Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

2043 Words5 Pages

Many writers employ techniques to integrate their own lives into their works. It just seems natural to manipulate and implement ideas and topics from real life into other aspects of life, like writing. Authors may discuss their favorite memories or spell out an experience of a hard time that they had to deal with throughout a long period in their life. In order to withstand this type of hardship, many authors will write about the events that occurred. Even if they do not publish these works, many will still write as part of a healing process for themselves. In cases where these writers do publish pieces that reflect their lives, we must analyze both the writing and the author to fully understand how the two are related.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s …show more content…

Shortly after, she graduated from college, quit her jobs, and devoted her life to writing full-time. She began working mainly on plays and completed A Raisin in the Sun, her first work, in 1959. The title of the play was inspired by the poem, Harlem, written by Langston Hughes in 1951. Both the play and the poem discuss the plight of African American families in this era and how these people strive to achieve their dreams. Shortly after the show was written, Lorraine’s friends, including Producer Philip Rose, helped her raise money to get the play to be performed on Broadway. It was an immediate success. It broke racial and gender barriers of Broadway performances and of plays in general. Hansberry was the fifth woman, and first African American, to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This play was also the first one written by an African American that was performed on Broadway, as well as being the first with a black director. In addition, A Raisin in the Sun was nominated for four Tony Awards: Best Play, Actor, Actress, and Direction. When the play first opened, nobody involved was expecting any amount of success. It was a risky investment for Rose, yet he decided to produce it

