In Lorraine Hansberry “A Raisin in the Sun”, the issues of racial discrimination, the debate of heroism, and criticism is vividly displayed. The play, which was written in the late 1950’s presents itself in a realistic discerning matter that implicates the racial division among the black family and white America. The play insinuates Walters’s heroism as well because of the black family’s struggle not to become discouraged in trying to obtain the world riches and still maintaining human dignity. When Hansberry wrote “A Raisin in the Sun”, many critics questioned the motive behind her play because it showed the America the world wants to grow oblivious to. This presents the reality of racial discrimination and heroism for the black man among …show more content…
For example, in the text, it states, “You people must be aware of some of the incidents in various parts of the city when colored people have moved into certain areas”. (Hansberry 389). With this statement, it shows that even after segregation ended in 1948 by President Truman that whites were not willing to accept change. Mr. Linder is referring to the racial violence between blacks and whites until the 1960’s when blacks were considered colored. Overcrowded living conditions and not much room for change arise in Hansberry play, which shows the racial discrimination among the Youngers and the average American black family. The census of the 1940’s and the 1950’s showed that over 50,000 units were overcrowded and ruled unlivable. “At the moment, an overwhelming majority of people out there feels that people get along better when they share a common background”. (Hansberry 389). This is Mr. Linder’s way of trying to nonchalantly say that the majority of the people in his neighborhood don’t want to live near blacks. African Americans have faced multiple disadvantages during the 1950’s. They were discriminated from homes, public affairs, and restaurants. In Hansberry play, Mr. Linder stated, “Believe me that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into”. (Hansberry 390). This is stating that they do not want to openly admit that race is the main …show more content…
Lorraine Hansberry herself clarified it when she spoke about the play. She states, “We cannot…very well succumb to monetary values and know the survival of certain aspects of man which must remain if we are loom larger than other creatures on the planet….Our people fight daily and magnificently for a more comfortable material base for their lives; they sacrifice for clean homes, decent foods, and personal and group dignity”. (Lester 417). Hansberry used Walter Lee to stand for that exact representation. Many African American men in the 1950’s and the 1960’s suffered pride and personal crisis issues because of the incapability to support and provide his family with the minimum of their basic needs. Walter Lee incriminated himself and his family for what he sees as his personal failure. (Lester 417). During the meeting with Mr. Linder the family, with the exclusion of Mama and Travis, stated that they was not interested in the offer of selling the house back to the welcoming committee of the neighborhood. This showed that the family stood firm for their moral values (dignity) that they share as a collective unit. Then something switch; Walter recklessly invested the family insurance money on a shaky liquor business startup. Feeling that all hope is lost and that his way of changing the family way of life is out of reach, he despairingly call Mr. Linder and
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.
Hansberry, Lorraine. "A Raisin in the Sun." Ed. Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 1771-830. Print.
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.
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, IL. She was the youngest of four children. Hansberry was the first black woman to write a play performed on Broadway. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she dropped out after two years. She later, moved to New York City and attended the New School. In 1951, she joined the staff of the black newspaper Freedom. Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff on June 20, 1953. In 1959, she wrote “A Raisin in the Sun” and she was the fifth woman to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play. Hansberry died of pancreas cancer on January 12, 1965.
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.
Everyone encounters struggle and “ain’t nobody bothering you” but yourself (1872). Many African Americans encounter hardships and conflict in their own lives because of their race. Before integration, not only were African Americans facing internal struggles but also the external struggles caused by prejudices. A Raisin in the Sun elaborates on the conflicts of African Americans when dealing with segregation, discrimination, and few opportunities to improve their lifestyle. Hansberry expresses her hardships as an African American woman without civil rights in the 1950’s through the Younger family and the decisions they make when confronting their own struggles.
