being African American have been very evident throughout history. To present day many African Americans (commonly referred to as "black") endure injustice and inequality. As many racial protests and movies have been made to depict such hardships, so have books. The controversial topics of racism and gender roles are spread throughout A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry lived through such a time where racial and gender discrimination was at its highest point; which she portrays in her book. As the Younger family eventually developed into a family so do the gender issues. My goal in this paper is to identify gender injustice as it has been dominantly illustrated, whether that be where the women stand or what the men should be doing as opposed to the women having higher power.

"A Rasin In The Sun" is written by Lorraine Hansberry. Most of Hansberry's work is about the struggle of African American's during 1950's. Hanberry was the first African-American women to have her play played on Broadway. "Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile" as said by Lorraine. A Raisin in the sun is about a family who is facing economic hardship and racial prejudice. The theme of the play is Dream; American dream for the colored family.

After World War II, African Americans had unequal opportunities in many aspects of their lives. A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, mirrors the conflicts endured by African-Americans after World War II who were hoping to better their lives, but still held back by the racism and bigotry of earlier eras. Despite the legal barriers of segregation in the 1950s, black families were still being denied access to jobs, higher education, and particularly as it relates to the play, desirable neighborhoods in which to raise their families. At this time, black families like the Youngers, had planned living arrangements from zoning issues. They were blocked from the neighborhoods because of covenants and racial steering matters. The

According to a 2017 publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter, black men in America earn 80% of what white men earn (Daley, Bart, Joseph). This illuminates the wage disparity and the notion that America is racially biased in terms of compensation. Power is often determined by the amount of money one has. How power is determined by race and skin color is a central theme in both A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is also exemplified in US history, as shown in the documentary, American Dilemma. These sources show that the power of colored people is extremely diminished by their lack of access to good jobs and therefore money.

In the novel, A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry , shows the reader how society was viewed back then in the 1950s .It was tough for african american lives. An African american family living on the southside of Chicago in the 1950s. The play opens from receiving a 10,000 thousand dollar insurance check to do whatever they want with it. Living with five people in a tiny- one bedroom apartment puts the environment pressures high. The book portrays the idea of a dream within all the African american characters shown differently and the different struggles they have to live with in a world of racism, social standards/higher expectations, and regret fullness. Walter Lee Younger, the man of the house, truly encapsulates the American

To give Walter more responsibility and encourage him to gain more self-respect, Mama makes him the head of the household and entrusts him with the money remaining after the down payment on the house, but instead of setting aside a portion for Beneatha's education, Walter gives it all to his investment partner, Willy Harris. Willy betrays Walter's trust by running away with the money, and when Mama learns of Walter's irresponsibility, she beats him "senselessly in the face" (81) and reminds Walter of his father's suffering: "I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty . . . working and working and working like somebody's old horse . . . killing himself . . . and you give it all away in a day" (81). Walter is not the only one who is slapped by Mama: when Beneatha is angry with her mother for treating her like a child, she proclaims, "There simply is no blasted God, there is only man and it is He who makes miracles!" (50). This outburst causes Mama to slap Beneatha and make her repeat, "In my mother's house there is still God" (51); however, Beneatha does not want to rely on God for fulfillment of her dreams: she wants to create her own future by

Mama uses her money to buy a house for her family not just for her dream but to make everyone happy, especially her grandson, Travis. “She went out and bought you a house!” (2.2). Even though Mama does not have faith in Walter’s dreams she still gives him her remaining money to invest. Walter jeopardizes the family by losing all of Mama’s money back-tracking them, leaving no money for Beneatha’s college savings. Soon Walter comes to realize how important this new house is to the family Walter declines the offer to sell the new house. “And we have decided to move into our new house because my father-my father- her earned it for us brick by brick. We don't want no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors. and that's all we go to say about that. We don’t want your money.(2.3)” This shows Walter has come to value family as his mother

A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, this play also comes in a series of movies. In the movie version of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Leon Kenny, there are many similarities and differences from the play. In the play, for example, a difference is that Mama talks about the check with Walter in their apartment, but in the movie they talk in a diner after Mama finds Walter in a bar. Another difference is that Travis was in the play a lot, but in the movie he was hardly included. A similarity, however, is that Mama gives her same speech about how loving someone when they are down is the best thing you can do for them. The movie version was set in the time period of the Civil Rights Movement, and the play was not set in that time period. While both versions of A Raisin in the Sun address the similarities and differences, the differences exceed the similarities, hence a teacher must show the movie and the play so the students can understand the significance of both.

Everybody has dreams and goals that they hope to attain one day; this ambition and motivation is what keeps people going through life, even in tough times. However, what happens when a person’s goal of accomplishing a dream is halted temporarily or even indefinitely? This is what Langston Hughes explores in his poem called Harlem, and the various effects of having a dream deferred are encountered in the play A Raisin in the Sun. In fact, the play gets its name from the poem as one line in the poem asks, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”, and it is this poem that allows the reader to better understand what is going on in the play. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry keeps up a sustained allusion to Langston Hughes’s

A go getter, someone who will do anything to succeed in life. Even though people may judge unfairly and not believe in them especially, when it comes to a color women. During the 1950’s gender equality was an important issue especially when segregation was relevant. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry shows a 1950s young colored woman fighting for what she wants. Beneatha Younger, an open minded and naive twenty year old daughter whose goal is to become a doctor and will go to extreme lengths to prove her family wrong. Her devotion to her education will lead her down a great path.

Origins A raisin in the sun is Lorraine Hansberry's play about racism. It shows the struggles the black live every day. The play is a true story of her family who are black and want to live in a house at a neighborhood that was only inhabited by the white. Their white neighbors tried to offer them money to get out of the house but they refused to leave and insisted on staying in their house whatever this will coast.