“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” asked Langston Hughes. Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun inspired by Langton Hughes poem “Harlem”. A Raisin in the Sun captures the life of a black family who wants the American dream. The Younger family resided on the south side of Chicago, struggling in poverty, trying to maintain their pride, while dreaming to live better. Father’s $10,000 insurance check will help them reach that dream. As the plot of the play unfolds gender roles is a theme that help tells the story of the Younger family reaching their dream. This play shows how responsibilities, jobs, and actions are already pre-designed for men and women in a family.
In a family, everyone has a responsibility, in order for a
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This shows that we are still humans and can sometimes fall by the waist side and have to be reminded of responsibilities.
Women have just as many responsibilities as men, which are sometimes overlooked and thought of as nothing. Women are known to be domestic women, especially during the 1950’s. Women are supposed to make the man/head of the family job easier in any way. There were three women in the Younger family, Ruth Younger, Walter’s wife, who is responsible for the Younger’s apartment. She loves her husband, God, and cherishes her morals. She does her best to make sure her family is taken care of. Then there is Beneatha Younger, Walter’s sister. Beneatha is the eccentric one, one who wants to break the stereotype of what women should do and become educated. Beneatha’s mind is far from being a domestic wife. Joseph Asagai, who courts the attention of Beneatha recognizes her desire for knowledge and nicknames her, “Alaiyo” or “One for whom bread- food- is not enough.” All of her knowledge causes her to criticize God, which is a big no, she tells her mother, “Mama, you don 't understand. It 's all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don 't accept. It 's not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don 't believe in God. I don 't even think about it. It 's just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort.
In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, members of the Younger family has to set aside each of their own individual dreams in life in order to reach a collective goal that would benefit the entire family. A Raisin in the Sun displays the lives of an African-American working family living in Southside Chicago and the hardships that they must endure. Due to the death of her husband and his life insurance, Lena Younger receives a check of $10,000. Each member of the Younger family has a dream which they are determined to achieve, and they each have an opinion on how to utilize the $10,000. Oftentimes one must make individual sacrifices in order to tend to the interest of a whole population. The poem titled Harlem written by Langston Hughes contains metaphors that directly correspond with the characters in Hansberry’s play. The two siblings, Walter Lee Younger and Beneatha Younger, are major characters who experience their dreams being put on hold. Examples of cases in which their dreams are deferred are Walter with his dream of investing in a liquor store and Beneatha with her goal of attending medical school so she may become a doctor.
Lorraine Hansberry, the author of the play A Raisin in the Sun, uses the characters’ dreams to expose the nightmares of racism. Each character wants to escape the “ghetto life on the South Side of Chicago” (Brubaker). The Youngers are an African-American family living in Chicago during the 1950’s. The play focuses on their dreams for a better future. The play begins with the family waiting on a $10,000 life insurance check, as Walter senior has recently died. Walter senior’s wife, Lena (Mama), her two adult children, Walter and Beneatha, Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son, Travis, all live together in a two-bedroom apartment. The main characters has different dreams of what success means to them and how best to use the inheritance money; they know that the money is the key to unlocking a better life. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha each pursue their own vision of the “American Dream”, but they all meet the same challenge of racism in the 1950’s.
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.
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
Every person who comes to America has a common motive, with underlying details causing their motives to differ. Some come to America with the hope of freedom from the difficult lives they face in their home countries, while others will arrive because of the various opportunities for success that America has to offer. But most of all, many believe the country can give them the chance to find who they are and figure out what their goals are their new life. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun surrounds a black family in the southside of Chicago, known as the Younger’s. The play gives insight on the life of the family, and the many difficulties they face as each family member tries to achieve their American Dream. Beneatha Younger, the daughter
Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, we see the positive and negative effects of chasing the American Dream. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters and she portrays the daily struggles of a 1950 black family throughout A Raisin in the Sun. In this play, she is able to effectively show the big impact that even small decisions can make on a family. Hansberry shows the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream.
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.
In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the author reveals a hard-working, honest African-American family struggling to make their dreams come true. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," illustrates what could happen if those dreams never came to fruition. Together, both Hansberry and Hughes show the effects on human beings when a long-awaited dream is thwarted by economic and social hardships.
The play by Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, presents an African-American family living in poverty in the 1950’s. The family receives ten thousand dollars from deceased Mr. Younger’s insurance; the money is supposed to be distributed in buying a house, Beneatha’s education, and Walter’s liquor store investment. However, Walter invests wrongly and loses more than half of the money, forcing Beneatha to consider moving to Africa to pursue an education. Beneatha Younger’s struggle with segregation while pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor demonstrates that education can be obtained with determination and discipline.
“ A Raisin in the Sun” is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry about the life of an African American family during the era of segregation. The play starts off with the Younger family receiving a 10,000 dollar check from Mr. Younger’s insurance policy. The family argues over what they are going to do with it. Mama wants to buy a house with it, Walter wants to invest in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to use the money to go to medical school. The contrast of the characters’ personalities fuels the conflict and drives the story forward. Beneatha is a young college student and the sister of Walter. She has a dream of becoming a doctor. Beneatha is a dynamic character who is easily influenced by her family and the people
Economic and societal poverty are the key forms of poverty highlighted in the three-act play, A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, discusses the hardships of African-Americans attempting to emerge in society in the 1950’s. The play is staged in ways where the audience can grasp the trifles of an African-American family continuously experiencing setbacks whilst attempting to achieve their notion of the “American Dream”. To Walter Lee Younger, his idea of the “American Dream” is that anything is possible for those who have money. Unfortunately, there is a minor problem: Walter Lee Younger is a working-class African-American man who struggles to make ends meet in the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. The family undergoes
During the 1900s many black families barely had enough money to pay for the basic necessities needed to live. At times some families would receive a significant sum of money, something they were not used to getting. Deciding on how to spend this money is what caused problems among some families. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, she argues that there are times when in a state of financial instability and where money is a necessity to completing one’s dream that some family members choose to put their dreams over others when suddenly given the opportunity. After Mama’s husband died she was bound to receive an insurance check that would be used by the Younger family. Before even receiving the
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.
A Raisin in the Sun was a play written in the late 1950’s analyzing the cruel effects of racism amongst the Younger family. The younger family suffers from racial discrimination within their living space, place of employment, and the housing industry. Racism has been going on for a very long time in the United States and will always continue to exist. Racism has not only led to political but also social issues. "A Raisin in the Sun confronted Whites for an acknowledgement that a black family could be fully human, 'just like us."(qtd. White fear.) The setting took place in the ghetto, south of Chicago where mainly African Americans settled. In this division, apartments and houses were overly priced, crowded and poorly maintained. Crime rates were extremely high and most families lived in poverty. Due to segregated housing, it was a daily struggle for black families who had hopes in leaving the ghetto for better lives.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry's is play by a black family in 1959 Chicago, set in the family very crowded apartment, Walter Lee and Ruth share a room while Beneatha and Mama have the other; Travis must sleep out in the living room on the couch and they must all share a bathroom with other tenants in the building. From what we know from the lay out there is one small window in the kitchen and the apartment is scattered with worn furniture. The story focuses on the different dreams of each of the member of this family as they discuss what they can do with a $10,000 life insurance payment. The overall theme is the aspirations that make up the American dream - the idea that anyone can do well for themselves if they work hard to provide for our family.