Racial Discrimination in the Play, Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Through her character Walter Younger, Hansberry created a real example of Black America's struggle to reach the American Dream. Walter’s Dream was to invest in a liquor store. He was going to achieve this dream by asking his mother to take the check and invest in the liquor store. His dream was deferred because his mother already made a choice on making a down payment on a house. Walter says “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY” (p.70). It shows that nobody wants to take the time to listen to what he thinks or wants to do.To him he’s trying to find a way to get the family out of poverty. Walter’s American Dream of getting out of the Chicago ghetto was also deferred because he isn’t making enough money on his own to invest into

In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there were characters whose dreams were stated, some of which were shattered by greed and misfortune and others which would eventually come to be true. The first dream that came about was Walter’s dream of one day owning and maintaining a liquor store. He would do anything to attempt to get his dream to come true, but his mama wanted anything but that to happen. His mama had a dream of her own though, she dreamed of one day owning her own house, where her whole family could stay comfortably. She dreamed this because in the apartment that she resided in was too small, and dumpy, as Ruth called it. Her grandson Travis had to sleep on the couch, and all

In the play, A Raisin In The Sun, Mother tries to keep everything under control because she believes in her children and their dreams, yet understands that they still need to learn and strengthen their value's as they begin to realize their own aspirations. She is the head of the family around whom the conflicts arise and are resolved.

Hansberry's theme is Don’t judge a book by its cover. To illustrate, when the younger family wanted to move into the neighborhood Mr.Lindner remarked “ it’s not a race thing ..Negro families are just happier when they live in their own communities” (2.3.65). Mr. Lindner tries to make it seem like this isn’t a race matter, but why else would he want the youngers to leave?. The Younger family have the money to buy the house so it’s not a money issue.Mr. Lindner uses the fact that they’re black in the situation and that is where the thought that this is a race matter comes from. The Younger family haven’t caused any disturbances so there’s no reason they would have to move, they also have the money so there is no problem, just because they’re black they want to be in a black community? In addition, to the first statement Mr. Lindner also replies to

Lorraine Hansberry’s novel, A Raisin in the Sun, revolves around a middle-class African-American family, struggling during World War II. By reading about the Younger’s true to life experiences, one learns many important life lessons. One of the aforementioned would be that a person should always put family’s needs before their own. There are many examples of this throughout the novel. Just a few of these would be the example of Ruth and her unborn baby, Walter regaining the respect of his family, and Mama and her unselfish ways.

Throughout, Hansberry’s dramatic life from her own experience growing up during segregation in Chicago can infer that redlining was a way for keeping Africans Americans away from the whites when it comes to living situations. In which contracted to committing contract schemes to be able to get more money off the African Americans trying to buy a home. When said in How redlining’s racist effects lasted for decades, “schemes like contract sales that entailed steep interest rates.” The white people during the great migration made maps circling neighborhoods that are dangerous and in those places is were homes are hard to buy because of the high amount you have to pay to get a home. In relates to A Raisin in the Sun around when the Linder said

   “Why do some people persist despite insurmountable obstacles, while others give up quickly or never bother to try” (Gunton 118)? A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, is a commentary on life and our struggle to comprehend and control it. The last scene in the play between Asagai and Beneatha contrasts two contemporary views on why we keep on trying to change the future, and reaches the conclusion that, far from being a means to an end, the real meaning of life is the struggle. Whether we succeed or not, our lives are purposeful only if we have tried to make the world a better place for ourselves and others- only, in other words, if we follow our dreams.

However, Hansberry uses a man by the name of Linder who tries to help himself and the Younger family, but with that, he is promoting segregation. On the other hand, with mama moving, they are putting their lives at risk, however they will be moving past segregation and trying to make all lives equal. Both Lindor and Mama were thinking about themselves and not others around the community.

A Raisin in the Sun,by Lorraine Hansberry is a rollercoaster through an African American families trials and tribulations of chicago living during the reform of segregation. Two of the main characters are Beneatha, young medical student, and Mama, strong widower and mother.

A Raisin in the Sun is written by a famous African- American play write, Lorraine Hansberry, in 1959. It was a first play written by a black woman and directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards, on Broadway in New York. The story of A Raisin in the Sun is based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own early life experiences, from which she and her whole family had to suffer, in Chicago. Hansberry’s father, Carol Hansberry, also fought a legal battle against a racial restrictive covenant that attempted to stop African- American families from moving in to white neighborhoods. He also made the history by moving his family to the white section of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 1938. The struggle of Lorraine Hansberry’s family inspired her to write the

Lindner, a white person and a representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association delineates the racial prejudice possessed by the white people of his community through his actions. He uses the non-violent tactics persuading the Younger family in a polite way so they do not move to his society of white people only. As he starts explaining about the purpose of the association, he uses the language style which could be interpreted in two ways so that he does not sound rude to the family, since he wants them to agree to his terms. He clearly states that the association exists to solve “special community problems” which is indeed termed for Younger’s move into the Clybourne society, which is a symbol of racial hatred,however, keeping it confusing for the family. In addition, he uses “brotherhood” as rather than coming to the straight point of not wanting the Younger family to move into the Clybourne society, he states, “Most of the trouble exists because people just don’t sit down and talk to each other” (116). He does not openly states his clear intension but builds upon his talk point by point convincing the Younger family to an extent that he is just thinking about both the communities. After all the convincing, double meaning statements, he lays down the intension of the white people living in his community about not wanting a colored family to live with them and further, offers them the money gathered by the collective effort of the society to not move into the society, which is even more than the money mama had paid to buy the house, and calls it a “financial gain” to the family. This statement clearly shows how Mr. Lindner was only concerned about the white people of his community and not the Younger family’s

In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and “turned black” (Jemie 63). This idea provides Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. As the poem goes on, Hughes depicts the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. According to Onwuchekwa Jemie, this may be an allusion to the American Dream and its empty promises (Jemie 64).

In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. In this book one of these characters have a big impact on the story because the story takes place around the 1950’s. During the 1950’s there was still a lot of racism around and the main characters are african american while the character who appears briefly is a white man.

African American Essay In America, many people want to grasp the American Dream, which is when one is economically successful and comfortably living. Unfortunately, African Americans are less successful in achieving this goal,more so than others. There are different African American intellectuals that provide different suggestions as to why there are less African American’s that are economically successful .In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” author Lorraine Hansberry suggests that an African American can not be successful in a world that whites oppress African Americans.

The late 1950s was filled with racial discriminations. There was still sections living as well as public signs of Colored and Whites. Blacks and Whites were not for any change or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells a story of a black family that is struggling to gain a middle class acceptance in Chicago. The family of five, one child and four adults live in a tiny apartment that is located in a very poor area. Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals is two key parts played out throughout the whole play. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends met to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter