Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a stunning piece of African-American theater, an homage to a complicated mix of a family's coming-of-age story and the issue of racism during the era of segregation. The raw, unflinching glimpse into the inner lives of the Youngers is at once as painfully intimate as it is arresting; so many of the characters are at first glance self-centered, yet they remain hauntingly entreating. It is impossible to deny the masterful composition of their individual hopes and dreams that have influenced and continue to mold their futures—and each dream is a reflection of the times, a candle-lit specter of the proverbial bogeyman, which is the undeniable power of the “whites.” While a more equitable and, indeed, profitably respectful relationship has been established through the works of civic and artistic leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Hansberry herself, during the
Indeed, Gladys Washington in her critical analysis, “A Raisin in the Sun,” goes so far to says that it is a “a play about dreams, dreams too long deferred” (1.) Walter longs for a chance to finally prove himself as a “real man,” able to own his own liquor store with his friends and stop being an underpaid chauffeur to a white man “which he considers to be drudgery” (Kanakaraj 100.) Beneatha wants to be a doctor to heal the sick, and just as importantly, she dreams of a time when she can reconnect with her stolen African identity, lost to five generations of history. Ruth wants a house; perhaps peace, as well, for her relationship with her husband Walter can be described as tumultuous at best. Mama Lena specifically wants a garden, which can be interpreted as a desire to see her family have room to grow in better conditions, hoping her symbolic plant will do better in a