Racial Tension Among The Black And White Societies

Lorraine Hansberry used symbolism in her successful drama, “A Raisin in the Sun” to portray emotions felt in the lives of her characters and possible her own. Hansberry set her piece in Chicago’s South Side, probably the early 1950’s. During this period in history, many African-Americans, like the Youngers, struggled to overcome the well-known prejudices that were far too familiar. The main scene, in this touching realist drama, is the home of the Youngers, an overcrowded run-down apartment. Hansberry used this private scenery to enhance the many feelings the Youngers, and other African-Americans, fought to conquer and to embrace in the name of happiness.

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 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

In the 1950’s African Americans faced many hardships like economic problems and racial discrimination against Caucasians. These problems have left many African Americans working for white people as drivers, maids, or butlers to them making them inferior to the white man. In “The Raisin in the Sun” they face the same trial and tribulations that many African American families were struggling with which were economic hardship and racial discrimination in America. “The Raisin in the Sun” is a play about a struggling family trying to make it into a world where they are inferior to others.

Racism is a major issue since the colonial era and the slavery era. Heavy burden of racism in the country have fallen upon African Americans. Racism was a huge influence on the Youngster’s family in A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. The Younger’s represent a typical African American family living in the 1950’s trying to survive in the ghetto’s south side of Chicago. This family was filled with dreams, and had a vision to progress, but there was obstacles that were interfering with the younger’s aspiration to move up the social ladder. The issues of segregation, discrimination in employment, and housing sheds light on the suffering that the Youngers faced causing their dreams to be deferred.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, addresses the hardships of an African-American family living in the projects of post-segregation Chicago. The family aspires to fulfill their dreams of owning a home despite the odds they face. W.E.B Du Bois critical race theory explains the issue of racism and white dominance that not only the family in the play faces, but the African-American community as a whole.

Race is talked about often in this play as the African-American family has to deal with various racial issues that affect them. Hansberry used a regular, American family in this piece because she wanted to show how racism affected normal, everyday people. Since most audiences can identify with a family atmosphere and setting, this worked very well in immersing the audience in the struggles of oppression, from a family’s perspective. One of the most noticeable struggles with race is Walter’s desire to be successful and be an equal to the white businessman. “Mama – sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool-quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ‘bout things…sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars…sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (1.2.226). During this time in American history, many struggling black men could identify with Walter for wanting to be successful and live a nice life that they, as African-Americans, have been denied for hundreds of years. However, the most important part of the play concerning racial prejudice comes in the form of Mr. Linder, a messenger of sorts from the Clybourne Park Improvement

Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun follows the story of the Younger family over a time period of several weeks, in which great internal and external change quickly occurs for its characters. Throughout the play, readers are able to see the arduous daily lives of the Younger family, as created by the segregated, racist society in which they live. Though no longer slaves like their ancestors, the African-American family is still unable to claim the same level of success as the white community without yielding aspects of their native culture. The accumulation of their struggles weigh heavily on each of the characters and, as the play continues, readers can see characters begin to acknowledge the restrictive social roles they have been placed into. Such confrontation likewise urges the characters to search for meaning in who they are and what they stand for in the face of oppression and segregation. The distinctions between the segregated white and black American communities of the 1950s are placed at the fore-front of the play, with the concept of assimilation taking on a large, necessary role as a great opposing force. By bringing assimilation into focus, A Raisin in the Sun manages to reveal the ____ through the play’s characters and their beliefs, highlighting the specific issues which hinder the Younger family on their journey towards a better life and in their search for identity and belonging.

*(Need hook) Growing up, Hansberry lived in Southside Chicago during a time when segregation was still very prominent among blacks and whites. Although there was no specific policy for segregation in Chicago, there was an unspoken rule that divided the two races. Her family was one of the first ones to move into a white neighborhood, and as a result they endured frequent threats of violence. Due to the fact that real-life experiences inspired the play, Hansberry managed to create an authentic image of African Americans living in America during that time. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry establishes an honest depiction of a black family living in America in the 1950s through the use of character foils, external conflicts,

The Younger family is a black family that struggles to gain middle class acceptance. When the play opens, Mama, who is the mother of the Younger family, is waiting for a $10,000 life insurance check from the death of her husband. Walter Lee Younger who is the son of Mama, shows signs of disappointment with his current living conditions “I got a boy who sleeps in the living room… and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…”(1477). Walter was desperate to attain a better live for their growing family that he

Inequality and racism are issues that have plagued our society since its beginning. From that point forward there has been discrimination and animosity towards a whole race of people. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the consequences of this systematic oppression on the family dynamic. Reading the novel was an edifying experience due to its well-developed plot, compelling characters, and relatability.

There is no doubt that Lorraine Hansberry uses her play, A Raisin in the Sun, as a platform to give her opinions and observations on the black community and of the racism they faced in the mid-1900s. Her play is filled with commentary

Hansberry uses her characters in direct dialogue to explain the hardships they are passing living in Chicago South-side after the Second World War. People saw no progress but instead they saw that all their work was just going into waste, almost as if they were walking circles with no destination. The Younger Family consisted of Mama (Lena Young), Walter Lee (Lena’s son), Ruth (Walter’s wife), Beneatha (Lena’s daughter) and Travis (Walter’s son). They all had dreams of a better future but there was always an obstacle in their way that did not completely allow them to accomplish their goals. Beneatha believed that there was nothing she could do to change that circle.

As you begin to compare the time period in which A Raisin in the Sun was written, the 1950s, and now, you can find many similarities and differences regarding racial equality in the Chicagoland, even more specifically the south side. The Younger family, deriving from the African American descent, in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, has trouble finding happiness when they are surrounded by successful white people, while they are stuck living in a two bedroom apartment and struggle to make ends meet. In the 1950s, it was much harder for African Americans to find jobs where they could make a substantial living to provide for their families, but in today’s society the opportunities for the black race have improved immensely, although a problem with their pay grade still persists. On the other hand, the two time periods are similar in the respect that the environment on the Southside of Chicago today is very similar to what it was like almost 60 years ago. Additionally, just like in the play, police force continues to be an issue, whether that be because they favor a certain race, or police brutality; shooting people with the wrong intentions. More problems that exist today include, gang violence, protests, and segregated schools in the poorer black communities. While the Chicagoland continues to struggle with problems regarding racial equality, they have made many improvements such as the development of organizations to keep children off of the streets and out of trouble as well as

In 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 opportunity, to depict the trial and tribulations African Americans went through in Chicago in the 1950’s.