Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem” and her own experience, Lorraine Hansberry authored A Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry used the locale of South Side, Chicago where she was born during a time of social and political turmoil as the backdrop to her play. Through the lens of Marxist’s critical theory about contradictions building into social systems that lead to social revolution, Hansberry depicts issues related to racism and discrimination. Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate agent, but despite her family’s wealth, the law of Chicago required the Hansberry family to live in the ghetto South Side. Similar to the plot of the play, Hansberry’s father bought a home in a Caucasian neighborhood and after the family settled into their new home, a brick was thrown through the window almost hitting Hansberry (Plays and Playwrights, 1540).
In the novel, Of Mice and Men, social inequality and gender inequality are two very important topics that can be depicted. This novel takes place during the Great depression during a completely different time period than we are in now yet, similar issues still exist today. In this novel the reader can view women from two different perspectives. The male perspective of women and the novels perspective. During the 1930’s, men were the main source of income and were highly depended upon to make money while women were expected to stay home with their children.
“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. Lorraine criticizes the discriminatory and racial climate in America in the 1950s.The novel takes the place in a small neighborhood in Chicago.
Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family. Hansberry portrays the role of fathers within their families through her only male character in the play, Walter Lee Younger.
Both Angelina Weld Grimke and Lorraine Hansberry play key roles in redefining Black theatre. This is done by utilizing means of social resistance and documenting cultural resilience in their works Rachel and A Raisin in the Sun. Though their writing styles differ in characterization plot, and intent, both women’s writings have played monumental parts in redefining Black theatre and the roles of Black women playwright in American theatre. The two plays portrayed stark contrasts of how African Americans internalized racism and means of coping with day to day trials and the way of the world during this time period. Though each play was created nearly 40 years apart, much of the same anguish African Americans experienced in 1920 when Rachel was written prevailed through to 1959 when Hansberry released A Raisin in the Sun.
Nella 's step-father was a source of racial tension in her childhood home, which resulted in her alienation from him as well as her mother. The author had several book but Quicksand is considered one of the most important masterpiece. In wich depict the mulatto theme which had become popular in American literature. In such works the male or female protagonist, who is light enough to pass for white, finds that all personal ambitions (education, employment, social mobility in general) are severely limited when one
In today 's world, gender roles are being shattered on a daily basis. Women are supporting their families, becoming involved in STEM field, and proving themselves to be more than just their gender. Similarly, men are becoming stay at home dads, participating in household activities like cooking, and also proving themselves to me more than just their gender. Respect for either gender is growing day by day; however, this isn’t always the case and hasn’t always been the case. As seen in the play Fences written in 1985 by August Wilson and in the painting American Gothic created by Grant Wood in 1930, Gender makes people act in demeaning or conforming ways simply because of it’s implied societal meanings.
In the play A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry explores issues revolving around race and class. She creates the character of Walter Lee Younger to express the issues that African American males struggle with, specifically social injustices. Because of the racial and discriminatory barriers that are stacked against him, Walter struggles to support his family. He will have to deal with obstacles that keep him from achieving his dreams and that ultimately change him as a man. Walter Lee Younger is a determined son, father, and husband who is eager to pursue his dreams.
Sajjad Zaheer’s “Dulari” in Angaaray explores the hypocrisy of unguarded sexual desire pitted against social conventions – the story criticises the exploitative relationship of a maid servant by her master’s son. This was a common predicament of slave women in contemporary middle-class households. The preying of the vulnerable by the powerful is not merely sexual, but is essentially economic. Here, the space under scrutiny is an upper-middle class Muslim household, where the male protagonist is an educated youth who is aware of the numerous social mishaps but chooses not to protest or voice his opinions. The narrator describes him as the following – The family is a microscopic representation of the macroscopic contemporary society.
Miss Helen’s art and struggle is a metaphor for women’s struggle. For self-expression and self-fulfillment in a society that functions conformity as well as control by the powerful of the powerless. Miss Helen and Katrina are bound to live according to society’s expectations due to them belonging to a small village, Nieu Bethesda which is controlled by rules and regulations that place men and women on different levels. Young Katrina, a coloured women who is Miss Helen’s domestic worker, is being threatened by her drunken husband. Katrina is subjected to the social expectations of society which makes her prone to withstand the unethical treatment of her husband.