One of the biggest thoughts of Walters that is made known to us is his dream of opening a liquor store. “Walter wants to rise above his class status to gain dignity, pride, and respect”(Character Analysis: Walter Lee Younger).Walter thinks that getting out from under someone else thumb in the work industry is the best way to move up the social ladder and give his family a better life. His wife, Ruth, recalls walter saying, “colored people ain't never going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on some different kinds of things in the world—investments and things”(Hansberry 1347). Walter doesn't think that white people have to be worried about working for someone else, but colored people need to be so worried that they would be gambling on investments, despite how tight money tends to be for families like theirs. Walter has this dream before he that they have the insurance money to spend, which means that even without money, he was still worried about needing to get ahead and go above and beyond to get his family to a higher social class than where their skin color puts them. Hansberry does an excellent job of showing how much harder colored people have to work to be on a level playing field with white people through the thoughts and dreams of Walter
In the words of Jim Cocola and Ross Douthat, Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun to mimic how she grew up in the 1930s. Her purpose was to tell how life was for a black family living during the pre-civil rights era when segregation was still legal (spark notes). Hansberry introduces us to the Youngers’, a black family living in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s pre-civil rights movement. The Younger family consists of Mama, who is the head of the household, Walter and Beneatha, who are Mama’s children, Ruth, who is Walter’s wife, and Travis, who is Walter and Ruth’s son. Throughout the play the Youngers’ address poverty, discrimination, marital problems, and abortion. Mama is waiting on a check from the insurance company because of the recent passing of her husband. Throughout the play Walter tries to convince Mama to let him invest the money in a liquor store. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor while embracing her African heritage, and Ruth just found out that she is pregnant and is struggling to keep her marriage going. The Youngers’ live in a very small apartment that is falling apart because of the wear and tear that the place has endured over the years. Mama dreams of having her own house and ends up using part of the insurance money for a down payment on a house in an up-scale neighborhood. The Youngers’ meet Mr. Lindner, who is the head of the welcoming committee. Mr. Lindner voices the community’s concerns of the Youngers’ moving into their neighborhood. Is the play A Raisin in the Sun focused on racial or universal issues?
An Analysis of A Raisin In the Sun & nbsp; "A Raisin In The Sun" is a play written by an African-American playwright - Lorraine Hansberry. It was first produced in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry's work is about a black family in the Chicago South Side. the Second World War. The family consisted of Mama(Lena Younger), Walter.
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.
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun”, written by Lorraine Hansberry, the Youngers, a poor african american family of five struggle to live together in an era of racial segregation and assimilation in Chicago. Most of the Youngers have gotten by working for white people, yet never escaping poverty. However when a large inheritance is expected to arrive each member of the family has their own dream they wish to use it for, but only Walter, the son of Lena, has the nerve to outwardly ask his mother to permit it to him. Walter’s irresponsibility, and intuition to always find a shortcut to success is what has caused his widowed mother to continuously be the head of the family. This factor not only changes the ideals of a man's role in the household but also effects Walter’s inability to progress and grow into the man his father was.
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, centers on an African American family in the late 1950’s. Her work focuses on the struggles African Americans face during this time. Racism was and still is, a major issue in the United States during the 1950’s. Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a different race based on the belief that person’s own race is superior. Throughout this play, Hansberry discusses many racial obstacles that the Younger Family experiences.
The actions that a person can get away with are determined by their social status. When the Younger family is going to move to the home, they are visited by Carl Lindner who is trying to dissuade them moving to the home. He says to them “ I am sure you people must be aware of some of the incidents which have happened in various parts of the city when colored people have moved into certain areas” (Hansberry 552). They, being colored people in the 1950s of a lower class, are having their right to choose where they live overlooked because of where they stand on the social pyramid. The actions of individual characters are also hindered by social standing. One such character is Walter Younger who wishes to own a liquor store, but during this time
The prejudice of the white people in the story is widely seen in one incident. The welcoming committee tries to discourage the Youngers from moving into the white neighborhood. The committee also uses their money to keep the Youngers out of their neighborhood. Mrs. Johnson also talks about the fire bombings of Black Americans that moved into "white neighborhoods". The Prejudice white people were the modern Gestapo of America.