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Essay on a raisin in the sun
Essay on a raisin in the sun
Essay on a raisin in the sun
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A Raisin in the Sun
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban A Raisin in the Sun: Act I: 2 pages To begin with, A Raisin in the Sun, Act I , starts by introducing the five main characters; Lena, Ruth, Walter Lee, Beneatha, and Travis Younger. All of these characters, in my opinion, have unfulfilled dreams, which mostly involve money. Although this family is separated from the white middle-class culture, they too have the same type of dreams like the rest of the american society. Firstly, Mama’s plant symbolizes her dream because she cares for it as she cares for her family. Even though the plant doesn’t get enough light or water, it grows with her care and love, just like her family. Her family struggles but with her
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Her Hair is wild and untamed and she is yelling words that don’t make sense. I think that Beneatha is attempting to embrace her inner culture and express herself as an individual, like in Act I, and show that society does not control her. George, a posh boy that looks down on the lower-class and too Walter Lee, acts like a “white” boy, walks in on Beneatha and is appalled by what he sees. Her freedom and fun are despicable to him. Also, George is a man who attempts to fit in the “white” world and Beneatha strongly disagrees with his actions. As mentioned before, Beneatha thinks you should accept who you are and embrace it. To be yourself is to have power and respect. Pretending to be someone who you are not is the worst torture that anyone can give themselves. Beneatha’s hair is wild, she’s dancing, she’ s being herself, but this is frowned upon by society. Everyone should be the same and just fit in, when that’s the opposite of what Beneatha really thinks. Secondly, in the second act it is shown that Walter and Ruth have lost their spark, even though they still love each other. I think this is because Walter is so caught up in the money and the dream and he forgets whose always been there and supported him; Ruth. But yet they still fight and put their own wishes before each other. Instead of compromising and figuring out …show more content…
I chose this book because I read the first two books of the series but I never had the time to read the third. Also, my sister has read the entire series and told me that this book was her favorite. When I was reading the book, it completely exceeded my expectations. The descriptive language was phenomenal, and the story line kept me wanting to read more. I would definitely recommend this book to most age groups and to people who are interested in books about action and adventure. I do not particularly love reading, but this book has made me think that I've just been reading the wrong genre of books. This book is filled with adventure, action and mystery and the characters are relatable, interesting and fun. As I was reading the book, I developed attachments to each and every character, but most of all, Sirius Black. He was put in jail and the entire time I thought he was a mad man hunting Harry down for Voldemort when this was really a misunderstanding. One thing that confused me was when Sirius broke into Gryffindor and Ron woke up seeing Sirius standing over him with a knife. When Ron screamed, Sirius escaped. But the entire book, I was wondering, considering the fact that Harry and Ron shared a bedroom, why Sirius Black would be trying to kill Ron when Harry was right there? Eventually, the story unravelled and unveiled the truth. Black was trying to kill Ron’s pet rat, Peter
“At the window she raises the shade and a dusky southside morning light comes in feebly” (Act 1, Sc 1, 24).
In the story A Raisin in the Sun Lena Younger cares for a small house plant. This plant represents dreams. Mama has dreams for her family to rise from poverty and live in a better and bigger place, and also for them to continue to grow together as a family.
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
A Raisin in the Sun is a set in 1950s after the Second World War which was an age of great racism and materialistic in America. It is about a black family living in south side of Chicago and struggling through family and economic hardships, facing the issues of racism, discrimination, and prejudice. The family consists of Lena Younger known as Mama; Walter Lee Younger who is an intense man, Ruth Younger who is wife of Walter Lee, Travis Younger who is son of Ruth and Walter, and Beneatha Younger who is Walter’s younger sister. The whole family lives in a two bed room apartment and don’t have money to live a better life. youngers are tired from their struggle to ...
Walter and Beneatha’s relationship is very complex. The spiraling tension between the two siblings causes confrontation to form and creep into the Younger household. Walter needs his family to respect him as the man of the family, but his sister is constantly belittling him in front of his mother, wife, and son. This denigrating treatment taints Walter’s view of himself as a man, which carries into his decisions and actions. Beneatha also subconsciously deals with the dysfunctional relationship with her brother. She desires to have her brother’s support for her dream of becoming a doctor, yet Walter tends to taunt her aspiration and condemns her for having such a selfish dream. Mama as the head of the family is heartbroken by the juvenile hostility of her adult children, so in hopes to keep her family together she makes the brave move of purchasing a house. Mama’s reasoning for the bold purchase was,“ I—I just seen my family falling apart….just falling to pieces in front of my eyes…We couldn’t have gone on like we was today. We was going backwards ‘stead of forw...
