Discrimination In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

“Raisin in the sun” by Lorraine Hansberry according to Dreams Deterred: A Study of Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun is the first African American novel played by Broadway (Al-Duleimy). In this novel Lorraine Hansberry write about the dreams of a colored family, and the difficulties of each member of this family to realize their dreams. “What is so interesting is that these dreams are deferred and finally deterred, because simply they are built on the wrong premises” (Al-Duleimy, 538). Each of family member based their dreams with materialism.

“I felt the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on me, and for the second time in my life, I thought of running away. Immediately.” She felt overwhelmed and felt as though she was being suffocated, even to the point of drowning in expectations. Another example of gender discrimination, or sexism, would be after the jury declares Tom Robinson guilty.

There is discrimination in this world to this day, there is discriminations against “people who are gay”. This discrimination is just like the Holocaust, because the Germans didn’t like the jews. I believe the gay marriage should have been approved long before it was. People need to realize judging someone because they are gay is wrong, that person is obviously an idiot. It is not up to people to judge other people because they are gay. I believe “if two genders are happy together, then why stop them”. So with my opinion, I support gay marriage.

Lorraine Hansberry Broadway play A Raisin In The Sun illustrates how African American families struggled throughout life for justice and civil rights. Hansberry being an African American, was underrated an extraordinary writer. Many decades have passed and changed has occurred regarding race and discrimination. However in Today’s society we continue to face and see discrimination still takes place with injustice for African Americans and other minorities. Dreams and aspirations is what keeps the Younger family motivated regardless of race and injustice. In the film A Class Divided, a white women said “white is right”, meaning to the color of your skin, I wonder if this is true? We currently live in the United States of America, a great nation, many travel the world to find freedom, seek justice and obtain civil rights.

In a review of the Broadway production, Lorraine Hansberry noted the problems and misconceptions about something and jotted them down to make them seem like better ideas. Ideas can sometimes make better ideas. Simple honesty is the most important thing in the world. Especially if people are nice to you they deserve to be treated nice back. Hansberry captures the historical reality of iving in Chicago in the 1940’s in her play A Raisin In The Sun. The Great Migrations from 1940-1960 brought hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South to Chicago where they became an urban population, and created churches, community organizations important businesses, and great music and literature. Their goal was to live in a neighborhood where blacks could pursue life with the same rights as

“A Raisin in the Sun “ by Lorraine Hansberry is story about many family disappointments and In the story Lena (Mama) get $10,000 dollars insurance for her husband death .For Beneatha and ,Walter and Lena have their desires to do something with the money.Beneatha dream is to become a doctor and hope for Lena(mama) to help her pay for medical school and Walter Lee dream is to open a liquor store with partnership with his friends as for Lena (mama) hopes to finance a home where they have space to live decently and Travis can play outside also Lena(mama) can finally grow a garden. In “A Raisin in the Sun“ by Lorraine Hansberry shows many examples about sexism in the 1950’s ,Beneatha and Walter represent many of the stereotypes shown of a female and male roles .Above all as times have progress will still see sexism for example the wage gap in sport between a female athlete and male athletes .

In Allan Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference, Patricia Hill Collins describes the Matrix of Domination as an intersectionality between all the isms, especially racism and sexism. Collins describes this cycle of domination saying “that each form of privilege is part of a much larger system of privilege” (Johnson, 52). Work for change needs to focus on the idea of privilege in all forms and the way in which it enables people to think in relation to inequality and power. The only way to understand the matrix, is by understanding its dimensions. The different dimensions include one form of privilege reinforcing another, one form of privilege affecting the access to others and subordinate groups that are pitted against one another to draw attention away from the system

In the novel A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry brings in multiple characters for brief periods. Each character impacts the story in his or her own specific way. In Hansberry’s realistic fiction novel, she allows the reader to experience what it is like to live in a time period where African Americans and Whites are not considered equals. She gives in depth scenarios, showing what it is truly like to be an African American in Chicago during the 1950’s. The characters in the story experience a multitude of issues involving society, culture, and family.

“Women are supposed to cook and do house chores… Women should be responsible for raising children… Men should tell women what they should do… Men are superior than women.” Gender expectations are evident in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and the society in Korea. Due to their different culture and lifestyle, The Youngers, the African American family, in A Raisin in the Sun have gender expectations that are different from the those in Korea. Gender expectations in the Youngers and Korea and are mainly noticeable in these three categories: occupation, personality traits, and physical appearance.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, undoubtedly there is more than one type of discrimination displayed. Before we get into that, what exactly is discrimination? Well, to discriminate means to treat someone differently based on what they believe, their age, gender, who they love, even their appearance. The forms that I will be talking about are Sexism, (Prejudice actions based on gender) Racism, (Prejudice actions based on race) classism, (Prejudice actions on those of a different social class) and discrimination on those with a disability.

In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel.

Throughout the 1950s, people of color have struggled with achieving their dreams due to the lack of equality that is portrayed in that specific time era. It has been a constant battle for equality for all races and genders over the course of time. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin In the Sun the character Beneatha struggles with her racial inequality, education, and gender stereotyping. These specific struggles are the blocks she deals with trying to achieve her dream.

All societies have their own problems. These can be things such as sibling rivalries, problems with people blending in, poverty, and sexism. Just as in the Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, these issues are common in many households even in our own society today. Despite the time period that the play is set in, these issues are present in today’s society.

Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” led a great quest for the Younger household. Raisin is set in subsidized housing in Southside Chicago, in which three Black female relatives live and interact with their brother, husband, and son Walter. African Americans were frowned upon before the writing of “A Raisin in the Sun”. However, it her notorious story provided individuals of multiple races new hope for life. In 2006, Diana Adesola Mafe provided the world with her opinion of “A Raisin in the Sun”. Diana Adeolsa Mafe wrote an article and named it “Black Women on Broadway: The Duality of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and Ntozake Shange's for colored girl” (Mafe, 2006). In addition to Lorraine Hansberry and Diana Adesola Mafe, other African American women confronted these issues in the 1950s among the uncontained political division and Civil Rights efforts to resolve conflict.

In a patriarchal society, women are encouraged to focus on their family and its well-being. Most often, women achieve this by caring for the children and the home. However, in the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry suggests that women do not have to focus on the family. Instead, they can prioritize their own well-being. Hansberry exhibits these ideas through two female characters, Ruth and Beneatha. Whereas Ruth adheres to patriarchal standards, Beneatha rebels against them. Hansberry contrasts Ruth and Beneatha to study how their adherence affects their personal and social well-beings. Through her play, she suggests that opposing the patriarchy leads to a more positive mindset and more stable relationships.