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Lorraine Hansberry

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Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

The characters in Lorraine Hansberry's play are very significant in understanding the play. The characters are examples of they way Lorraine lived day by day her live when she was a kid. The success of the play was brought out by the characters and her way of keeping our interest with each one of them. They characters are very critical in understanding the play. There were four main characters that made the play a sellout, Lena, Ruth, Beneatha and Walter Lee. Each one of these characters had a dream to try to accomplish. The Characters portray the plays meaning in the way the play evolved into a masterpiece.

Lorraine Hansberry studied African history while working on A Raisin in the Sun. She incorporated her knowledge of the history and wanted to bring it over in to her play. Beneatha a character in A Raisin in the Sun knows much about her African past.

Mama is very proud of her African heritage and believing it^s importance. During the stage directing of the play Lena has the ^noble bearings of the women of the heroes of the Southwest Africa , but she totally ignores her African past and does not care much about it either^ (Cheney 59). Asagai Beneatha^s acquaintance talks allot about his African past and believes deeply in his culture and heritage. He is from Nigeria where there is a lot of poverty.

A Raisin in the Sun is a quiet celebration of the black family the importance of African roots, the equality of women, the vulnerability of marriage, the true value of money, the survival of the individual and the nature of mans dreams (Cheney 55).

Africa is a great part of the play because it brings out good and humorous elements in the Younger family, such as Walter yelling out ^Hot Damn!^ ^Flaming Spear!^ as Beneatha walks out in her Nigerian robes (Cheney 60). Africa becomes a symbol of heritage and a troublesome but hopeful future (Cheney 56).

With the help of Paul Robeson, W.E.B Dubois and

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