Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

In the novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, the author Zora Neale Hurston used a certain dialect and language to help bring to life the social status’ and personalities of each of her characters. The dialect helps compare and contrast each of the characters that Janie, the main character, interacts with. The dialect shown throughout the novel will help the reader understand the level of education and upbringing of the characters as well as bringing the story to life. In “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, Hurston makes it very apparent that Janie, Pheoby, and Tea Cake are all African Americans from the deep south.

Zora Neal Hurston was criticized by other African American writers for her use of dialect and folk speech. Richard Wright was one of her harshest critics and likened Hurston’s technique “to that of a minstrel show designed to appease a white audience” (www.pbs.org).Given the time frame, the Harlem Renaissance, it is understandable that Zora Neale Hurston may be criticized. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement which redefined how America, and the world, viewed African Americans, so her folk speech could be seen as perpetuating main stream society’s view of African Americans as ignorant and incapable of speaking in complete sentences. However, others, such as philosopher and critic Alain Locke, praised her. He considered Hurston’s “gift for poetic phrase and rare dialect, a welcome replacement for so much faulty local color fiction about Negroes” (www.pbs.org).

In Barbara Mellix essay tiled “From Outside, In” she expresses her difficulties differentiating between two language, Black-English and the Standard American English. Throughout her essay, Melix discusses her struggle coping with two different “identities” growing up and how that it impacted her today. Melix bridges the gap between her identities when it comes to speaking with a different group of people. She uses Black-English when she is around close family or friends but would immediately use and write proper/standard English when it comes to school or the public.

The first and most well known of these playwrights was Lorraine Hansberry, whose impact on theatre is still felt very strongly today. Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of four children. At eight years old, Hansberry’s family moved into a predominantly white neighborhood with limiting conditions preventing African Americans from buying homes. Hansberry’s father challenged the restrictions, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 1940. Hansberry spoke about the stress and strength this case put their family through in her book To Be Young, Gifted, and Black

Instead of valuing the message one is sharing, society becomes hung up on the formality of the speaker. Hurston’s incorporation of this rough language highlights the hardships members of her community faced to move up in the ranks. They are judged immediately for their voice rather than the content of their ideas. Hurston plays off this stereotype in “Spunk” by recounting the whole story through the idiom of the rural South. Subconsciously, she is spreading awareness of the low economic and social status of her hometown and culture, and then busting the stereotype through the voice of the narrator. The voices of the townspeople mirror Hurston’s origins, and the voice of the narrator illustrates how far she had come in her education and success. Society should not stereotype minority groups because of their lack of resources that hold them back from what they are truly capable of. Unfortunately, critics such as Langston Hughes did not understand Hurston’s intentions. He “accused her of using the dialectic speech and the elements of folklore to degenerate her own people and to please whites, who expected unsophisticated language and behavior from African Americans,” (“Spunk” 296). Hurston along with the many other Harlem Renaissance characters were evidence themselves that the African American culture has unique elements that make it worth celebrating rather than a burden dragging the United States down.

Richard Wright uses language in his novel, Black Boy, as a source to convey his opinions and ideas. His novel both challenges and defends the claim that language can represent a person and become a peephole into their life and surroundings. Richard Wright uses several rhetorical techniques to convey his own ideas about the uses of language.

It is important to note that Hurston’s use of more vulgar vernacular for her characters does not detract from the poetic or the metaphoric. The use of unconventional spelling and diction functions to create a much more personal tone which fully conveys, as Gates phrases it, “the Negro way of saying,” capturing not only what is spoken but also how it is spoken. The natural, rhythmic dialect, often set up in a variation of parallel structure— “folks is playin’ it wid sense and folks is playin’ it without”— coupled with the heavy use of italics and common idiomatic phrases of the Afro-American south— “B’lieve Ah done cut uh hawg”— encapsulates not just language but lifestyle (96, 97). One of the biggest parts of Afro-American culture is the legacy of oral tradition.

As the British-American author Simon Sinek most adequately stated, “There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.” This quote explains that with every seemingly good decision there will be consequences that come along with it. So, with Walter’s decision in a Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry to move into the white neighborhood there will be negative repercussions. Although Walter’s decision will not create the happy ending his family wanted, it is ultimately the right choice for not only the pride of his family, but also for the whole black community.

What happens to a dream deferred? In the play The Raisin In The Sun, Author Lorraine Hansberry attempts to answer this question through her characters, characteristics: one of these characters is Walter Lee. Walter goes through a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the play which shows the audience that several things can happen when a dream is deferred. When examining Walter’s characteristics a viewer is able to see his role in the family, what he wants, his personality, and from these three a clear metaphor emerges.

Lorraine Hansberry is a play writer and the first female writer to have a play performed on broadway. Langston hughes is an american poet, playwright, and social activist. During the Harlem renaissance, Hansberry and Hughes met and Hughes left a deep influence on Hansberry and this motivated her to keep writing. At this time Hansberry wrote a Raisin In the Sun, which was based on the poem, “ A Dream Deferred.” This play was a huge success and was the youngest American playwright at age 29.

“We didn’t all come over on the same ship, but we’re all in the same boat.” –Bernard M. Baruch. America is considered a melting pot, where all races and cultures ideally co-exist as equals. Even though Individual’s emerge from different backgrounds, they are all brought together under one identity, as American. African-Americans, however, had to fight to be an assimilated part of American society, and claim for themselves the bonds that unite Americans one to another. In “Theme for English B”, Hughes depicts the similarities between himself, the black student, and his Professor, In order to assert that Individuals can emerge from different backgrounds, however, they share similarities, and they are still able to assimilate with one another.

In the mid-1900's, African Americans that were living in the United States weren't treated as equals by white men, but this didn't stop people like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks from creating a civil rights movement to gain their equality. " A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry depicts how African Americans were treated by white people and the rest of America. Hansberry used her personal experience of her father fighting segregation by moving them into all-white community in Chicago like the Younger's decided to do in this drama. She moved to New York and become a journalist for the newspaper, Freedom. In 1957, the world become exposed to her poem and this play quickly became a masterpiece that also landed on Broadway.

Few plays have created a vision of 1950s American life as nuanced or multi-layered as A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. The stage of the play is set in Chicago in the home of a Youngers, an African-American family that live together in a small, squalid apartment. This close-knit family, though full of different personalities, has a dynamic which drives the story forward. Lena, known as Mama by everyone in the household, is the family matriarch and recently turned widow with a fiery personality and wisdom cultivated over the years. Her elder son, Walter, is married to his wife Ruth and has a young child with her named Travis.

Despite offering various ways of Black American’s eagerness in exploring their connection to Africa, “Hansberry does not romanticize the yearning for a culturally rich, spiritual homeland” (ibid. 106). Instead, she leaves it open to question whether Beneatha accepts Asagai’s offer to come with him to Africa. Moreover, she portrays the family’s strong-will in moving to a place where they are not wanted to demonstrate their pride. Thus, Hansberry depicts a prosperous way of assimilating to the White Society while keeping one’s ideals. Additionally, being an outspoken advocate of African American rights, Hansberry indeed foreshadows the Civil Right Movements, which took place not long after the play’s publication.

“Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” Mario Andretti. This is true for all of the characters in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The play A Raisin in the Sun takes place in Chicago’s Southside sometime during the 1950s and the story follows the lives of the Youngers, and African-American family. Though the story follows everyone in the family readers learn more about certain characters than others.