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How Did Segregation Effect Black People In The Usa
Effects of racial segregation
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Lorraine Hansberry in her play, “Raisin in the Sun”, attempted to explain the feelings of the average African American Male in the 1940s. This persona, which is portrayed in the character Walter, had experienced a severe feeling of depression and hopelessness. In order to understand this source of grievance, one must relate back to the Great Migration and the dreams it promised and the reasons why many African Americans sought to move to the North. A desire to achieve freedom from racial injustices and poverty was the prime factor that encouraged Blacks to abandon the south. However, these dreams where soon crushed as African American noticed that Northern whites had still maintained unequal segregation and where as stumbling block to Black advancement. The consequences of a “dream deferred”, as Langston Hughes called it, was dependency on others, alcohol addiction, as well as dysfunctional families. The Great Migration, which lasted from 1910 to 1930, was the first mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North. There was one main factor that led to new job opportunities which attracted many African Americans to industrialized cites in the North. The occurrence of World War I in Europe had increased U.S. factories and factory productions as European nations, involved in the war, depended on the United States to replenish their supplies. Likewise, the war decreased laborers in the United States as it abridged the migration of many European immigrants to the U.S. as well as toke many citizens as soldiers which caused a massive vacancy in the work field. Philip Bonner, from the University of the Witwatersrand, explained this phenomena as he said, “It was only the outbreak of the first World War cutting off the flo... ... middle of paper ... ...hol abuse worked as a catalyst to further ruin African Americans and destroyed their families. A black mark in America History was the persecution and discrimination of African Americans. The dreams of freedom from racial discrimination and hopes of attaining promising job opportunities were futile and the Great Migration was just the relocation of Blacks to further segregation and racial injustices. Limitations of good paying jobs as well as excessive rent prices compelled most African Americans to abandon all hope of raising their financial and social status. Walter Younger was a true depiction of a defeated Black man who unsatisfied with his life sought redemption through consuming alcohol. Depression and lack of hope were the two ingredients that led to the failure of African American marriages and the conversion of optimistic men into vagabonds.
Everyone wants their dreams to become a reality; however, the unfortunate reality is that more often than not, dreams are not achieved and become deferred. Langston Hughes let this theme ring throughout his poetic masterpiece “Harlem,” in which he posed many questions about what happens to these dreams. In “A Raisin In the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry draws so many indisputable parallels from “Harlem.” Hansberry consistently uses the dreams of Mama Younger, Big Walter, and Walter Lee to allude to Hughes poem. The intensity of the dreams coupled with the selfishness of some characters eventually adds an abundant amount of emotional strain to the family, once again demonstrating Hansberry’s dedication to Hughes poem.
Both the 1961 and 1989 film versions of “A Raisin in the Sun” had their highs and lows, but the 1961 version, I believe, was the worst of the two. The 1989 version of the film followed the play almost word for word, while the 1961 version either adds or leaves things out from the play. For example, in the 1961 version of the play they added humor, such as in the scene in which Walter ran to use the bathroom before Mr. Johnson could (Petrie). The play version of the scene reads, “Daddy, come on!” (Hansberry 28). Another issue with the film was that Ruth was downright awful in scenes where her character felt great emotion. In act two, when Travis finally came home Ruth did not look or sound mad. In the book, however, she made it sounds like she
A Raisin in the Sun The creativity of Hansberry played a crucial role in the development of African-American drama since the Second World War. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by an African-American author to be set on Broadway and was honored by the circle of New York theater critics. Drama of A Raisin in the Sun (1959) brought Hansberry to the Society of New York Critics Award as the best play of the year. A Raisin in the Sun shows the life of an ordinary African-American family who dreams of happiness and their desire to achieve their dream.
The Great Migration was a time where more then 6 million African Americans migrated North of the United States during 1910-1920. The Northern Parts of the United States, where African Americans mainly moved to was Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland. They migrated because of the work on railroads and the labor movement in factories. They wanted a better life style and felt that by moving across the United States, they would live in better living conditions and have more job opportunities. Not only did they chose to migrate for a better lifestyle but they were also forced out of their homes by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and harsh segregation laws. They were forced to work in poor working conditions and compete for
In America, every citizen is guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although each person is given these rights, it is how each person uses them that defines how successful they will be in America. There are several obstacles that some Americans face on their pursuit of happiness. In this country’s past, Americans lived by a very specific set of beliefs that valued the importance of hard work, faith, and family. As time progressed and America began to evolve as a nation, this capitalistic society no longer devoted itself to family and faith but rather success, and the pursuit of prosperity. The shift from dependence on tradition towards a society that values success and how people struggle to b successful when society makes it difficult marks a common theme in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Two of the main characters in this story Lena Younger (Mama) and her son Walter Lee directly reflect the shift from tradition to a focus on success and capital and the struggles they face in regards to racism. Mama and Walter Lee’s contrasting values about the American dream and the way in which they pursue their own dreams while facing racism exemplifies the shift from valuing tradition like in previous generations in America, to valuing success and prosperity like in more current generations.
