The American dream means something different to each one of the Youngers in the play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The characters in the story all have their own set of issues and dreams. The relationship between each of the Younger’s greatly influences each of their decisions. When a check for ten thousand dollars comes in the mail, the Younger’s world changes and they all learn what it really means to be a family.
A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period. The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.
In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions. Hansberry challenges the traditional gender roles and issues of dominance throughout the play when Mama gives Walter lee the rest of the money at the end of the play. He becomes all excited and was supposed to save some for himself and put the rest of the money to Beneatha 's education. Instead, he gave all that money to Willy another character in the play which later on that he stole from him.
Storytelling has been a part of people's’ lives since the beginning of time. It started with just verbal communication, then it was translated into written word, and now there hundreds of ways to tell those same stories. Movies and books, for example, are two very different ways to tell stories to an audience. A story can be a book, but not a movie or vice versa. Many books are made into movies, but lose major elements in translation. One of these examples is in A Raisin in the Sun. It was originally a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, in 1957, but became a movie in 1961 and then remade in 2008, which was directed by Kenny Leon. While the play and the movie follow the same storyline, there are many elements of the play that got added when
In the play, “A Raisin in the Sun” we see a lot of arguments and disagreements among the members of the family. After viewing two versions of Act 1, Scene 1 of “A Raisin in the Sun” the 1961 version film most effectively uses cinematic techniques to portray the tension among the members of the Younger family that are evident in the
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play which contains many different obstacles that the characters face. One character, Beneatha, faces an obstacle that is out of her control. This obstacle is gender inequality. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, gender inequality is experienced by Beneatha and reflects the struggles women faced in the 1950s. One of the issues that Beneatha faces in the play is her relationships with two men in her life, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai.
By the end of “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger’s lives are beginning to improve. Compared to the state of the family at the opening of the play, most considered that play ends on a joyous moment. However; that is not so for the Younger family. The way the play ends is not a happy ending because the Younger family does not have the funds that they need, two people are further from their dreams, and they are moving into a neighborhood to could be dangerous for them. Although one may be excited that things appear to be better for the Younger’s, the reality is that things could possibly be worse for them.
Reader Response: 3 “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.
In both plays, "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Trifles," we are introduced to an earlier time in America were "equality" was just a word. Though both plays focus on the oppressed mind, I personally enjoyed "Trifles" a lot more than "A Raisin in the Sun. " The play "Trifles" had an abundance of suspense, the theme was darker and the setting was far more grim. These I belive are the initial ingredients to a story that focuses on a time during
Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun are both sensational dramas written in and around the 1950’s, which look at the lives of those futilely attempting to pursue the American dream. The key difference between the works is the race of the family therein. In Death of Salesman, we have a Caucasian family living in central New York. In contrast, A Raisin in the Sun showcases the racial tension faced by an African-American family living in South-Side Chicago in the 1950’s (Cooper). While this is a perspicuous difference the works still draw a large number of parallels to each other.
Stephen King, one of the many famous movie makers and book writers once said, “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different”. However, when it comes to the oranges, the bright-colored fruit usually tastes better. Truly, many people have different opinions, but the movie is definitely better. This giant, white void will explain the many differences between Raisin in the sun’s book and movie, and focus on the great traits of the movie.
“Progress is impossible without change,” Irish playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw once said. In order to move in a positive direction, we sometimes need to accept change. After watching the movie, A Raisin in the Sun, viewers can walk away, satisfied with the beneficial changes made to the film. Without question, movies are almost always better than the book. The movie, A Raisin in the Sun, is much better than the book because the added scenes helped the viewer have a better understanding of the characters and the time period.
“A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, was the first play ever produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and was considered ground-breaking for it’s time. Titled after Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” the play and the subsequent film adaptations are honest examinations of race, family, poverty, discrimination, oppression and even abortion in urban Chicago after WWII. The original play was met with critical praise, including a review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times where he wrote, “For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate. Not having any axe to grind, Miss Hansberry has a wide range of topics to write about-some of them hilarious, some of them painful in the extreme.” The original screen adaptation released in 1961 was highly acclaimed in its own right, and was chosen in 2005 for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.
A Raisin in the Sun was an innovative play for its era. Lorraine Hansberry produces in the Younger household one of the first authentic portrayals of a black household on an American stage, in an era where primarily black spectators just didn’t exist. African-American characters, typically minor and comedic, mostly hired racial stereotypes before this play. Lorraine Hansberry, nevertheless, displays a whole black household in an authentic view, one that is unbecoming and anything but comedic. She makes use of black dialect all through the play and raises significant concerns and struggles, for instance poverty, bigotry and racism.