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Racism theme in literature
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Achieving one's goals can be very hard and rather restricting. In the reading A Raisin in the Sun and the poetry by Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes this theme can has been portrayed. These texts have portrayed this common theme by exposing issues that had affected people, explaining what happens to their dream, and what occurs thereafter. The book A Raisin in the Sun portrays this central idea by uncovering the harsh and taunting lives of the younger facing racial tensions. In supporting of this,In page 71 Walter is in a strong argument with his mother and states, “well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living room couch... Yeah and tell it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go to look after somebody else's kids.” As you can see Walter is having an argument with his mother and bring period in fact, and Page 119 a Caucasian male named Mr. Linder try to get the youngers consent to remove them out the already white neighborhood,“ What do you think you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where You just aren't wanted.” it is clear that the …show more content…
does it dry up Like A Raisin in the Sun or Fester like a sore. Harlem inquired what happens to a dream when it is forgotten or postponed. In support of this, the text A Raisin in the Sun on page 148, Walter changes his mind about the deal he was to make with mr. Linder, we don't want to make no trouble for but nobody or fight no causes... We don't want your money. For this reason, Walter noticed that his American Dream wasn't going to positively affect his family and so he put away such thoughts and changed his mind undoubtedly Harlem and A Raisin in the Sun portray the central idea by showing what happens to a dream that is forgotten and the actions Walter took in putting away his
How are the black people treated in A Raisin in the Sun? The black people in this story are treated in different from others. Walter tells his mom about what white people do in the restaurants “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 sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars”(Hansberry58). This quote shows that the white people are living in good situations and that they aren’t worrying about what will they eat when they get hungry like the blacks. The difference between the blacks and the whites is so big wile the whites are working the blacks are just doing something to have fun. Walter is blaming the people from his by the way the live “Why? You want to know why? ‘Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don’t know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies”(114). While other people are thinking about their future they are thinking about getting kids and other normal that wont help them in life....
Bad Dreams in A Raisin in the Sun The issue of racism is one of the most significant themes in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Many black men have to deal with inherent racism. The frustrations that they deal with do not only affect them, but it also affects their families as well. When Walter Lee has a bad day he can't yell at his boss for fear of losing his job.
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– And then run?" (Langston Hughes). It is important to never lose sight of one’s dream. Dreams are what keep people moving in life, but if they are ignored, they may morph and lose their prevailing form. This is evident in Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun", as Walter’s, Beneatha’s, and Mama’s dreams become delayed, distorted, and blurred.
During the 1960s, the African-American people were in racial situations due to their “lowered status”. They had no control over the strong beliefs in segregation, which “is characterized by a mixture of hope and despair.” (Nordholt) African-Americans, like normal people, had strived to achieve set goals. Unfortunately, their ethnicity was what inhibited them from accomplishing their dreams. In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the author conveys the theme of the seemingly trivial efforts of the African-American people in their individual pursuits for a satisfactory life lead each person down a road of self-discovery that reveals an indefinite amount of truths, which transform their promising hopes into unachievable fantasies. By using powerful characterization, Hansberry creates characters with contrasting personalities dividing their familial hopes into different dreams. With the use of symbolism, each character’s road is shown to inevitably end in a state where dreams are deferred.
The Younger’s as a whole hope to make something of themselves and rise above the unspoken cultural limitations on black family unit of the period. The main character Walter ends up fronting the majority of the strain these challenges present on the family. As a result he alienates himself from the other members of the family and overtime becomes a harsh and negative person towards every other character. This presents a conflict of authority as Walter’s mother Lena (Mama) wishes to help guide the troubled family and met with resistance from her son. With the recent death of her husband she has seen order and stability in the family plummet and is more worried than ever about the direction the family is headed. To compound matters further they all live in a small apartment, which further intertwine each characters fate. This ends up causing conflict as each family has different dreams which in turn bring down dreams of the other members. This is displayed in the relationship between Walter and Mama; Walter has a low income job and makes him desire any opportunity to create more money. As a result he is consistently investing in get rich quick schemes and other unsound investments. Lena desires consistently, stability and gradual traditional growth in the related group and so is naturally opposed to these developments. Although Walter is seen as a ha...
Hughes wants to know "What happens to a dream deferred?" He asks this question as an introduction to possible reactions of people whose dreams do not materialize. The image he uses in the first question is that of a raisin. He asks the question; "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" He draws a parallel between grapes losing its juices in the sun, to dreams losing some of its vitality when its realization is deferred for a long time.