The intense racism of the white society on the African Americans has caused Bigger to act immorally and irrationally as a result of fear. The immoral and irrational behavior that is caused by racism is best shown by “His crime felt natural; he felt that all of his life had been leading to something like this. It was no longer a matter of dumb wonder as to what would happen to him and his black skin; he knew now. The hidden meaning of life - a meaning which others did not see and which he had always tried to hide - had spilled out.” (Wright 106).
My objective for writing this essay on the black family was to examine and interrogate a myriad of stereotypes surrounding this family structure. Slavery and its inception need to be explored because it enables one to acquire a better understanding of the modern day black family. It is my hope that once we achieve this level of understanding, if not acceptance, that we may be able to start the healing process that is so necessary.
In ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, Lorraine Hansberry describes each of the family’s dreams and how they are deferred. In the beginning of the play Lorraine Hansberry chose Langston Hughes’s poem to try describe what the play is about and how, in life, dreams can sometimes be deferred.
“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller tells the story of a white family in the United States and how Willy, the protagonist of this story, anxiously pursues the idea of a better life. Likewise, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry tells the story of a colored family in the same country and their difficulties in fulfilling their goals. Although it may seem that the plays are entirely different, they share a specific theme: the staging of the American dream as an unattainable goal for a large segment of the American population. Therefore, analyzing the meaning of this dream for each of the families of these plays will allow readers to understand the criticism made by the authors of these plays to the idea that the United States is a land of
Beginning in the 1919 and lasting through about 1926 thousands of Blacks began to migrate from the southern United States to the North; an estimated 1 million people participated in what has come to be called the Great Migration.[1] The reasons for this mass movement are complicated and numerous, but they include search for better work, which was fueled by a new demand for labor in the North (particularly from the railroad industry) and the destruction of many cotton harvests by the infectious boll weevil ...
Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry are known as two of the greatest African American writers during the 1950s. Facing racial discrimination, both projected this into their work, along with the theme of black empowerment. Meeting in Harlem, these authors became best friends and inspired each other’s writings. Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is trying to answer the question from Hughes’s Dream Deferred. Through the characters in her play, Hansberry explains what happens to a dream when is is put aside and the consequences that come with it. For example, Mama pushed away her dreams for her family, Walter ruined his dream of a liquor store, and Beneatha abandoned her hopes of becoming a doctor. In her
“Nobody in this house is ever going to understand me,” (Hansberry 929) exclaimed Walter Lee Younger. In Lorraine Hansberry's play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” she tells the story of an African American family, more specifically a man by the name Walter Lee Younger. Walter believed that no one understood the way that he viewed the world, that he knew the way of the world better than anyone else. Walter thought that becoming a man started with being rich; he was wrong. What he had yet to learn is that becoming a man meant hard work, dedication, and the understanding of things other than fortune and wealth. Walter put strong faith into achieving his dreams, but he wrongly pursued them due to his selfishness and jealousy of the rich white man.
In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the author reveals a hard-working, honest African-American family struggling to make their dreams come true. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," illustrates what could happen if those dreams never came to fruition. Together, both Hansberry and Hughes show the effects on human beings when a long-awaited dream is thwarted by economic and social hardships.
The late 1950s was filled with racial discriminations. There was still sections living as well as public signs of Colored and Whites. Blacks and Whites were not for any change or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells a story of a black family that is struggling to gain a middle class acceptance in Chicago. The family of five, one child and four adults live in a tiny apartment that is located in a very poor area. Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals is two key parts played out throughout the whole play. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends met to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision regarding money that could have help the family and not only himself, if he would have thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to setup for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers to understand 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.
The setting in which human beings find themselves can cause a lasting affect on the way they live. The ply "A Raisin in the sun" exemplifies how cultural and geographical elements in one's surroundings can physiologically or morally drive their motivations.