More handpicked essays just for you.
Explanation and themes in a raisin in the sun
Explanation and themes in a raisin in the sun
The symbolism within a raisin in the sun
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, there is a large family, the Youngers which you may consider them a lower-class, that live in a small apartment and share it with a different family, the johnsons, in a African-American neighborhood, that you may just call a ghetto. They live in a cramped space where they all sleep in small spaces, they have only one bathroom which they have to share it with the Johnsons. They get an opportunity to move into a different house with Lena Younger(Mama)’s husband, Walter Lee and Beneatha Younger’s father, Big Walter,passed away and the youngers got a check. Walter wanted the money to invest in a liquor store, but instead Mama bought a house in a white community with the money. The people in the whites community do not want black folks to move into the community so a representative of the Clybourne Park Owners Association offered money to them so that they would not move in. They should not accept the money that would not contain any pride, dignity, or hope …show more content…
They now believe it is a “rat trap” and they forgot all the hard work Mama and her husband put into it. “Ruth: Well , Lord knows, we’ve put enough rent into this rat trap to pay for four houses by now… Mama: (studying up at the words “rat trap” and then looking around and leaning back and sighing-in a sudden reflective mood-) “Rat trap”- yes, that’s all it is. I remember just as well the day me and Big Walter moved here. Hadn’t been married but two weeks and wasn't planning on living here no more than a year”( Hansberry 44). Mama first felt hurt because Ruth called the home she lived in since Big Walter was there a rat trap but later realised she was not going to live there forever but only two weeks, but managed to make it her home with pride and dignity. The Youngers have the pride and the dignity but most of all they have the hope of improving their
The play depicts the feelings and thoughts of the people of their time. Their feelings are different then what we see today in our lives. The family had to deal with poverty and racism. Not having enough money and always being put down because of the color of their skin held them back from having a lot of self-respect and dignity. I think that Mama was the one who had the most pride and held the family together.
A Raisin in the Sun In the book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there were characters whose dreams were stated, some of which were shattered by greed and misfortune and others which would eventually come true. The first dream that came about was Walter’s dream of one day owning and maintaining a liquor store. He would do anything to attempt to get his dream to come true, but his mama wanted anything but that to happen. His mama had a dream of her own, though, she dreamed of one day owning her own house, where her whole family could stay comfortably.
When your dreams are set aside, delayed or deferred you can experience a number of different emotions. You might feel frustration or angst, angry at the obstacles that might be holding you back from pursuing your dream and worried that you may never be able to reach your goals. You may feel stuck or defeated, if you think that your dream has no sustenance to keep it alive. You could feel defensive if those who you would expect to support you in your pursuit of happiness are instead turning against you and resisting the actions that you are taking in order to reach your goals. When being presented with a life changing amount of money, a family can be torn apart in conflict or brought together in a unified front towards happiness.
The civil rights movement brought enlightenment towards the abolishment of segregation laws. Although the laws are gone does segregation still exist in fact? “What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?'; said, in a poem by Langston Huges. The story, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry showed segregation and its affects upon all races. This essay will show how Assimilationists and New Negroes fought for their own identity in the mid twentieth century. Whether they were being true to themselves or creating carbon copies of oppression was determined by one’s view upon society.
intuition. I am a naive. Ruth, Walter’s wife, shares Mama’s dream of buying a larger house. house, so that her son Travis may have somewhere to play. Ruth finds out that she is pregnant and she thinks it best to have an abortion because there is no available space in the house for another mouth, and she feels that having the child would also get in the way.
Ruth has to listen to Walter’s extravagant dreams of being rich and powerful all the time and know that these dreams will never happen. They are very poor and Travis must sleep on the couch because they only have a two-bedroom apartment. Ruth’s dream of having a baby seems crushed when she finds out that she’s pregnant and realizes she can’t support another in the household. When mama and Walter argue about Ruth getting an abortion, Walter says she wouldn’t do anything like that as she walks in, she says “Yes, I would too Walter. I gave her a five-dollar down payment.”
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.
