Introduction:
In Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," the Younger family faces numerous challenges as African Americans living in poverty on Chicago's South Side in the 1950s. The play addresses themes of race, family, and the American Dream, which are still relevant in today's world. This essay argues that the experiences of Walter Lee Younger are most important to understand in our world today because they demonstrate the effects of systemic racism and the struggle for economic empowerment.
Thesis Statement:
Walter Lee Younger's experiences in "A Raisin in the Sun" are essential to understanding the impact of systemic racism and the fight for economic empowerment in our world today.
Body Paragraph 1:
Walter Lee's experiences illustrate
I think the characters that try to search a better way of life in the Raisin in the Sun are Walter Lee Younger and Lena Younger (Mama). I think they do this to help their family prosper. They also want their family to gain money and let their kids/ grandkids have whatever they want and not let them live in poor conditions. They wanted to live up to their families expectation. When they first really wanted to search a better way of life was when the insurance money of Papa.
A Raisin in the Sun: A Literary Analysis Throughout the fifties, African-Americans constantly faced with impertinence due to normalized racism in society. A Raisin in the Sun, a renowned play written by Lorraine Hansberry, perfectly demonstrates what racial prejudice was like in the fifties. The play revolves around a poverty-stricken African-American family growing up in Chicago, and all the obstacles they must overcome to survive. By using Mama’s plant to symbolize the state of their family and irony to create both humor and drama, Hansberry creates a beautifully vivid story that touches everyone who reads it.
Hardships and trials help to shape, mold, and create characters in stories, this is evident within the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Hansberry’s assertive character, Beneatha, connects to the messages from classic Motown songs of the time period such as: inequality, identity, and respect. These songs sing of some characteristics and problems Beneatha holds. Through the soulful sound of Nina Simone’s song, “Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”, a cry for equality is heard that is similar to the one from Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun.
In the social drama Raisin in the Sun, Written by the playwright, Lorraine Hansberry shows how a struggling family in Southside Chicago act because of money. In the 1950’s a son puts pressure on his family in order to own a business so he can provide. Sacrifices were made in order to try to repair the family. This popular story has been made into movies and stories. The stories were not altered but the appearance and attitudes were sure different.
Cooper McMillan Ms. Coen Advanced English 9 May 19, 2023 Title In the ’50s and ‘60s and long before, African Americans did not have the same rights or opportunities as their white counterparts. When this was happening multiple factors led to this such as segregation, redlining, and the availability of certain jobs. During the primary time of the segregation, specifically, from 1954 to 1968, the African Americans Were fighting for the right to be looked upon as equal. This led to pay disparity and caused a lot of different views on money as someone could see in the play A Raisin in the Sun.
The world stereotypes rich people as rude, stuck up and selfish. Ever wonder why? Studies from Yale, The New York Times, TED and more have concluded, money changes everything. Whether it’s attitude, morals or values, money can affect and change all aspects of someone’s life. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, has a theme showing this claim clearly.
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.
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.
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.
“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.
In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters struggle to achieve their dreams in a society that is often hostile to African Americans, and their efforts are complicated by questions of identity, assimilation, and empowerment. The play "A Raisin in the Sun" explores the complexities of the American Dream and the challenges that African Americans face in a society marked by systemic racism and inequality. Through the character of Mama and her decision to buy a house, Hansberry promotes the idea that material circumstances are important for achieving the American Dream, but she also highlights the limitations and challenges that African Americans face. Mary Louise Anderson's essay "Black Matriarchy: Portrayals of Women in Three
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.
Through the use of the historical lens, looking specifically at the economic struggles, the struggle of unequal opportunity, and the housing covenant that African-American’s faced in the 1950’s, Hansberry’s message of A Raisin in the Sun is revealed: the perseverance of an ethnic minority in a time of racial discrimination. A Raisin in the Sun is set in a time of great racial discrimination, the 1950’s in the united States. This featured racism towards those of color or non-caucasians, and the struggles commonly faced by the African-American family is shown through the eyes of the Younger family through the writing and experiences of Lorraine Hansberry. Of the three major struggles the Younger family faced, the most prominent in Act one is that of financial disability. This is best shown through the working lives of the family.
In the play, A Raisin In The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family strives to achieve financial success while facing the challenges of racism in the 1950s. Each character’s perspective of race affects their ability to succeed in their respective positions. One of the main characters, Beneatha Younger, represents a radical who opposes the social norms of her time. Ms. Younger studies at a college to become a doctor. Beneatha's progressive beliefs are evident in her rejection of Christianity, her fascination with African culture, and her vocal remarks on Black oppression.
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.