Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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In many ways, postwar time in America was a period of conformism with traditional gender roles, but it was also a time of change when dissatisfaction with the status quo was developing. Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun identifies various gender dynamics that reflects many of the biases that women in the American society continues to face in the 1950s. The rise of sexual revolution and feminism in the 1950s was a major influence in transforming the American way of life for the following decade. Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun depicted many of the controversial gender issues that women in America were facing at this time, including abortion, the importance of marriage, and the changing gender roles for men and women. Every character of Hansberry’s play portrayed different gender roles and articulated differing ideas about what these roles should be. Mama Lena is the head of the family and mother to Walter Lee …show more content…

She also works as a domestic maid and does most of the cleaning and cooking in the family’s house. She unexpectedly got pregnant and considers getting an abortion because of her understanding of the family’s emotional strains and economic difficulties. In Act 2, Scene 1, Ruth was struck senseless with the news that Mama just gave them, informing them of her decision to put a down payment on a house, and goes on to say: “Well – well! – All I can say is – if this is my time in life – MY TIME – to say good-bye – to these goddamned crackling walls! – and these marching roaches! . . . then I say it loud and good, HALLELUJAH! And GOOD-BYE MISERY . . . I DON’T NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR UGLY FACE AGAIN!” (Hansberry 93). This scene shows us that Ruth’s dream is becoming a reality and she is ecstatic to say goodbye to her old home and move forward to a better one with and a better life for her unborn child and her son Travis. This is another moment of female realism and self sacrifice for her

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