What Does The Plant Symbolize In A Raisin In The Sun

A summary of the story, A raisin in the Sun, is a story written about a family known as the Youngers. This family of five lives in a small apartment on the south side of Chicago. In the story, its described as “a

Lorraine Hansberry was born in 1930 and grew up on the southside of Chicago. Her play, Raisin in the Sun, is based on the beginning of her life growing up in a middle-class African American family. Hansberry’s family purchased a house in a white neighborhood and the white neighbors attacked them. In result to this, the white neighbors went to court and Hansberry’s family was kicked out of the neighborhood. This play is also a reaction to Langston Hughes’s poem, Harlem. In his poem, he asked the question “What happens to a dream deferred?” Raisin in the Sun is an answer to his question. In her play, Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry uses Walter, Mama, and Beneatha to show the negative consequences that occur when you put off your dream.

Imagine losing everything you had, your house, your dad, and all your possessions all of that at the age of 12. Ghastly isn’t it? Well in the story, Esperanza Rising by: Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza had to go through all that and shift to America during the Great Depression, and even if you don’t know what that is, you probably know by the looks of it that it is not the most marvelous thing. And you would be right, it’s not. When Esperanza goes to work in America to earn money, there are strikes going on about how people don’t get paid enough for working. Esperanza takes the job because she needs the money to help her mom who is sick and in the hospital and to earn money, so that her grandma can come to America. Esperanza is a brave 12 year-old

During the 1950s in Chicago blacks were in poverty. The city was filled with discrimination, racism and segregation. The Younger family was a black family living in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago at the time. They had big dreams but lack of money. In the play, A raisin in the sun, Lorraine Hansberry created the central idea of “feeling trapped” in the character Mama through the setting, symbolism, and figurative language.

“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.

Act one of A Raisin in the Sun starts in Chicago apartment. It is overcrowded and the Younger family who lives there seems unhappy. Ruth wakes her son(Travis) and husband(Walter Lee), Travis goes to shower in a shared bathroom while Ruth makes breakfast and bickers with Walter. They mention a “check” a few times and walter is upset that ruth does not support him in his wanting to invest in liquor stores. After being told no repeatedly by his mother Travis gets fifty cents for school from his father who gives him it seemingly to spite Ruth. Walter is obviously bitter with Beneatha who enters, she wants to study medicine and he think it’s a waste of the money that is coming to mama. The following day (in scene 2) the family all takes part in cleaning the apartment and they wait for the mail and the check to arrive. Beneatha’s friend from school calls and comes over. Ruth finds out she’s pregnant and accidentally says that she saw a woman doctor which confuses mama (the family doctor has been a man for quite a while).

Mama watches over her family every day. In the play, when Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, Mama helps her. Mama doesn’t make Ruth panic, Mama just cares for her. In Act I, Travis needs 50 cents for school. Ruth tells him no, but Walter gives it to him along with another 50 cents for school. Later, Walter realizes that he needs the 50 cents. Walter gave up his money for his son. In order for the family to be nurturing, they must be understanding and be willing to step up for one another.

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

A Raisin in the Sun is a play that addresses gender inequality through Beneatha and her experiences. Throughout what we see about her life, she thinks all men and women should be treated equal. These experiences that Beneatha goes through effects her life and her

In the movie there were many different settings compared to the one setting in the play. The film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun takes the viewer to various settings such as the Younger family apartment, the Green Hat bar, Mama’s workplace, the street, the market, the hair salon, and the Younger’s new home. Each of these locations are mentioned in the play, but there were never any scenes set in those locations. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, everything happens in the living room or kitchen. “The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being” (23 Hansberry). The closest that the play gets to leaving the living room and kitchen setting is walking out the door into the hall or yelling out the window. “(TRAVIS appears in the hall doorway, almost fully dressed and quite wide awake now, his towels and pajamas across his shoulders. He opens the door and signals for his father to make the bathroom in a hurry)” (27 Hansberry). The two different versions of the same story differ because of the settings that they each have. While the movie has many locations it strays from the original play that only had one location. The director of the movie might have added locations to make the visuals more interesting. When a movie is set in only one space it can become boring for the viewer. Therefore,

Family is important to everyone in some way because family sticks together no matter what. The play A Raisin in the Sun is about a black family named the Youngers and the hardships they face together as a family. In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth Younger is motivated by her family. This is shown by Ruth wanting to make her family happy, her working even though she is tired, and later when Ruth finds out there is going to be another mouth to feed.

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. The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a

A Raisin In The Sun implies a theme of perseverance through the character and actions of Walter Younger. The plot in A Raisin In The Sun centers around an African American family, the Youngers, who gain inheritance money while living in a poorer community of Chicago. Many within the family are welcoming to this change, due to the fact that their household leaves a lot to be desired. To them, “all pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of the room” (Hansberry 1871). As a whole, the Youngers are very unhappy with their present living conditions and wish for change, which comes in the form of

Money is one of the things in the world that a person can become obsessed with. In the story “A Raisin in the sun” the author Lorraine Hansberry shows how a family is changed by the lust of money. A widow, Lena, her son Walter Younger, his wife Ruth and daughter Beneatha all lived under the same roof. Lena just lost her husband and is receiving a check for his death. With the money, Lena wants to buy a new house for the whole family to live in but everyone else in the family sees a different type of opportunity. Being the man of the household, Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and plans on using Lena’s money to do so. Walter is always after money and believes that the only way to succeed in life is with money. For example, when Walter is talking about the check, he says, “Mama, sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking about things, turning deals worth millions of dollars, sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (992).This shows how Walter wanted something more out of life and not just be a poor black man.

“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.