Walter Younger is a dreamer. He dreams of owning his own business. When that dream falls apart, Walter's dream can be compared to Langston Hughes's poem "A Dream Deferred." according to arthur, “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Langston Hughes. This quote refers to Walter dream. Like the Raisin in the Sun his dream did dry up. This shows that not all dreams come true. Walter loses all of his mama insurance money and Walter is left with a dried up dream. His deferred dream is like a sore that festers and runs from the infection. Walter's dream can be compared to a sore that festers and runs. He explode from the disappointment of his broken dreams. He drinks heavily and comes home to get verbally
“What happens to a dream deferred?” Langston Hughes asks in his 1959 poem “Dream Deferred.” He suggests that it might “dry up like a raisin in the sun” or “stink like rotten meat” but, at the end of the poem, Hughes offers another alternative by asking, “Or does it explode?” This is the poem that the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is based on. The play is about an African-American’s family struggling to break out of poverty. The poverty stands in the way of them accomplishing their dreams and goals. Poverty has a strong effect on Walter Lee Younger a character in the play. Walter Lee believes that success is measured in wealth. In the play he constantly struggles to move up the social ladder and earn more money.
In ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, Lorraine Hansberry describes each of the family’s dreams and how they are deferred. In the beginning of the play Lorraine Hansberry chose Langston Hughes’s poem to try describe what the play is about and how, in life, dreams can sometimes be deferred.
Lorraine Hansberry in her play, “Raisin in the Sun”, attempted to explain the feelings of the average African American Male in the 1940s. This persona, which is portrayed in the character Walter, had experienced a severe feeling of depression and hopelessness. In order to understand this source of grievance, one must relate back to the Great Migration and the dreams it promised and the reasons why many African Americans sought to move to the North. A desire to achieve freedom from racial injustices and poverty was the prime factor that encouraged Blacks to abandon the south. However, these dreams where soon crushed as African American noticed that Northern whites had still maintained unequal segregation and where as stumbling block to Black advancement. The consequences of a “dream deferred”, as Langston Hughes called it, was dependency on others, alcohol addiction, as well as dysfunctional families.
the poem “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Is an illusion that explains how a dream and the life of
Lorraine Hansberry herself clarified it when she spoke about the play. She states, “We cannot…very well succumb to monetary values and know the survival of certain aspects of man which must remain if we are loom larger than other creatures on the planet….Our people fight daily and magnificently for a more comfortable material base for their lives; they sacrifice for clean homes, decent foods, and personal and group dignity”. (Lester 417). Hansberry used Walter Lee to stand for that exact representation. Many African American men in the 1950’s and the 1960’s suffered pride and personal crisis issues because of the incapability to support and provide his family with the minimum of their basic needs. Walter Lee incriminated himself and his family for what he sees as his personal failure. (Lester 417). During the meeting with Mr. Linder the family, with the exclusion of Mama and Travis, stated that they was not interested in the offer of selling the house back to the welcoming committee of the neighborhood. This showed that the family stood firm for their moral values (dignity) that they share as a collective unit. Then something switch; Walter recklessly invested the family insurance money on a shaky liquor business startup. Feeling that all hope is lost and that his way of changing the family way of life is out of reach, he despairingly call Mr. Linder and
Evidently, Walter Lee?s judgment becomes significantly impaired and all because of his dreams. In the world today, people still struggle with the same problems and desire the same things Walter does. Success is a seemingly huge necessity. In the course of ones life, each person is destined to face personal conflicts and contradictions. These problems, with the ability to overcome them is truly how to achieve greatness. As Mr. Langston Hughes questions so powerfully in his poem, ?What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?? With the help of Walter Lee Younger, the answer becomes evident. Dreams never dry up? they just change.
We all have a dream, but the difference is how we realise our dream, how we obtain our dream, and how our dream changes us. This is evident in our learning of dreams and aspirations through the texts Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? by Lasse Hallström, and through my own studies of Million Dollar Baby by Clint Eastwood. These three highly acclaimed texts represent the same ideas on dreams and aspirations, which can be defined as hope, desire or the longing for a condition or achievement, but these texts express the same ideas differently, shaping our understanding of dreams and aspirations.
A Dream Deferred in A Raisin in the Sun and Harlem In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the author reveals a hard-working, honest African-American family struggling to make their dreams come true. Langston Hughes' poem, "Harlem," illustrates what could happen if those dreams never came to fruition. Together, both Hansberry and Hughes show the effects on human beings when a long-awaited dream is thwarted by economic and social hardships. Each of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun has a dream for which they base their whole happiness and livelihood on attaining. However, the character of Lena Younger, or Mama, differs from the other members of her family.