Raisin In The Sun Apartment

In A Raisin In the Sun Lorraine Hansberry uses everyday objects-a plant, money, and a home to symbolize a family's struggle to deal with racism and oppression in their everyday lives, as well as to exemplify their dreams. She begins with a vivid description of the family's weary, small, and dark apartment in Chicago's ghetto Southside during the 1950s. The Youngers are an indigent African-American family who has few choices in their white society. Each individual of the Younger family has a separate dream-Beneatha wants to become a doctor, Walter wants to open a liquor store, and Ruth and Mama want a new and better home. The Youngers struggle to accomplish these dreams throughout the play, and a major aspect of their happiness and

The first issue that is focused on throughout the play would be the racial inequality in America in the 1950’s. Although there were many Americans who were fighting to end segregation and discrimination, nothing was legally done about it until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Troy Maxson being an African American man in his early fifties, grew up with the white man suppressing him. Troy was a Negro League star but when black men were finally allowed to play in the Major Leagues of baseball in 1947, Troy was too old to play. This left him very bitter towards life and the way he went on to raise his sons, which also ties into the generational clashes that will be discussed later on.

The Youngers are a poor black family that live in the Southside of Chicago in the 1940’s. The family live in a two bedroom apartment, of

The drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, shows the life of the Youngers, an African-American family living on the Southside of Chicago in the 1950s. In the beginning, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy. Each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to what he or she would like to do with this money. Mama, wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with her husband. Mama’s son, Walter Lee, would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. He believes that the investment will solve the family’s financial problems forever. Beneatha, Walter’s sister and Mama’s daughter, wants to use the money for her medical school tuition. Ruth, Walter’s wife, discovers that she is pregnant, but

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, introduces a family struggling to hold themselves together. They live in an apartment with other families and issues that come up include fighting for a bathroom in the morning, lack of space within their apartment, and the lack of money evident by actions of the family members and the furnishings throughout the house. The subject of money is quickly

The Raisin in the Sun is about an African American family who live in Southside Chicago in the 1950’s. In that time period, African American families typically didn’t have nice houses, good jobs, or a lot of money. The family of five in the book live in a two-bedroom apartment with a bathroom that’s down the hallway that they have to share with other families in the building. This causes a lot of tension and issues since they can never really get away from one another. These issues help develop some of the plot in The Raisin in the Sun and develops some of the character’s personalities and how significant they are in the play. Most of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun By Lorriane Hansberry that make influence in the story. The two

One of the reasons they were “trapped” in neighborhoods was redlining. Bradford Hunt’s article reads, “Redlining is the practice of arbitrarily denying or limiting financial services to specific neighborhoods, generally because its residents are people of color or are poor.” The HOLC, Home Owner’s Loan Corporation, “color-coded” maps of the cities show the African American neighborhoods and white neighborhoods. This outline gave the redlined areas the impression of being an investment and insurance risky.

Mississippi, in the 1950’s, was a tense place to live . Throughout Mississippi at this time segregation was a big problem because it was legal and socially forced separation of racial and ethnic groups (American Cleo 1). Maintenance of segregation came in a variety of forms (American Clio 2). The time period of this novel also had a lot of discrimination against African Americans. A lot of discrimination occurred in factories. Hundreds of fights happened between the whites and blacks. ( ABC Clio American History 3). During this time period people could not even use the same drinking fountain, Bathroom or even sit on the same end of the bus. In the court case of Emmett Till's Murder it was a unfair court case. The time period of this novel also had a lot of discrimination against African Americans. A lot of discrimination occurred in factories. Hundreds of fights happened between the whites and blacks. ( ABC Clio American History 3). During this time period people

Segregation forced the Youngers to live in a poor segregated section in the South side of Chicago, causing obstacles for the family members to progress. They lived in a cramped, roach infested apartment that was never maintained. The apartment was clearly too small for five occupants to live in, causing discomfort and weariness between the Youngers. This was one of the conflicts that aroused in the opening scene of the play between Ruth and Walter:

Another problem that A Raisin in the Sun deals with is housing discrimination. “While a white family could rent a five-room apartment for $60 a month in Cicero, for example, a black South Side family of four could pay $56 per month to live in one-half of a two-room flat, infested with rats and roaches…” (Nowrouzi 2272). In the play, The Younger have to live in poor conditions like sharing a bathroom with other people. They can’t get out of their living conditions until someone dies and leaves behind a huge check. The Youngers’ problems are something many families today can relate to. According to Urban Institute and Department of Housing and Urban Development, African Americans are shown fewer houses than other races (Bouie para. 7). This relates to the Younger family because they were discouraged from buying houses out of poor neighborhoods, so they were most likely to be shown fewer houses.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down

The white people acted as though their lower social class status was contagious. That allowing the Youngers to move into their neighborhood would corrupt their children and that their neighborhood would turn to trash and rubble. There was not a logical reason for them to act this way. It was as if the Youngers attempts to do better for themselves was an unacceptable notion. As Albert Einstein once said, “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them”. (Baer) Which is what the Youngers were trying to do. Moving into the house in the white community would have been a major step up from living in an apartment with a bathroom that was shared by all of the residents. They had never owned their own home before, and this was a dream of Walter’s father. Mama reflects on how “Big Walter used to say, he’d get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, ‘Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.’”(pg. 1923) Lorraine Hansberry analyzes this in A Drama in Three Acts saying “Mama always describes Big Walter as a sacrificing parent who really tries to give his children as much as he can… [but] Lena’s dreams are not for herself but for her family, for her children and for their future.” (Drama in Three) While a father’s dream

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

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

Mr. Lindner is sent by his community to convince the family not to move into the neighborhood. He even goes as far as to offer to buy back the house at twice the cost. Mr. Lindner refers to the Youngers’ as “you people” several times and mentions “some of the instances that have happened in various parts of the city when colored people have moved into certain areas” (1984-1986). Beneatha claims that Mr. Lindner is talking “Brother Hood” and saying “how everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship” (1987). If a white family had bought the house and were meeting with Mr. Lindner for the first time, his choice of words and the tone of the evening would have been very different because blacks were not socially accepted by society during this era. Mr. Lindner tells Walter specifically that he is not being racist when he says “I want you to believe me when I tell you that race prejudice simply does not enter into it” and “That our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities”, which sounds very racist (1986). Some would say that the way the character is talking is just the way that people talked in the 1950s, and others might say that Mr. Lindner is making racial comments.