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An essay on racism about a raisin in the sun
An essay on racism about a raisin in the sun
An essay on racism about a raisin in the sun
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“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry focuses strongly on the idea of segregation and racism in America during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry even uses situations from her own life in order to help depict what life was like for a middle-class African American family in Chicago at the time. “A Raisin in the Sun” was written during the 1950s as well, which gives it a lot of background and ties it into the racial problems of the time. The historical factors of the time the play was written go a long way towards shaping the understanding of “A Raisin in the Sun”. In the play, “A Raisin in the Sun” Lorraine Hansberry introduces the Younger family, an African American middle-class family that lives in Chicago. This family is about to receive a check for $10,000 when the play opens. Each member of the family has a different idea about what to do with the money. Lena Younger (Mama) wants to buy a bigger house for her family. Ruth, Walter’s wife, agrees with Mama that the money should be used to purchase a better house. While Walter Lee Younger, her son, wants
In fact, Lorraine Hansberry’s father brought this to the Supreme Court; she used this experience in writing “A Raisin in the Sun.” This is apparent when Mama says, “Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could” (Hansberry). At this time, African-Americans could only live in the slums because it was all they could afford; Lorraine Hansberry shines light on this undeniably upsetting fact. When the Younger family is able to afford housing in a nicer neighborhood, their white neighbors attempt to foil their plan of moving in. This was also very common during the 1950s in Chicago. However, it was not just housing segregation that existed, segregation in general was prevalent during this time in
In life there are always going to be ups and downs, good and bad times, because families go through extensive amounts of arguments. Within the play A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, there are a few complications that the Younger family face. Moreover, the main complications occur between Lena Younger (Mama) and Walter Lee Younger (the son of Mama). Throughout the play, the biggest complication they face is how to spend Walter Lee Senior’s life insurance money. The Younger family goes through several challenging times; however, the family shows that no matter what, everyone should stick together.
Ever since her rise to fame, Lorraine Hansberry has opened the eyes of many and shown that there is a problem among the American people. Through her own life experiences in the twentieth-century, she has written what she knows and brought forth the issue that there is racial segregation, and it will not be ignored. Her most popular work, A Raisin in the Sun, not only brought African Americans to the theater, but has given many of them hope (Mays 1461). Within this work, we find a “truthful depiction of the sorts of lives lived by many ordinary African Americans in the late 1950s” (May 1462).
Lorraine Hansberry was a famous African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance who exploits the racial tension between African Americans and whites in the housing market. The Younger family lives in a government housing apartment before the Civil Rights Act. Semuels explains in "Public Housing Can Work" that desegregating housing would allow the government to build housing that would not discriminate by race: “the 1964 Civil Rights Act accelerated the exodus—as public housing was integrated”. The government did not care about African American housing until it was racially integrated. “As the 1950s began, big-city public-housing agencies like Chicago, New York, and Baltimore built high-rise units that would soon become emblematic of all the problems with public
Growing up as the young child of sharecroppers in Mississippi, Essie Mae Moody experienced and observed the social and economic deprivation of Southern Blacks. As a young girl Essie Mae and her family struggled to survive, often by the table scraps of the white families her mother worked for. Knowing little other than the squalor of their living conditions, she realizes this disparity while living in a two-room house off the Johnson’s property, whom her mother worked for, watching the white children play, “Here they were playing in a house that was nicer than any house I could have dreamed of”(p. 33). Additionally, the segregated school she attends was a “one room rotten wood building.” (p. 14), but Essie Mae manages to get straight A’s while caring for her younger sibli...
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a dramatic play written in 1959. The play is about an African American family that lived on the Chicago South Side in the 1950’s. Hansberry shows the struggles and difficulties that the family encounters due to discrimination. Inspired by her personal experience with discrimination, she uses the characters of the play, A Raisin In The Sun, to show how this issue affects families. Hansberry faces housing discrimination due to her race, which affects her family.
“A Raisin in the Sun” is set at in an area where racism was still occurring. Blacks were no longer separated but they were still facing many racial problems. The black Younger family faced these problems throughout the play. The entire family was affected in their own way. The family has big dreams and hope to make more of their poor lives. Walter, the main character, is forced to deal with most of the issues himself. Ruth, his wife, and Travis, his ten-year-old son, really don’t have say in matters that he sets his mind to. Beneatha, his sister tries to get her word in but is often ignored. Lena (Mama) is Walter’s mother and is very concerned about her family. She tries to keep things held together despite all of the happenings. Mama’s husband had just recently died so times seemed to be even harder. They all live in a small apartment when living space is very confined (Hansberry 1731). They all have dreams in which they are trying to obtain, but other members of the family seem to hold back each other from obtaining them (Decker).
Lena's husband, the family's father died and his life insurance brings the family $ 10,000. Everyone, especially the children, are waiting for the payment of life insurance in the cash. Now the question is whether the money should be invested in a medical school for the daughter, in a deal for the son or other dreams. But after the death of her husband Lena Younger gets the insurance money and buys a new house, where the whole family is going to move. It would seem that a dream came true. But soon we learn that the area, where the family purchased the house, is full of white people who do not want to see African-Americans in the neighborhood. The Youngers are trying to survive the threats or bribes, but they manage to maintain a sense of dignit...
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.
After the establishment of the Jim Crow law, America faces the problem of African-American segregation. An excerpt from Ramona Lowe’s short story, “The Woman in the Window”, demonstrates a racial discrimination against Blacks during the 1940s by incorporating representation, stereotyping and ideology. First of all, the representation of the owners as high-class and Mrs. Jackson as low-class shows that representation can be use to demonstrate racial discrimination. Secondly, the owners’ assumption that Mrs. Jackson is from Georgia and that she needs money proves that stereotyping can be use to demonstrate racial discrimination. Lastly, the white children laughing and calling Mrs. Jackson “Aunt Jimima and nigger” is evidence that ideology can be use to demonstrate racial discrimination.
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
The play A Raisin in the Sun was written by an African American female by the name of Lorraine Hansberry. It was seen to be the most historically accurate because of its realistic viewpoint of the African American situations of this time. James Baldwin, a friend of Hansberry and a fellow writer, “labeled the play as a “historical achievement” of the greatest importance... the unprecedented way that A Raisin in the Sun brought African Americans into the theater and onto the stage.” (“Chapter 30: Cultural and Historical Context, 1925). Baldwin continued to say “never before, had so much of the truth of black people's lives been on the stage” and “A Raisin in the Sun was a historical achievement precisely because of it's realism and contemporaneity, its truthful depiction of the lives of many ordinary African Americans in the late 1950s. In a sense, the play made history by accurately reflecting a historical and cultural reality previously ignored by dramatists” (1925).
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.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.
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.