The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
559 Words | 2 Pages
Playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun and was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights. She died at 34 of pancreatic cancer.
Read More
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
811 Words | 2 Pages
In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, one of the most important themes is the American Dream. Many of the characters in this play have hopes and aspirations; they all strive towards their goals throughout the play. However, many of the characters in the play have different dreams that clash with each other. Problems seem to arise when different people’s dreams conflict with one another; such as Walter’s versus Bennie’s, George’s versus Asagai’s, and the Clybourne Park versus the Younger’s.
Read More
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
1849 Words | 4 Pages
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, has often been dubbed a “black” play by critics since its debut on Broadway in 1959. This label has been reasonably assigned considering the play has a cast that consists primarily of African American actors; however, when looking beyond the surface of this play and the color of the author and characters, one can see that A Raisin in the Sun actually transcends the boundaries of racial labels through the universal personalities assigned to each character and the realistic family situations that continue to evolve throughout the storyline. As seen when comparing A Raisin in the Sun to “The Rich Brother,” a story for which the characters receive no label of race, many commonalities can be found between the characters’ personalities and their beliefs. Such similarities prove that A Raisin in the Sun is not merely a play intended to appeal only to the black community, nor should it be construed as a story about the plights of the black race alone, but instead should be recognized as a play about the struggles that all families, regardless of race, must endure in regard to their diversity and financial disparity. A succinct introduction and excellent writing!
Read More
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun
1246 Words | 3 Pages
The chasing of a mirage is a futile quest where an individual chases an imaginary image that he or she wants to capture. The goal of this impossible quest is in sight, but it is unattainable. Even with the knowledge that failure is inevitable, people still dream of catching a mirage. There is a fine line that separates those who are oblivious to this fact, and to those who are aware and accept this knowledge. The people who are oblivious represent those who are ignorant of the fact that their dream will be deferred. This denial is the core of the concept used in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The perception of the American Dream is one that is highly subjective, but every individual dream ends in its own deferment.
Read More
African American Living in the Past: A Raisin in the Sun
1267 Words | 3 Pages
The play A Raisin in the Sun was written by an African American female by the name of Lorraine Hansberry. It was seen to be the most historically accurate because of its realistic viewpoint of the African American situations of this time. James Baldwin, a friend of Hansberry and a fellow writer, “labeled the play as a “historical achievement” of the greatest importance... the unprecedented way that A Raisin in the Sun brought African Americans into the theater and onto the stage.” (“Chapter 30: Cultural and Historical Context, 1925). Baldwin continued to say “never before, had so much of the truth of black people's lives been on the stage” and “A Raisin in the Sun was a historical achievement precisely because of it's realism and contemporaneity, its truthful depiction of the lives of many ordinary African Americans in the late 1950s. In a sense, the play made history by accurately reflecting a historical and cultural reality previously ignored by dramatists” (1925).
Read More
Racism and the American Dream in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
1327 Words | 3 Pages
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 play. The title of the play comes from Langston Hughes’s poem which compares a dream deferred too long to a raisin rotting in the sun. A Raisin in the Sun deals with the fact that family’s and individual’s dreams and inspirations for a better life are not confined to their race, but can be identified with by people with all back grounds.
Read More
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
1283 Words | 3 Pages
Every member of the Younger family has their own dreams. For example, Ruth Younger wants to move out of their poverty stricken apartment, and Beneatha Younger wants to become a doctor. Throughout the play, the Youngers’ struggles to achieve their dreams and are driven apart from one another. It isn’t until the end of the play that the family unites together in hopes of achieving one unanimous dream among them. An analysis of characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s
Read More
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
1029 Words | 3 Pages
“Nobody in this house is ever going to understand me,” (Hansberry 929) exclaimed Walter Lee Younger. In Lorraine Hansberry's play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” she tells the story of an African American family, more specifically a man by the name Walter Lee Younger. Walter believed that no one understood the way that he viewed the world, that he knew the way of the world better than anyone else. Walter thought that becoming a man started with being rich; he was wrong. What he had yet to learn is that becoming a man meant hard work, dedication, and the understanding of things other than fortune and wealth. Walter put strong faith into achieving his dreams, but he wrongly pursued them due to his selfishness and jealousy of the rich white man.
Read More
Racial Discrimination in 'A Raisin in the Sun'
558 Words | 2 Pages
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a dramatic play written in 1959. The play is about an African American family that lives in the Chicago South Side in the 1950’s. Hansberry shows the struggles and difficulties that the family encounters due to discrimination. Inspired by her personal experience with discrimination, she uses the characters of the play, A Raisin In The Sun, to show how this issue affects families.
Read More
Jean Murray All Writing Is Autobiography Summary
433 Words | 1 Pages
2. “Writing autobiography is my way of making meaning of the life I have led and am leading and may lead” (Murray 228). Murray used these words in his article, “All Writing is Autobiography” and they were very eye opening to me as I read about his ideas on autobiography writing. Murray suggests the all writing is an autobiography because it helps us express whats inside even if we don’t necessarily mean to and without directly talking about oneself. After Murrays column , “OverSixty” he says, “I wrote it in part for therapy, and it began as a note to myself several weeks after the experience to help me cut through thr jungle of thoughts and emotions”(228). Murray uses writing as therapy and says that all his pieces are autobiograpical because they sometimes have to smallest glimmer of his childhood or other events in his life but he hides it inside a story. Another way that Murray defends his argument is when he says, “We become what we write” (230). Writng gives one’s self to become who they want to be and express it. Even if you don’t
Read More
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun
570 Words | 2 Pages
One of the first ideas mentioned in this play, A Raisin In the Sun, is about money. The Younger's end up with no money because of Walter's obsession with it. When Walter decides not to take the extra money he is offered it helps prove Hansberry's theme. Her theme is that money can't buy happiness. This can be seen in Walter's actions throughout the play.
Read More
Combined Experience of Suffering, Death and Love all at Once
1547 Words | 4 Pages
Peoples’ personal life experiences usually affect the topic of their work. John Keats was a famous poet who grew up in an idyllic life until tragedy continuously stroked until his death at twenty-five years old. At eight years old, his father died in a tragic riding accident. Six years later, his mother died of tuberculosis (TB). In the midst of his troubles, his teacher strongly encouraged his reading and literacy ambitions. Living next to an insane asylum, Keats eventually started to develop physical and emotional problems. Diagnosed with TB, Keats helplessly watched his beloved brother die from the final stages of the same disease. Furthermore, he was unable to marry his fiancée, Fanny Brawne. Drawing from his individual experiences, Keats wrote very vividly about the pains and suffering he was going through. He expressed his unfulfillment as a writer, his love and struggles, the fleetingness of life and happiness, and his inner conflicts. Jack Stillinger writes, “It is this combined experience of suffering, death, and love all at once, against a background of serious conversation, reading, and thinking, that accounts for Keats's sudden rise to excellence in his poetry” (qtd. in Everett). All of Keats’s life experiences combined to make works of arts that could only be inspired by individual human experiences. John Keats’s background directly affects the topic of his works in order to realistically articulate his feelings in poetic form.
Read More
An Analysis of A Raisin In the Sun
1048 Words | 3 Pages
An Analysis of A Raisin In the Sun & nbsp;           "A Raisin In The Sun" is a play written by an African-American playwright - Lorraine Hansberry. It was first produced in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's work is about a black family in the Chicago South Side. the Second World War. The family consisted of Mama(Lena Younger), Walter.
Read More
Pride in A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
1854 Words | 4 Pages
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.
Read More
Steinbeck's Experience and Its Reflection in His Work
2192 Words | 5 Pages
A plethora of emotions triggers a person's motivation to write. Whether it is disappointment, fear, bliss, or pure excitement, feelings produce an overwhelming sensation. The response to these feelings can rise from a person's environment, relationships, interests or current struggles. However, emotional madness can be simmered down through a practice of writing (Science 20). Clinical trials indicate that writing about deep or traumatic experiences can clear the mind of all the “confining” stresses and emotional suffocation (Bolarius 2). In detail, a new brain imaging study, conducted by UCLA psychologists, reveals how “verbalizing” feelings can cause a sense of peace and prove to be a “cathartic” exercise (Science 20). In fact, writing down emotions born from experiences provides an opportunity in the documentation for posterity. In the same way, John Steinbeck, the author of Nobel Prize winning literary work, has marked milestones in the history of literature, leaving insightful and evocative images in the hearts of millions and for future generations. Steinbeck's work has drawn influence from several events in his life. David Bender, author of the Literary Companion, writes that any “serious” work from Steinbeck “must begin in his western home of the Salinas Valley” (Bender 13). Steinbeck's strong relationships and time growing up in the West were tremendous influences in his novels The Grapes of Wrath and The Pearl, as well as his short story “The Chrysanthemums.”
Read More

Open Document

Wait a second!

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry