The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is an accurate representation of how much of a role racial discrimination played during the 1950’s for African Americans in America. The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes ties in very closely to this subject because they both discuss the views of the African American people during this time period and how they were being affected by the racial discrimination. Lorraine Hansberry included “Harlem” as the epigraph to the start of A Raisin in the Sun to set the mood of the novel. The mood tells the reader this story isn’t going to be a perfect happy story, there will be struggles and pain, but it makes the characters who they are. The purpose of Hansberry writing A Raisin in the Sun is to include her stance on racial discrimination by putting her thoughts as the characters own, to show how not all dreams are so easily attainable sometimes due to financial situations, …show more content…
The Younger family all had their own dreams and knew exactly where they wanted to be socially and economically in their lives so they were putting in sweat and tears to that point. Yet once again their race puts them in the backseat and forces many struggles upon the family. “Why you tell the boy things like that for? says Walter as he reaches into his pocket getting Travis the coin. He then reaches into his pocket and pulls out another fifty cents and tells Travis to spend it on anything he wanted while Ruth sat back angry that Walter went against her and what she had told Travis” (31) this shows just how they managed their money and how hard it was for them to agree on anything financially causing problems within their problems. Walter and Ruth want to raise Travis to his full potential and not have to have him worry about the kind of economic crisis the family is
“A Raisin in the Sun” and "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)," written by Lorraine Hansberry and Langston Hughes, respectively, represent the complimentary themes of dreams. “A Raisin in the Sun” depicts a family’s struggle for survival. The Younger family who lives in Southside, Chicago, fights for their civil rights during the 1960’s. They each have dreams and goals. Hughes illustrates, in “Harlem” that sometimes dreams dry up like raisins in the sun. Two stories analytically provide unexpected irony at the end. Jason Miller’s article, “Foreground and Prereading,” references these pieces to illustrate ideas and obstacles in the character’s lives – defining how obstacles strengthen the family’s perseverance while demonstrating how dreams and hopes can be deferred but are not soon forgotten.
Another theme and issue that arrives from the play A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, is racism. During the 1950’s blacks and whites were segregated. The house the Younger’s purchased was in the Clybourne Park neighborhood, an all white neighborhood. When Lena told the family they were moving to Clybourne Park they stood with amazement. “Mama, there ain’t no colored people in Clybourne Park” (p.734). The family heard of other colored families’ houses being set on fire in this neighborhood, they were concerned that the same thing would happen to them.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun,” was a radically new representation of black life, resolutely authentic, fiercely unsentimental, and unflinching in its vision of what happens to people whose dreams are constantly deferred.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.
The play A Raisin in the Sun illustrates the social and economic pressure that is placed on the Younger family, especially Beneatha who aspires to become a doctor at the time where not many women could even imagine such aspirations. The Younger family's daughter Beneatha is an outspoken intelligent member who raises the argument for the other side of the spectrum at all times. Beneatha is aspiring to become a doctor and has some hope that some of the money from her father's social insurance cheque would help go to her medical school. The pressure of being lower middle class severely affects the relationships of the Younger family as Walter, Beneatha's older brother shows no regard for his sister as he sees her as the only one in the house not
Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun opened in a New York theater March 11, 1951. This play, although based on Hansberry’s own life and personal experiences was also inspired by Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem”. Hansberry used this play to tell the story of a 1950’s African American family trying to better themselves. She also used this play to shine a light on the issue of racism that were prominent during this time frame. This highly successful play “ran for 530 performances and was nominated for the 1960 Tony Award for best play”, and has had several adaptations made in its honor(Aurora). Despite the fact that these adaptations were made to equal the original play there are many differences between them and their predecessor.
Lorraine Hansberry faced many obstacles in her life which has made her write this book A “Raisin in the Sun.” As said in Blooms Literature “She was the youngest of four children whose parents were well-educated, middle-class activists centrally engaged in the fight against racial discrimination. Early figures in the Civil Rights movement.” In the book “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first play written by an African American she made through experiences of black people who live on Chicago’s South Side, Hansberry used members of her family as inspiration for her characters. Lorraine Hansberry life had comparisons in this book dealing with poverty
The story of this play is simple and the majority of African-Americans faced such issues in the 1950’s, living on the south side of Chicago, struggles with poverty, dignity and dreams of a better life. Wanting better for your children and trying to fit in, while maintaining family values. A Raisin in the Sun is an excellent example of the relationship between family values and conflict. In this play it portrays: values and purpose of dreams, the need to fight for racial discrimination and the importance of family.
Though there was a heightened sense of tension over civil rights in the late 1950s when A Raisin in the Sun was written, racial inequality is still a problem today. It affects minorities of every age and dynamic, in more ways than one. Though nowadays it may go unnoticed, race in every aspect alters the way African-Americans think, behave, and react as human beings. This is shown in many ways in the play as we watch the characters interact. We see big ideas, failures, and family values through the eyes of a disadvantaged group during an unfortunate time in history. As Martin Luther King said, Blacks are “...harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what
African-Americans have experienced racism since the 1600s and throughout American history. However, not many books have been able to display the ethnic ignorance that white people have towards blacks. One of the more successful stories is A Raisin in the Sun shares a compelling story about an African-American family during the 1900s and offers many themes about social class and race. In A Raisin in the Sun, a negative legacy is left on modern drama due to the many examples of poverty and the message of money in the novel; though some people may believe that the play was an accurate depiction of the African-American lifestyle and their culture, they are wrong to believe this impractical belief because it leads to many white people assuming
In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there were characters whose dreams were stated, some of which were shattered by greed and misfortune and others which would eventually come to be true. The first dream that came about was Walter’s dream of one day owning and maintaining a liquor store. He would do anything to attempt to get his dream to come true, but his mama wanted anything but that to happen. His mama had a dream of her own though, she dreamed of one day owning her own house, where her whole family could stay comfortably. She dreamed this because in the apartment that she resided in was too small, and dumpy, as Ruth called it. Her grandson Travis had to sleep on the couch, and all
A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry and is a play about an African American family who are struggling in the 1950’s to keep the family together. Although the play is portrayed in the 50’s many issues like the economy, racism, and family dynamics the characters had to face; these issues are still issues in the 21st century.
The title of the play itself, A Raisin in the Sun, directly references the poem Harlem written by Langston Hughes. Written in 1951, the poem targets one of the most common themes of that time period: the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. In the poem, Hughes wonders if a “dream deferred” dries up “like a raisin in the sun” (Hughes 1). In other words, Hughes wants to know whether or not delaying dream will make the dream lose its “juice.” Hansberry alludes to the poem to explore the same notion Harlem addresses through Walter Lee Younger, a black man whose struggles throughout the play to achieve his dream. Walter is, by definition, a dreamer. He dreams of being wealthy, he dreams of being important, and he dreams of being a leader, but his goals are often deferred as a result of racial inequalities. However, one dream at the end of the play is fulfilled: the Younger family moving into Clybourne Park. The Youngers defy the societal norm of the time. Instead of backing down when Lindner tries to prevent them from moving, the Younger family fights back. Critics, when evaluating the ending of A Raisin in the Sun, compare the “explosive ending” of the poem to the “unexpectedly happy ending” of the play (Gill 1). Upon hearing the word “explosive,” a negative connotation is created because the word is often used to describe a dangerous weapon. However, it juxtaposes the
Racism is a belief where one race thinks their superior than other race or treating people differently because of their race. Race has and still does affected many people in America because of the color of their skin. In the society past had racism but it continues on today. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play about a dark skin family who has opportunities but has less chances of achieving them because the racist society. Race has a lot to do in Raising in the Sun.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry, a story about an African American family living in Chicago. The book illustrates what the daily problems of an average black family had to deal with while living in America in the 1950s and their struggle of overcoming obstacles to reach their “dream”. Hansberry use this novel to address topics such as racism, racial inequality, and racial discrimination. In 1954, many people during that time supported segregation. People perceived whites and blacks completely different and people wanted them to be separate. Everywhere in the south had “whites only” or “colored”, and many wanted to keep it that way. History will always repeat itself and people are not