Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, stars a lower class black family in Chicago attempting to make a better life for themselves. The play version of the story was later adapted into a movie 57 years after. Although both versions are very similar, their are key differences between the movie and play which change how the characters are portrayed and how the events unfold in the story.
In the movie their are many different settings portraying the scenes described in the play. However, the play is all in one setting, specifically the younger’s living room. In the play Walter has all his and Beneatha's share of Moma’s money stolen. Causing leading to one of his friends to break the news of it to Walter in the Younger household

(Hansberry 124-129). Yet in the play it is done outside and away from most of Walter’s family avoiding the confrontation of disappointing everyone at once. Furthermore, in the play Mama confronts Walter about how he has been acting and about his wife's baby in the house in front of everyone (Hansberry 71-75), but in the movie she does it while he is partially drunk in a bar. Both of these examples show the same events very closely, as they happened in the play, except in a completely different setting. These two major events took place outside of the apartment which were then brought into the house for analyzation by the family as opposed to the play where the events took place and were analyzed by the family in the apartment. Which is significant because it makes the characters in the movie look less connected as compared to the play where they are always open and conjoined in information.
Mama and Walter act less exuberant then they are portrayed as in the play compared to the movie. In the play, through many scenes, Moma is seen as not a very calm person whereas in the Play, she repeatedly over reacts to her children's actions. This is different from the movie as in the movie she has a much smaller reaction to events. For example Ruth having an abortion (Hansberry 68-75), causes Mama to explode with worry in a controlling manner in the play however in the movie she is much more toned down. Walter acts the same in the movie as Mama in that his emotional reactions are also tuned down. In the play, when Walter fights with Ruth, he calls her unwanted and useless (Hansberry 69-70). Although, in the movie he still says the same things but in a much calmer matter and not to Ruth’s face. Or when Walter finds out Ruth is having an abortion he simply goes to the club instead of continuing to fight like he does in the play. Throughout the entirety of the movie Walter and Mama simply act less emotional to events compared to in the play. Walter is less mean and fights less while Mama enforces less and does not interfere with her children making these characters rather different then the one's portrayed in the play as they are emotionally different.
The characters and settings as portrayed in the movie are different then the play giving the movie a slightly different atmosphere. They are calmer and better tempered in the movie while the scenes also actually change dependent on the subject. All these changes move the movie into a different level of emotion and give it a different background as compared to that of the book.