Personal Narrative: My First Black Box Play

The play A Raisin in the Sun, begins with the introduction of the Younger family who lived on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950’s. During this time period, there was segregation around different areas in the United States, which caused problems for families who wanted to find better neighborhoods for their loved ones. Therefore, when the Younger family desired to move to Clybourne Park, a predominantly white neighborhood, they were faced with issues such as cultural identity. Throughout the play, Beneatha the youngest daughter of the Younger family, shows that she struggles with cultural identity because she refused to become an assimilationist, wants to express herself and find her own identity.

I was nine-years old in 1952, and it was on a brisk August Sunday afternoon when my Dad took me to my very first 49ers game at Kezar Stadium for an exhibition contest against the Cardinals, from Chicago. As I remember the weather was overcast and the temperature a cool 60 degrees.

Primarily, in A Raisin in the Sun portrays a low-class African American family, living on the Southside of Chicago in the 1950’s. Throughout the play, an opportunity to escape from poverty comes in the form of ten thousand dollars of a life insurance check for the family ( Mrs. Younger, mama ) received upon her husband’s death. Lorraine Hansberry’s play shows the struggles of accomplishing dreams and how racism still exists today.

Could we get to the ball? If we don’t get the ball they well recover it. It was one of our first games in September. Our record was one, one and one. That means we won once, lost once, and tied once. It was at Unity Field (Home). We were started at 4:30.

It all started at the beginning of tryouts. The week of excitement and nervousness. Everyone was already making guesses on who was gonna be on the team. Then so it started, the first day was pretty easy and so was the next. The third was conditioning day, which was the worst. Then the last two days were fairly easy too. But those days were the most nerve racking. Those were the days when the cuts were made.

His little legs churned as fast as they could driving him straight at his opponent. I sensed Matthew wasn’t too sure of himself since he had never expressed any confidence playing our football games or in practices; but this time, the young defender responsible for guarding him was smaller, and Matt had the advantage. He staccato stepped and faked running to the right just as we had planned. His opponent accepting the feigned shift, ran in the misdirection. Suddenly, Matt was all alone in the end-zone; and the football, a perfectly thrown pass designed for Matt, was spiraling toward his small opened hands. The ball hit his palms and bounced skyward, but Matt quickly reached up and grabbed the football securing his touchdown. The families in the stands cheered, and Matt returned to the sideline with a smile and a little more confidence. I coach Matt’s third grade 7 on 7 football team, and this is my third year of competitive football league coaching. Coaching is a luxury I afford myself with my limited free time, and it brings me a lot of satisfaction.

Many artist use their form of expression to provoke feelings and thoughts that can give individuals more insight on a certain topic. In the play, A Raisin In the Sun. Author Lorraine Hansberry depicts the rollercoaster of the 1950’s. African Americans faced racial discrimination in many forms. In this play, the Youngers are a poor African-American family living on the southside of Chicago. In the play there are 5 main characters. There’s Walter who has has a job a a taxi driver, Beneatha who is a soon to be doctor, Travis Walters son, Ruth Walter’s wife, and Mama is Walter and Beneatha's mom. The Younger family are given an opportunity to escape from poverty because of a $10,000 life insurance check that the matriarch of the family Mama receives upon her husband's death. In the play the depiction of racial discrimination deciphers where the Younger family end up. Though there are numerous themes that can be associated with this play Lorraine Hansberry prominently displays how racial discrimination can carve out the path of the Younger’s life.

My essay is about the time I tried football. My mom's friend wanted me to do football because her son was. I declined her offer many times, but I finally said yes. My mom said I could try it once and see if I liked and if I did not I could quit. She ended up lying to me! I got over it tho.

“Play ball.” Says the umpire as the Senior Rams take the field and the Hempstead Mustangs were getting ready to bat. This was it. This was our final chance to make all of our hard work pay off, and achieve the one main goal we all had in mind, state.

When A Raisin in the Sun debuted on Broadway in 1959, America was a much different place than it was today. Racism was as prevalent as ever in our schools, the workplace and the government. Segregation and Jim Crow was still law in most of the country. Not to mention even though women had the right to vote, women still did not feel like equals compared to their male counterparts.This social climate is what made A Raisin in the Sun such a success for the ways this play explored various social issues at that time. A Raisin in the Sun was so groundbreaking because it addressed the underlying racial and domestic tension that is covered up by the economic prosperity that we learned about in history class. From the role of the black man to even

The chills creep up my spine, uncomfortably I notice every single person there was watching my every move. We were going head-to-head with the Vikings, they did very well at intimidating our team to death, but inside I knew we could try. They had some tall buffy people that didn't seem afraid that our dignity was high and on the line. We couldn't waste it here, right now. Next, a loud Screech the referee blew her whistle, and at that moment we knew it was time. We played as if it was the Olympics, even though it was just for fun.Then, the ball went all over the court back and forth meanwhile the crowd screaming, cheering, and excitedly saying, “Go Huskies!”

Upon walking out of Krannert's production of "A Raisin in the Sun," an eerie silence drizzled about the audience as people murmured and slowly shuffled towards the exits. After witnessing such a powerful yet melancholy piece of theater work, words seemed inappropriate. For three hours, "A Raisin in the Sun" encompassed us with racial, economic, and social issues of the 1950s. Swirling portions of humor, disgrace, pride, and sadness into a smooth blend, the play developed many twists and turns that kept the audience and myself completely alert. Throughout the three acts I could feel the audience, as well as myself, totally devoting themselves to the play. But after taking a step back, the play proved to

A Raisin in the Sun is considered as a turning point in American art industry because it addresses many important issues raised during the 1950’s in the United States of America. The 1950’s are widely imitated in recent times as an age of conformism and complacency, referring to the growth of conurbation and commercialization that arises in that decade. However, it is superficial at its best. A Raisin in the Sun explores the vital issues of black housewives with their inferior status resulted in an upwelling of social indignation that would eventually find public voice feminist movements of the 1960’s. There are three main female characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play.

In the Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun she brings to light the life as an African American in a metropolitan area in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. At the time, her play brought insight to the African American plead for freedom to move up in their communities and to have equal opportunity to have their own American dream. Her understanding of African American family was really shown in this play with the formation of the family who was struggling with the loss of the father of the house, but she also showed how opportunity can come from anywhere and the pursuit of each family members dreams can provide opportunity for a better life, better known as the American dream. The play “A Raisin in the Sun” carries a lot of historical framework in the room of an African American household and the trials that African American families faced. Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” shows how the Youngers American dream of being a middle-class family was earned through finding their identity as a family, battling housing discrimination, and capitalizing on opportunities, to depict the trial and tribulations African Americans went through in Chicago in the 1950’s.

A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, illustrates the timeless struggle for the furtherance of family values and morals with extreme clarity. The play follows the life of a small black family’s struggle to keep their dreams from tenants to owners alive.