Effects Of Racism In A Raisin In The Sun

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” perfectly captures the problems of an African-American family during the 1950s. Most of the conflicts portrayed by the characters are still very relevant to this day and the over looming issues of racism and stereotypes are still existent to society today also. These problems don’t just affect one group or race of people nowadays; they affect almost everybody in our society no matter what race or gender you are. In the play, personal conflicts such as Beneatha’s internal struggle to genuinely be herself can be seen in the present society. Racial profiling is also portrayed effectively in this play, and can also be seen in our present society. Through these, the characters seem to be very relatable

In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, there are many examples of sexism throughout its entirety. The character, Walter, demonstrates the acts of a sexist human being. Walter is sexist to not only women in general, but to the women in his family. Not taking into consideration of other people’s sayings and their feelings, Walter generally only thinks about himself, says what he believes, and truly only cares about money. Walter constantly is fighting with all of the women in the family as well. His sister, Beneatha, wants to become a doctor and Walter isn't very supportive of her decision. Walter's wife, Ruth, is the recipient of the majority of Walter's anger and sexist remarks.

The play, “ A Raisin in the Sun” authored by Lourraine Hasenberry holds a very unique title that refers to Langston Hughes’s poem “A Dream Deferred.” Langston’s poem is about dreams and what happens to those dreams are not fulfilled. Hassenberry wrote her play about a poor African American family by the name of the Yongers. Mrs. Younger, Walter Lee, and Beneatha all have there own individual dreams. , But are consistently being differed.

People have dreams to do or be what makes them happy by setting goals to reach their dream. Dreams are almost like goals that people create in their mind to try to motivate them self to achieve their dream. The American Dream is the idea that everyone who is a U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to be successful and benefit through their hard-work, determination, and initiative. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha Younger’s dream is to become a doctor and build a career/life for herself without anyone providing for her which connects to the American Dream through her independence, hard-work, and determination.

money. Mama, Walter’s mother and the head of the house, is put in the play to display family is greater than money. When the plot takes a direction change and the family receives insurance money from Mama’s dead husband, the attitude in the household shifts. Always being a family oriented woman, Mama, even with ten thousand dollars is still sad that her husband isn’t there to share the great fortune with him. This clearly displays Mama’s core values and why Lorraine Hansberry put her in the play to show these

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

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.

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.

Identity is who someone is as a person. People have different views of what identity is and what can be done to find it. Identity can be your actions and thoughts. It’s what makes someone unique and different from anyone else. The Bible has its own view of identity as well. Also, identity is one of the main themes in “A Raisin in the Sun.” Personal identity is what tells one human being apart from another.

At the beginning of the play, Walter is harassing Beneatha about her choice of becoming a doctor. “Ain’t many girls who decide to be a doctor”(Hansberry 36), Walter means that it is uncommon for women to be a doctor in this era of time. Especially a woman of color becoming a doctor. Normally these women are nurses, if that even. It was very hard for African Americans to get a job due to having different colored skin. According to the article “African American jobs in the 1950s”: “women were nurses, accountants, clerks, dry cleaners, etc.”(Prezi). It was hard for these people to find and keep jobs. If a person of color was able to find a job, the income would be very low. With that being said, it would be hard to make enough money for a family to live off of. Due to the lack of money, most families have their children working to help provide for the family as well. If possible, the parents try to work more than one job to get a little extra cash. In the play, Ruth and Walter were the only ones working;

Everyone learns lessons in life. These lessons can come from a book, experience and legends. Books have a theme that you can learn from that is what make books important. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry both have the themes of responsibility, family and dream that runs through the main characters Tom Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie and Walter Lee Younger from A Raisin in The Sun.

The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright of the century to express real social issues. There are three female characters in the play, each one is faced with a different struggle for their freedom. All three of these women, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha all dreamed of something more in their future. They did not want the life that every female was supposed to have, they wanted to be different. Beneatha has high aspirations in life and is the character that most expresses her struggles with feminism. She defies the ideal life for a woman and expresses her opinion loud and clear. Beneatha throughout the play finds herself and her African American roots. Walter does not approve of Beneatha’s hopes to become a doctor he tells her, “If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people---then go be a nurse like other women---or just get married and be quiet. . .” (1.1.125) These social issues that the characters faced in their lives made them out to be the people that they were meant to be. It was harder for the Young family to do simple things, but they overcome their obstacles and stayed true to themselves throughout the

“Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.” Symbols can add a deeper meaning than just an object itself that the author is trying to make.Symbols can also foreshadow what is yet to come. The audience can interpret a symbol in many ways it depends on their experience. In Southside Chicago the Younger family is struggling to have hope as they are always facing society.In the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry the plant symbolizes the Younger’s dream as it evolves throughout the play.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter ,and Beneatha are faced with hardships associated with their dreams being destroyed by discriminatory housing,racial inequality and lack of support from her family towards her education. In the play all the characters have some kind of dream. Mama wants to get a house for the family, Walter wants to have money to provide for his family and plans to do that with a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Beneatha is going to school and at the same time she’s trying to discover herself,but her family is not supportive of this. Mama did unfortunately lose her husband, and the family is receiving a life insurance check for $10,000.

Critical Race Theory is the examination and interpretation of society’s behavior in dealing with race, class, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter had to deal with situations like white privilege, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, social construction, and intersectionality. By having to deal with these conditions, Walter fought to become “a successful man”. He wanted to be like his idea of a successful white man of the times with a nice house in the suburbs, a car for him and his wife, and be able to let his son go to any college he wants to. Walter just wants to try to be equal to white people, but racism keeps pushing him down. It won’t let him get a good job or house, be able to have a car, or allow him to live the way he wants to live. Because of all these stressors, it forces Walter to make a risky business decision that costs him most of his father’s life insurance money. Racism caused Walter to risk every dollar he owned and he lost it all. Later, he almost lost his own dignity by pleading with Mr. Lindner for his money back, but Mama saved him from doing it. Walter and the Youngers decided to move to Clybourne Park to live Walter’s dream of trying to live with the same privileges of white people. Racism beat Walter down to make rash decisions that didn’t always turn out well for him, but eventually he prevailed with his family’s victory of moving out of their old, ratty apartment. In Clybourne Park Walter and the Youngers will almost for sure have to deal with racism, nevertheless hopefully they prevail from that