Putting Family First in The Raisin in the Sun Essay

“I have a dream” Do you? Just how close are you to making that dream come true? In her play, Raisin in the Sun , Lorraine Hansberry takes us through the life of an african american family living in the 1950’s and describes their dreams. When she was twenty years old, Hansberry moved to Harlem where she became best friends with Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was an african american poet, social activist, and playwright from Joplin,Missouri. During this time Hughes wrote a poem titled “ Harlem”

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun themes, symbols, and characters can be compared. Both A Raisin in the Sun and Julius Caesar were written for the stage; therefore their characters become more obvious and more thoroughly portrayed than in a book, for example. Even though, these works were written by far different authors and in different centuries their similarities and differences are evident. In both A Raisin in the Sun and Julius Caesar themes, symbols, and character

A Raisin in the Sun Introduction The movie “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry is about an African American family who receives an insurance check for $10,000 from Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy. Each of the family members are anticipating doing something different with the money; in the meantime “mama” has plans to buy a house for the family. The Younger family faces economic hardships and racial discrimination during their struggles to gain middle-class acceptance. The movie “A Raisin

throughout and are shown in the books A Raisin in the Sun and The Help. The Help takes place in the 1960s. Skeeter Phelan is a recent graduate from college with a degree in writing. Elaine Stein is a publisher in New York who Skeeter tries to launch her book idea to. Skeeter Phelan interviews the maids in Jackson, Mississippi to show the discrimination shown towards them by the families that hire them. Both the characters in The Help and A Raisin in the Sun have similar experiences in housing and

Symbols are used throughout society. Symbols are used in everyday interactions, such as religion, clothing, and films. In A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry uses symbolism to describe the relationship between the characters. Some of the symbols Hansberry uses helps to create a theme such as the symbol of Beneatha and her heritage, the check, and the new home. Hansberry uses the symbols to create the theme of change is good. One symbol that Hansberry uses to advance the theme of change can

Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was one of the first plays to realistically and accurately portray the struggles of an African-American family on stage. Before Raisin in the Sun, many black characters on stage were based on stereotypes, not reality. However, Hansberry’s depiction was authentic, even unflattering, and far from comedic. She utilized black vernacular and illustrated the important issues African-Americans faced; poverty, discrimination, segregation. The characters’ authenticity

The American dream is the idea of the perfect family and a house with a white picket fence; some people strive their whole life to achieve the dream, but the dream is unachievable—there is no such thing as perfect. The Balance’s article What Is the American Dream? The History That Made It Possible by Kimberly Amadeo says: “In the 1920s, the American Dream started morphing from the right to create a better life to the desire to acquire material things. This change was described in the F. Scott Fitzgerald

readers throughout history was obtained through Austen’s capability to bring forth themes in the story such as love, class, and reputation; themes that are relevant to any person at any point in time. Similar to this literary relic, the drama “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry follows the life and ideas of people who are relatable to people of all backgrounds which gives it a similar effect. Because it was written in an era of discomfort in American history, and because the author was subject

seeing your gender first and who you are second.”(O’Grady) Frances O’Gradys quote ties into the drama written by Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin In the Sun because throughout the entire movie there was many things said and some actions that showed gender defined who they were. The topic being discussed is gender roles and how they were portrayed in the movie. There will be a formalistic summary and the topic that will be discussed is gender roles through out the drama A Raisin In the Sun and how each character

grew up rather comfortably in a middle-class African-American family from the Southside of Chicago (“Lorraine”). Her father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, not only established Lake Street Bank, one of the first Chicago banks to solicit black patronage, but also established himself as a successful real-estate businessman (Jacobus, “Lorraine” 1223). Despite the middle-class status, the family experienced racial tension, especially when the family bought and moved into a home in a racially restricted covenant—which