Comparison Of Harlem And Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

In the 1950’s, America was still racially segregated. In Lorraine Hansberry play A Raisin in the Sun revealed an African American family who was struggling to make their dreams come true. In Langston Hughes poem “Harlem” he explains what could happen if those dreams never came to fruition. They both showed how the effects of how a dream is prevented by economic and social hardships. This play explains how a lower class African American family’s struggle to gain middle-class acceptance. It shows the life of Youngers, an African American family who lived on the Southside of Chicago in the 1950’s. Their future seems uncertain but they are trying to be optimistic because they want to live a better life. The main theme in A Raisin in the Sun is an African American family facing

Langston Hughes did not refer to a specific dream in the poem “Harlem” but suggested that African Americans cannot dream or aspire because of the environment or oppression that surrounds them. He wrote “Harlem” during the Harlem renaissance during the period where African American writers spoke out against the racism and oppression that they faced in their communities. Many African Americans had hopes and dreams but they had to sacrifice because of the oppression. The main theme in “Harlem” is the limitations of the American dream for African Americans. He believed that people’s frustrations could accumulate to a point where they must surrender their dreams or allow circumstances to snuff out their aspirations. Both Langston Hughes “Harlem” and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the effects of racism on African Americans. In the play and poem the focus of the authors was not to document the racism but to show the effects. The theme in both the play and poem is dreams and ambitions. During the timeframe they were living in a society where they did not have the opportunities to pursue their dreams freely and be able to succeed.