Everybody had dreams and aspirations, however those things never always go as planned. This happens to the characters in the play, A Raisin in the Sun. The play was written by Lorraine Hansburry, and it was the first Broadway play written by an African American woman. In the play, the Younger family, a family of five, live in a small two-bedroom apartment in Chicago. Mama, Lena, is about to receive an insurance check from her husband's death in the mail and has to decide what she is going to do with it. The check is seen as a beacon of hope to change their family's lives and make it much easier. Lena's son, Walter, wants to use it to leave his old job as a chauffer for a white man and invest in a liquor store, while Lena's daughter, Beneatha, wants to use it to help pay for her education to become a doctor. In the end, Mama entrusts some money to Walter and decides to buy a house in a white neighborhood to better accommodate their family because Walter's son had been sleeping on the living room couch. Walter's wife, Ruth, also goes through her own problems when she learns that she is expecting another child in a household that is already having a hard time getting by. A Raisin in the Sun is a great play that encompasses many themes of the African American working class culture in the United States. The play goes over important themes such as family, dreams, gender, race, and suffering, and A Raisin in the Sun connects all these themes to each other some way or another.…
Referring to the latest version of A Raisin in the Sun (2008) it is set on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. In the film, the head of the household is Lena Younger (Phylicia Rashad), who the family calls, “Mama.” Mama’s husband, Walter Sr. has passed away so a settlement for $10,000 from his life insurance policy is being mailed to her. Walter Jr. (Sean Combs) and Beneatha (Sanaa Lathan) are Mama’s children and they believe the check should be given to either of them for medical school or an investment into a liquor store. However, Mama is unsure what to do with the money but she does know she wants to move the family out of their apartment and into a house they can call their own. Although everyone’s aspirations conflict, the film ends in a way that rekindles the love of the family. Personally, I did not like that this film was set in current day because I feel like the struggles…
The ashanti people are the roots of where all the characters in a raisin in the sun came from. During the beginning of act 2 scene 2 Beneatha comes into the living room showing off her african clothes and culture. She explains to Ruth what she is wearing and how she is dressed to represent her african heritage “ You are looking at what a well-dressed nigerian woman wears”.(pg 76). Beneatha shows her african roots by wearing a nigerian dress along with nigerian accessories and she is proud to epitomize where she is from.…
In A Raisin in the Sun the movie directed by Kenny Leon, the tone and attitudes of the characters set apart the movie from the book, written by Lorraine Hansberry, because of how they make the scene more powerful and impactful. In comparison, the movie gives a better understanding of the real emotions of the characters; however, the book helps the reader understand the importance of every word. Both of the works start out in 1959 on the Southside of Chicago where there is racial tension and living is a struggle.…
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun explores the universal ideas of family, dignity, and hope. Hansberry set her play in an old, once well-furnished and loved apartment in Southside Chicago after World War II. It is the story of an African American family’s struggle to prioritize futures and dreams and decide whose dream is most prevalent; once the family makes the choice to purchase a home with part of the money, they face an entirely new plight. One of the major themes of A Raisin in the Sun is the need to band together as a family and fight discrimination as a unified group, as opposed to a group that cannot stop fighting within itself.…
White slave owners in the American South during the 18th and 19th centuries often attempted to make their slaves lose their identity through a variety of means. They did this to empower themselves over the blacks, as the blacks would no longer feel like a real person with a unique and individual identity. Although the patterns of white dominance over blacks have not disappeared over time, they have changed in this regard. In the 1900s, blacks were finally express their own identity, and were not held back by whites. The play “A Raisin in the Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry, exemplifies this. The play only provides a glimpse into the life of the Younger family and those they interact with, as it takes place over a short period of time. However,…
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois the youngest by seven years, of four children. Her father, Carl A. Hansberry, is a successful real estate broker, and a civil right activist. Her mother, Nannie Perry, is a schoolteacher who entered politics and became a ward committee woman. When Lorraine was eight, her parents moved to a white neighborhood where the experiences of discrimination led to a civil rights suit that they won. The granddaughter of a freed slave and deeply committed to the Black struggle for equality and human rights, Lorraine Hansberry became a spokesperson for black Americans. Her writings reflect her fight for black civil rights, which is reflected by her views against racism and sexual and statutory discrimination. A Raisin in the Sun was first produced in 1959. The play personified many of the issues which were to divide American culture during the decade of the 1960s. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, was an unknown dramatist until she achieved unprecedented success when her play became a Broadway sensation. Not only were successful women playwrights rare at the time, but successful young black women playwrights were virtually unheard of. Within its context, the success of A Raisin in the Sun is particularly stunning. She used plot characters and setting to embody the struggles Blacks had to overcome while facing discrimination and an underlying desire to succeed beyond conception. The play occurs during the late 1950s, a time when many Americans were prosperous and when some racial questions were beginning to be raised, but before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is an excellent theory to analyze A Raisin in the Sun since needs and wants are the basics to human survival. Its core is that of humankind equality which crosses geographic, racial, gender, social, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The situational setting of A Raisin in the Sun makes Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of…
