The Effects of Oppression in Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

and Gordon: Segregation vs. Southern Pride Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” touches on many issues African Americans faced in the early to mid-twentieth century. One can analyze Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” from many angles, and come away with different meanings. While Michelle Gordon focuses more on segregation and housing discrimination that plagued African Americans on Chicago’s Southside in Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”, William Murray emphasizes on Southern Pride and heritage

while delayed dreams may “dry up / Like a raisin in the sun,” if ignored or suppressed too long, they will “explode” (3). Although Hansberry’s message, upon first glance, appears to be a prophetic warning of things to come, a closer examination of A Raisin reveals it to also be an artfully disguised call to action. Like the Negro spirituals, religious songs created and sung by African slaves as a hidden means of communication and protest, A Raisin in the Sun is a masked work of art, palatable to a

When this fails to have the desired effect, Lindner explains that his “association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house” from the Younger family (118). Beneatha, Mama’s adult daughter, sarcastically remarks, “Thirty pieces and not a coin less,” alluding to the Biblical account of Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. In effect, Beneatha’s sarcastic remark clarifies to Lindner that the Youngers

life” (Johnson 7). Allan Johnson states this in Chapter 1 of his book Privilege, Power and Difference and it is one of the most powerful statements in the whole book. Privilege creates a great divide between people. This can have a negative lasting effect, if not under control. Society has divided people into two groups: superior and inferior. The superior groups are the ones that are privileged in society and the inferior ones are ones that are

Contrary to public perception, Raisin sought to convey “the essence of black people’s striving and the will to defeat segregation, discrimination, and national oppression” (10). However, it did so through the use of characters that defied the predominant stereotypes and communicated to a black audience, images that promoted a sense of pride and dignity in being African American. When A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway in 1959, segregation not only occurred in

dusty and cramped space of a small apartment, Lorraine Hansberry sat and wrote one of the most influential plays of her time period, “A Raisin in the Sun”. Both events were monumental moments in the american civil rights movement. Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright, but none of her other works had the same vital effect as, “A Raisin in the Sun”, a story that follows a poor African-American family in 1959 Chicago and the insurance check that saves them from destitution and renews

early 17th century, and continued domestically until the American Civil War. After the war, strict Jim Crow segregation laws were put into place to divide the everyday lives of white and black people. Lorraine Hansberry writes the 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” and tackles themes of institutionalized racism and segregation a black family experiences. She uses strong symbolism in her writing to comment on racist values and struggles experienced in post Jim Crow era Chicago by black Americans. African

history, fought for educational opportunities and equality for all. The want and fight for these basic rights are shown in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”. Beneatha Younger, a main character in the book, demonstrated the want for an education. Although Beneatha Younger is not a real person, she still has a lot in common with Shirley Chisholm. In “A Raisin in the Sun”, Beneatha Younger is a young African American living in South Side, Chicago with her mother and her brother. During the play

Loraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in The Sun” and Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s “The Cuban Swimmer” both capture the authors’ past experiences of oppression, and convey their struggles with identity. Both authors are from minority cultures, and both describe the same harsh pressures from the dominant culture. Both author’s share situations of being outcasts, coming from different racial backgrounds and trying to triumph over these obstacles. A Raisin in the Sun and The Cuban Swimmer both share common themes

quo. These two vastly different lifestyles are represented through the strategic character development and intricate symbolism by the authors, Lorraine Hansberry and Alice Walker in the nineteen-fifties play A Raisin In The Sun and the short story “Everyday Use”, respectively. Hansberry’s play follows the day-to-day life of the Younger family, which contains three generations of five people sharing an apartment with another family in South Side Chicago. The main focus of this work is the everyday