A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, is one of the most prolific American plays ever written. Centering around an African American family in the 1950s, the play showcases the dreams that each character has for themselves and how it will change the rest of their families lives. Throughout most of the play the family is concerned about a check that has come in the mail. This is a Life Insurance check that is made out for $10,000, due to Lena Younger’s husband dying. For a family in this time period, not to mention a family that is also African American, this money could be the opportunity to start fresh, to do something they’ve always dreamed of, or to fix their problems in the past. This insurance check that the family receives
"A Raisin in the Sun" was written by Lorraine Hansberry. It has won her an award in 1959, at age 29, the youngest American, the fifth woman, and the black playwright to win the Best Play of the Year Award of the New York Drama Critics. This book of the play has been put in its entire form. The original play did not include some scenes. This book has been an inspiration to a lot people. In my personal opinion, the central message is to show how the value systems of black families are. In some ways they are unique, but most ways are exactly the same as white families.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, one of the main characters Beneatha Younger tries to find herself and figure out exactly who she is. She is a twenty year old black woman who attends college in the South Side of Chicago. One of her closest friends, Joseph Asagai, is from Nigeria and he really has Beneatha’s best interests in mind. Nigerian culture is very significant in the play because Asagai tries to teach Nigerian culture to Beneatha, in order for her to discover who she wanted to be. Right when Beneatha first met Asagai she said, "Mr. Asagai — I want very much to talk with you. About Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity" (A Raisin in the Sun). So Asagai began to teach Beneatha African and about Nigerian culture. After visiting his family in Nigeria, Asagai brings back Beneatha Nigerian music, beautiful Nigerian robes and even invites her to come and live in Nigeria with him, to try to teach her to respect and embrace this other culture that she is somewhat connected to. Nigerian culture is a key factor in A Raisin in the Sun, and Nigerian music, Nigerian clothing and other aspects of Nigerian culture is very important to Beneatha on her quest to discover who she is.
Mama Younger has lived in the same ‘house’ for years, but not willingly. When finally presented with the chance of moving her family out of the small cramped room, she naturally takes it, only to soon realize the prices in the ‘colored neighborhoods’ are too overpriced. Seeing this, Mama then takes her search elsewhere and comes across a perfect house, the only problem being that it was in a white neighborhood. When the people in this neighborhood heard of the African American family moving into a house, they send a man named Linden to show their displeasure. “‘I want you to believe me when I tell you that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it. It is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities.’”(pg 117) This quote suggests that the easiest thing the Younger family can do is to sell the house to avoid confrontation. Because of their ethnicity the Younger family is automatically rejected from the welcoming committee of Clybourne Park, even though Linden says race does not play a role in their decision to ask them to move
Greed is the one thing in this world that everyone has in common. Normally, money helps with what a person might need. A person might get confused with what they want rather than what they need to better their family. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry proves that money leads to greed as shown through Walter Lee’s dreams of a liquor store, his relationship with Ruth, and how he turns on Beneatha for her dream to become a doctor.
Does money really bring happiness? This questions has been asked many times throughout history yet there is no real answer for it. The only true way to understand if money does make people happy is by learning from others experiences and by learning from your own. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun the characters are caught up in caring too much about the insurance money they received for their father’s death, and it effects them all in many different decisions that they make such as Ruth almost getting an abortion, Mama purchasing a new house for the family, and Walter investing in the liquor store with some of his friends. Through characters Hansberry shows that happiness does come from money.
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.
Have you ever found money coming between you and your family and disrupting love and life? Money can destroy families and change them for the worse. In the Raisin in the Sun, the author Lorraine Hansberry, uses events of her life to relate and explain how the Younger family, of Chicago's South side, struggles and improves throughout the book. One main cause for their family's problems is because of money and how it causes anger to control the family. The play deals with situations in which the family is dealing with unhappiness from money. Walter, the man of the house in the Younger family, tries impressing Travis, his son, too much with money instead of teaching him the more important lessons of life. Walter also dreams to invest in a liquor store and make a lot of money and becomes overwhelmed and badly caught up in his dream. Lastly, the Younger family is much too dependent on the check their Mama is receiving. The family has lost the fact that their mama tries to tell them, before, freedom was life but now money seems to have the controlling factor in life. When money becomes an obsession for a family, problems occur.