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tells the story of the Youngers, a family of lower class blacks who are trying to move up in the world. They are given an opportunity to do so when the grandfather’s inheritance is the sent in the mail. However, each family member has a separate agenda for the money they will receive. The play gets its title from the poem “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes. In the poem, Hughes asks what happens to a dream deferred and one of the theories he proposes says, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”. Each of the similes detailed in the poem correlate with a character from the play. Ruth is the wife of Walter Lee, the son of the man who died, and represents the simile which states, “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.” This description is most clearly
A Raisin in the Sun is basically about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The Youngers struggle to attain these dreams throughout the play, and much of their happiness and depression is directly related to their attainment of, or failure to attain, these dreams. By the end of the play, they learn that the dream of a house is the most important dream because it unites the family.
Throughout a Raisin in the Sun, Each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream. Mama wants to have a better quality of life for her family. Beneatha aspires to be a successful Doctor and an Independent woman. Walter wants to invest in a liquor store and live in luxury. In A Rasin in the Sun, we see that each character goes through their own struggles and frustrations to accomplish their American Dream, but in the end, they all find their happiness within in each other unified as a family.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The primary focus of the play is the American Dream. The American Dream is one’s conception of a better life. Each of the main characters in the play has their own idea of what they consider to be a better life. A Raisin in the Sun emphasizes the importance of dreams regardless of the various oppressive struggles of life.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play telling the story of an African-American tragedy. The play is about the Younger family near the end of the 1950s. The Younger family lives in the ghetto and is at a crossroads after the father’s death. Mother Lena Younger and her grown up children Walter Lee and Beneatha share a cramped apartment in a poor district of Chicago, in which she and Walter Lee's wife Ruth and son Travis barely fit together inside.
“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry reveals a symbolism in Mama’s plant and also, embraces the theme in importance of family and the character’s unfulfilled dreams. Mama’s plant symbolizes her dream because as she stated in Act 1, her dream was to own a two-story house with a garden and big yard. Additionally, Mama’s plant relates to how she cares for her family because she takes good care of her plants as much as she does for her family. She states in Act 1, Scene 1 that her plant does not receive enough sunlight, but still manages to flourish. Therefore, just like her plants, Mama’s family lives in a crowded “sun-less” apartment that is not as lovely as she wants it to be, but they are still a family that she cares for unconditionally, despite their current way of living.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.
Throughout the play, the characters’ dreams reflect something they feel that is missing in life; Benetha’s lack of identity and Walter’s lack of authority being two major points in the play. Like the continuous flow of nonsense from a desperate student’s brain through fingertips and onto a badly constructed paper, what the characters are lacking in life inspire the dreams that eventually cause their actions. In A Raisin in the Sun, the main characters’ attainment of his or her respective dream continuously affect their individual actions. Lorraine Hansberry utilizes dialogue and symbolism to portray the importance of the family unit and how individual dreams and desires affect it.
Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals are two key parts played out throughout the whole process. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends meet to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision regarding money that could have helped the family and not only himself, if he had thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to set up for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers to understand the history of racial discrimination and how racial discrimination has an effect on the people in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as how that has an effect on the characters within the play.
Each of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun has a dream for which they base their whole happiness and livelihood on attaining. However, the character of Lena Younger, or Mama, differs from the other members of her family. Time after time, Mama postpones her dream of owning a house and garden to perpetuate the dreams of her family members. Finally, when Mama receives the $10,000 insurance check, she feels that her dream can become reality, and purchases a house in Clybourned Park. Her dream "drys up like a raisin in the sun" when she learns that Walter gave the money to Willy Harris, who mysteriously disappears. Mama does not shatter simply because her dream has not been fulfilled. "Lena Younger's strength of character has come from the steadfast endurance of hardship and a refusal to be conquered by it" (Phillips 51). Mama's economic hardships may have killed her dream, but she has not allowed it to kill her.