Play: A Raisin in the Sun

During the 1950s, the stereotypical American dream was to have a house with a yard, a big car, and a happy family. People of all backgrounds migrated to America with a dream of getting educational and economical opportunities as well as religious and political freedom. But this was not so easy for African Americans during the time as they had just attained emancipation. Blacks and Whites during the 1950s were segregated to such an extent that going to the same school or using the same bathroom had been rather impossible. Chief Justice Earl Warren desegregated schools in May of 1954. Throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry blisters the discriminatory conditions of America in the 1950s and early 60s.

The play is set in an incommodious apartment in poverty stricken Chicago. Lorraine Hansberry shows that in addition to the issues of race and gender, the Youngers represent a black family of five members fighting against racism to get accepted in middle class, not only in society but in their own home as well. At the time, all blacks were segregated into ghetto communities while the whites were living the American dream. Many blacks attempted to escape the poverty of ghetto communities. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, opens with Mama Younger who patiently waits for a $10,000 insurance check from the death of her husband. Living conditions in the ghetto neighborhood weren’t very well and so Mama planned on using this money to escape the ghetto life of Southside Chicago and to the affluent white neighborhoods to give her children a better life.

Walter, Mama’s Son, had other plans for the use of insurance money. Walter Lee Younger is a man in his middle thirties working the job of a chauffeur. Walter is a dreamer. Walt...

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...publication due to the civil rights movement by the African-American race. There were many hate crimes during the late 1950s and early 60s. White supremacy fighters burned down African-American churches and homes.

In conclusion, Hansberry shows many struggles endured by the Younger family within their home and outside environment. A Raisin in the Sun relates to a lot of events the author, Lorraine Hansberry, experienced growing up and also relates to the events happening at the time frame when the play was written in 1959. The time of 1950s and the place Chicago, showed a period of great trials and tribulations that black people had to overcome. Race and Gender played a big role in the play entirely. With the ending of the play, it was evident that the Younger family overcame the issue of racism that they faced and turned out to be a stronger family in the end.