Question 1: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” is about a coloured or black family of five people staying in the south-side of Chicago in the United States of America. The family of five lives in a two bedroomed apartment, which they all share. This has been home to Lena Younger (the head of the family) which she shared with her late husband. Life is difficult for the Younger family as they struggle from day to day to improve their poor living conditions. There is however a ray of hope; Lena Younger is awaiting a $ 10 000 pay-out from her late husband insurance money. Although Walter and Lena who are two main characters in the play have different plans for the money, they both want to use the money for something that will benefit the whole family. The generational gap/difference between the two main characters has an influence in the way they plan to use the money, and in the way they manage their ambitions and objectives. This essay will discuss how these differences
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When the $10000 arrives, Walter has plans of investing the money in a bottle store. Walter believes that if his business does well and make a lot of money, he would be able to buy his family and himself happiness. In Walter’s world, life revolves around money, or money is everything even. Lena Younger on the other hand plans to use the money to purchase a house in an affluent suburb, pay for Beneatha’s studies, and invest the rest for the wellbeing of her family. In Lena’s mind she has always wanted to restore her family’s dignity and pride. She also believed that is what her late husband would have wanted. She is content with what she has and believes that dignity is more important than money. She does not think that money can make a family happy. A significant contrast in the two character’s personalities is vividly displayed in the way they plan to use the
“‘You know, Miss Moore, I don’t think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat costs’”. Even the children understand the hardships that a lack of money can cause. These people value money because they
However Walters places his own dream, and money, before the values of liberty, respect, and love. “Mama: Sun—how come you talk so much „bout money? Walter: (With immense passion). Because it is life, Mama! Mama: (Quietly).
The play “Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a powerful play that displays what it like is to have dreams deferred. Hansberry extracted her title from a well-known poem called “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. “Harlem” serves as an epigraph for the play and Hansberry’s play does an excellent job expressing the poem’s themes. The play provokes feelings of suspense and drama as we watch the character’s endeavors, only to be crushed by the very same thing that they yearn for. My analysis of the play and the poem proves that Hansberry’s play was able to capture and manifest the themes of the poem
Financial power is alluring in more that one way; ignorance and love - the two extremes, in this case it caused the suitcase lady to loose the only person she had. It is up to others to change the perspective of people in need, rather than listening to what society says. This is seen in both Of Mice and Men with Curly’s wife and Candy and in the “Suitcase Lady”. To get power, people take it from others, this creates
Mama says life used to be freedom, but now it is money. Walter says, “No, it was always money, mama. We just didn’t know it.” By the end of the play, Walter’s view of what life is, changes. Walter realizes human dignity is more important than money; human dignity is life now.
The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry debuted on Broadway in 1959, and the movie was made in 2008. “A Raisin in the Sun” is about the Younger family, the fifth generation of lower-class African-Americans living in Chicago’s Southside. They are faced with problems such as racial discrimination, poverty, and conflicting dreams. As the family decides on how to spend the insurance check of $10,000 from Walter’s father’s death, these problems cause many conflicts to rise. Reading the 1959 play and the 2008 movie, I have realized certain similarities and differences in how the story plays out.
Walter wants to be free from the family’s low income lifestyle, and becoming rich is Walter’s extrinsic motivation to live. Mama said to Walter, “Son-how come you talk so much ‘bout money?” Walter responded with immense passion, “Because it is life, Mama!” Walter looks at life, and like a bride sees through her wedding vail, Walter sees through money lenses. He sees his father’s money as a possibility in a world that revolves around a minimal supply of money.
“There is no education like adversity” (Disraeli), is a quote which describes Walter Lee Younger, a 35 year old African-American man who undergoes many adversities until he becomes a strong leader who unifies his family. Walter achieves this growth by facing and learning from his many misfortunes. After the death of his father, Big Walter, Walter’s family is given a small fortune from insurance. Walter, believing he is doing what is best for the family, tries to invest the money only to lose it all. This event leaves Walter feeling hopeless but he manages to learn from this mistake and make a choice that unites his family and rekindles their trust in him.
The 1950s were oppressive and degrading towards the culture and identity of African Americans. This principle is especially personified through the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. As a black female author in this time period, she was easily able to capture the racism and forced stereotypes poignant within the lives of the minorities. Beneatha, a fictional character in the play, represents the ambitious and suppressed black female intellectual who is stripped of her identity at every turn. The men in her life are as different as black and white, and in essence that is what they are.
Walter dreams of gaining money through the liquor store, a highly improbable goal. As the play continues, Walter realizes how absurd this goal is and decides to abandon his American Dream. As a result, he takes it on himself to ensure that his mother’s American Dream gets fulfilled when he mentions “we don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight causes, and we will try to be good neighbors … we don’t want your money” (Hansberry 148) to Lindner. By doing so, Walter makes it evident that he lost all interest in money and only wants to move into the house to aid in uniting his family, proving Walter’s shift in his American Dream. Clearly, using evidence from the Malcolm X’s legacy and Hansberry’s emphasis on Walter’s failure of his unique American Dream due to an improbable goal, the importance of every individual person having probable goals is vital to
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun presents the rise of feminism in America in the 1960s. Beneatha Younger, Lena Younger (Mama) and Ruth Younger are the three primary characters displaying evidences of feminism in the play. Moreover, Hansberry creates male characters who demonstrate oppressive attitudes towards women yet enhance the feministic ideology in the play. A Raisin in the Sun is feminist because, with the feminist notions displayed in the play, women can fulfil their individual dreams that are not in sync with traditional conventions of that time.
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.
The play “ A Raisin In The Sun “ wrote by Lorraine Hansberry is a inspiring play about the Younger family. A typical African American family in the late 1950’s trying to make life better for themselves. They’re a family trying to overcome the difficulties and obstacles that comes with being black in America in that time. Obstacles such as lynchings,segregation,racial discrimination and overall the difficulties that comes with being black in America. With external problems within the family the characters also internal conflicts within themselves.
Walter was introduced as a man who cared about nothing other than his business. He had sacrificed his sister’s dream of becoming a doctor, and held the power to wipe out Mama’s dream for a better home. Walter sees the gender roles as boundaries keeping him from loosening up to his family. He is given the insight that men must be powerful, wealthy, and demanding for them to truly be the head of the household. However, Walter sees past these gender roles, and not only challenges these rigid roles, but he also regains his family’s trust along the
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.