Summary Of Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse Of A Negro

The play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ by ‘Lorraine Hansberry’ is about a matriarchy, Lena Younger or known as “Mama” to her family the Youngers who are poverty stricken family. She is about to receive insurance money from her husband’s life insurance policy, which is rightfully hers. However each member of the Youngers family we come into contact with have a plan to use the money for themselves, each individual’s through-line plays a vital role in their dreams, thoughts and choices in the end. Throughout the play the family have experiences that money can’t buy happiness and the effects of racial prejudice emerge.

life in the mid to late twentieth century and the strains of society on African Americans. Set in a small neighborhood of a big city, this play holds much conflict between a father, Troy Maxson, and his two sons, Lyons and Cory. By analyzing the sources of this conflict, one can better appreciate and understand the way the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.

A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry shows how people’s actions can be perceived as both good and bad. In this play, the Younger family is trying to achieve the American dream, “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”(cite dictionary.com). The Youngers are a black family living in a poor part of Chicago. The family inherits ten thousand dollars from a relative. Each family member has their own idea about how to use this money to fulfill their dreams. The play uses the decisions of the family members to make the reader think about what are the right choices. Mama is the matriarch of the family, and she wants to use the money to buy a house in a white neighborhood. She wants to move to this neighborhood because it is a better environment for her family. Lindor is a man who lives in the white neighborhood and he appears to make decisions for the benefit of the family. The decisions that Mama and Lindor make and the actions they take can be viewed as good or bad for both the individual and the community.

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

Racism; a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. In the historical fiction novel, Midnight Without a Moon, by Linda Williams Jackson, the author shows how horribly blacks were treated when they tried to vote. The main character, Rose Lee Carter, battles with understanding why blacks were facing such repercussions while trying to fight for their rights. Levi Jackson, Reverend George W. Lee, and Lamar Smith face several acts of racism while trying to vote, and because of this, they are brutally murdered. However, the reader is left wondering if the punishments the characters received actually occurred in real life. In Midnight Without a Moon, the author uses history by including key details to emphasize how far whites were willing to go in order to ensure that blacks wouldn’t be allowed to vote, while at times altering it to highlight the intense feelings Rose has over the situation.

They are a family of 5 squeezed in a two-bedroom apartment, they are restricted socially and financially with Walter (the father) working as a chauffeur for a white was the only bread winner for the family, he dreams of opening a liquor store and his sister Beneatha his sister studies to become a doctor despite the strain it puts on the family. The Youngers get a new chance when ten thousand dollars comes in the mail and Lena (Walter’s mother) decides what to do with it. She decides to buy a house for the family in a white neighborhood, gives the rest to Walter who lost it all in a Liquor store scam. Dreams of buying a new house, going to school and opening a business are shared by many Americans but for the Youngers those dreams were harder to achieve than most families. Being African American and poor in the 50’s meant they had to deal with racism, unequal opportunities, financial restraints and even housing segregation when trying to improve their living conditions.

What if you were captured as a slave how would you feel? Do you think you could survive? In the 1700’s life was very different than it is now. Back then if you were a Negro you would have to be extra careful or you could be sold as a slave. But imagine being sold after witnessing the death of your parents and being a child you would be traumatized. Now we do not have those kinds of worries; life was very different then than it is now. As a child, Aminata was taken away and captured as a slave, faced public humiliation, and lost her family, but in the end she overcame it all.

“To gaze into another person’s face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity and to assert your own” –Aminata Diallo. The Book of Negros was written by Canadian author Lawrence Hill. The Book of Negros is about a young girl named Aminata who is brought to London, England, in 1802, by abolitionists who are petitioning to end the slave trade. As she awaits an audience with King George to speak on her personal experience of being a captured slave, she recounts on paper her life story. Aminata was abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village, Bayo in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle—a string of slaves. Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. Despite suffering humiliation and

the play are ―rich symbol[s]‖ that convey the barriers of a ―racist society‖ (Kenny par. 18). The

The family is faced with conflicts, particularly amongst the siblings as they seek to establish whose dream is superior. It becomes more difficult for Lena to make the right decision in the midst of the conflict because her wish is to please everyone. The play is about the black family that struggles with racial prejudice and economic hardship. The underlying importance of the play is in the way it shows the value of dreams, importance of family, and racial discrimination.

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

     Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans uprooted from their homes in the South and moved North to the big cities in search of jobs. They left the South because of racial violence and economic discrimination. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many migrants moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of Manhattan. In the 1920's, Harlem became the worlds largest black community; also home to a highly diverse mix of cultures. This unprecedented outburst of creative activity exposed their unique culture and encouraged

Lorraine Hansberry develops the theme that racial discrimination makes it hard to obtain the American Dream through the use of setting. The play takes place in Southside Chicago 1950. During this time the south was segregated by racist Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were laws requiring the separation of whites from persons of color. Many African Americans faced unofficial racial barriers in the North. Black and white communities were even segregated from each other. Black and white communities were very different. Buying a house in a black community was different from buying a house in a white community. Black communities were more expensive and were less well-kept, in contrast to white communities being cheaper, very clean, and well-kept. Linder states, “I want you to believe me when I tell you that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it. It is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities.” Linder is trying to say that they are not trying to be racist but clearly are because they are telling the Younger’s that they can not live there because it is an all white community and blacks have their own communities. Linder offers money for the Younger’s to leave just so that they don’t have any blacks in their all white community. Galens states, “Mama Younger has the money to pay for a house she wants, but people attempt to

In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family is trying to achieve the American Dream, which is “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”(cite dictionary.com). The Youngers are a black family living in a poor part of Chicago. They inherit ten thousand dollars because Mama’s husband died. Mama is the matriarch of the Younger family. Each family member has their own idea about how to use this money to fulfill their dreams, and the play uses the decisions of the family members and other characters to show the reader that people’s actions are not always motivated by what they appear to be. Mama wants to use the money to buy a house in a white neighborhood, because she thinks it is a better environment for her family than their current living conditions and will benefit her family. Although there are a number of people in A Raisin in the Sun who appear too want to help the Younger family, Mama shows through her decision to buy the house that she is the only person that is looking out for the best interests of her family.

“Master Harold”…and the Boys, by Athol Fugard takes place in the apartheid regime of South Africa. The main theme in the play is racism, and the characters Hally, Sam and Willy confront its realities in various ways throughout the play. Fugard uses symbolism as a way to explore racial tensions. He uses four key symbols to establish the themes of racism and division as well as hope, freedom and harmony. These include the meaning of the segregated bench, the flying kite, the ballroom dancing and the crippled father.