A Raisin In The Sun Figurative Language Essay

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Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun weaves a tale of extremes, ranging from bleak despair to ecstatic hope and expectation. It is a production that lays bare the struggles and aspirations of 20th-century African-American culture, and provides a poignant message to the upper echelons of contemporary American society in regard to the struggles of the working class. Hansberry highlights the struggles of the Younger family in their day-to-day life, in the face of the grinding economic and social oppression that they endure while trying to scrape a desperate life in an indifferent Chicago. In Extract 1, Hansberry utilises personification to convey a sense of exhaustion in the overused, worn-out furniture, which is synonymous with the exhaustion the Youngers face while trying to eke out a living while alienated from a world …show more content…

In Extract 1, Hansberry creates a sense that the Youngers are deeply affected by the decaying condition of their living room, which displays their inability to “move up” in the economic world of 20th-century America. This sense of economic destitution is highlighted by Hansberry in her use of adjectives such as “weary”, “tired” and “worn” to describe the condition of the furniture in the room, a series of adjectives which also mirrors the mental attitude of the Youngers as they try to navigate a cold world which is utterly indifferent to their common plight. The imagery of the furniture also creates a real sense of relatability to the reader, in that the common choices of furniture equates the Youngers with the rest of America, allowing the reader to bridge the gap between the two on a mundane, commonplace level. The condition of the furniture

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