Lorraine Hansberry portrays the revolution of black’s consciousness through the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by introducing the Younger family to readers. This play takes place in a poor black neighborhood in Chicago’s Southside in the 1950s where the Younger family struggles with racial discrimination and finding their true dreams and goals. Like most literature, this play has a clear protagonist, but Hansberry also uses an anti-hero, a flawed character who lacks heroic qualities, but with whom the reader still sympathizes and who eventually redeems himself through a heroic act or decision. With the weight of his deferred dreams upon his shoulders, Walter Lee Younger digs himself into a massive pit of troubles but slowly redeems himself by realizing the wrongs of his actions, making him the anti-hero of this play.…
Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” dramatizes the struggles of an African-American family encompassed about in abject poverty. Preceding the civil rights movement. Before the likes of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X. This family, The Younger’s have to deal with the inheritance left by the patriarch of the Younger family. The members of the family all have their own ideas of how to properly manage the money, however none of them have ever handled money of this large amount before. The growth, the journey of Walter Lee Younger encapsulates this work by Hansberry. From a man full of ambition to the point of busting. To a man, who recognizes the value of pride, hard work, and family. Walter…
In the story “A Raisin in the Sun,” Beneatha Younger shows us her quite unique character through conversations. She is ambitious, educated and a feminist. As an African American woman at that time, she is going to college and she wants to be a doctor. She is such an ambitious girl who has a strong personality. “What do you want from me, Brother----that I quit school or just drop dead, which!” (36). she learns guitar: “I just want to, that’s all” (47) Mama uses the word flit to describe her. “I don’t flit! I—I experiment with different forms of expression” “People have to express themselves one way or another” (48). She has a modern way of thinking; she pays more attention to her own career rather than getting married and this is different from other women. She also disagrees with her family about the boyfriend. “Get over it” What are you talking about, Ruth? Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet---if I ever get married. (50) She is a realistic person. She and her mother have very different ideas about religion. “I mean it! I’m just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has he got to do with anything? Does he pay tuition?” (50) She is the typical model of feminist; her thinking is way ahead of that era. The fire in the belly would be the best description for her. The fire in the belly means someone who has passion in his heart, who is ambitious and always holding his dream.…
In Lorraine Hansberry’s play , A Raisin in the Sun , she uses the Younger family to show that as individuals strive to reach their dreams they often disregard the aspirations of others but they may eventually learn to support one another in attempt to better their lives. In the play Walter Lee was so excited and thrilled to buy a liquor store the one he had always dreamed about, but he did not realize that just like he had a dream his wife, son, mother, and sister had dreams they hoped someday they might accomplish. But Walter was blind he did not realize, and when he does was it too late!…
Africans would try to "assimilate" into American culture in order to fit into the cultural mold, as Beneatha does such by straightening her hair instead of leaving it naturally curly. Joseph Asagai helps Beneatha to understand the important of the African roots, and promises her that if she ever went to Africa it would feel like she had only been away for a day. Beneatha then takes a lot of pride in her African heritage, and cherishes the robes and music Asagai brings back for her from Nigeria. She counters George Murchison's beliefs - he represented those who believed that assimilation was the best, were American rooted foremost, and believed that thinking so much about African is wasting time. Diving into African heritage was a piece important to Beneatha's part in the play concerning the idea of…
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” was written by Lorraine Hansberry. It was the first play to be produced on Broadway by an African-American woman. The play was a huge success having over 530 performances. The play was not always referred to as A Raisin in the Sun; it was first named the Crystal Stair. Hansberry later renamed it A Raisin in the Sun. This is a play about a black struggling family.…
The Kindness Project is a project that helped me understand the facial feedback hypothesis and mood…
Beneatha Younger is a strong-willed, independent, young woman who knows exactly what she wants and she’ll keep fighting till she obtains it. She dreams of being an African-American Doctor which is very rare in her day’s time. Conflict arises when her brother, Walter Younger, loses the money for Beneatha to go to medical school in a investment incident. She thinks very highly of herself and puts herself before others. Acting as a comedic element, Beneatha’s name itself is a play on words because she views everyone as “beneath” her. Because of this outlook she has, evidence shows it restricts her ability to offer love to everyone. Throughout the play she grows and learns in a positive way. Thanks to her two suitors, Joseph Asagai and George Murchison, who encourage Beneatha to listen to people and value their dreams.…