In Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” he discusses the idea of unfulfilled dreams and their plausible outcomes using symbolism and imagery. He initially describes a “deferred” dream as a sun-dried raisin, depicting the dream originally as a fresh grape that now has dried up and “turned black” (Jemie 63). This idea provides Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun with its basic foundation, for it is a play about a house full of unfulfilled dreams. As the poem goes on, Hughes depicts the idea of a deferred dream as something rotten or gone bad. According to Onwuchekwa Jemie, this may be an allusion to the American Dream and its empty promises (Jemie 64).
The idea of failed ambitions was quite a popular theme, especially during the mid-1900s, because this was when the "American Dream" concept was spreading in American society. The American Dream was the belief that in America one has the opportunity to achieve wealth and happiness provided that that person works hard enough (Drama for Students). This theme is evident in Hansberry’s work, “set in Chicago’s Southside, sometime between World War II and the present” (Hansberry, Act I, Scene I). During some time in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, the storyline takes place in the middle of a very dynamic time for America. The “largest mass movement in American History” called the Great Migration, which describes the movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to the industrial North, predominantly to New York and Chicago, was in full swing (Literature and Its Times…). Because most African Americans in Chicago lived in the “South Side” area, persons often referred to it as the Black Belt (Literature and Its Times…). Another popular ...
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“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.
Everyone wants their dreams to become a reality; however, the unfortunate reality is that more often than not, dreams are not achieved and become deferred. Langston Hughes let this theme ring throughout his poetic masterpiece “Harlem,” in which he posed many questions about what happens to these dreams. In “A Raisin In the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry draws so many indisputable parallels from “Harlem.” Hansberry consistently uses the dreams of Mama Younger, Big Walter, and Walter Lee to allude to Hughes poem. The intensity of the dreams coupled with the selfishness of some characters eventually adds an abundant amount of emotional strain to the family, once again demonstrating Hansberry’s dedication to Hughes poem.
In the Play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry there are two main character’s that many people debate upon to be the protagonist of the play. Those two characters are Mama and Walter. The story is about an African American family living in Chicago in the 1950’s. During this time period race was a large issue in that area. The family consists of three generations, Mama being the mother and grandmother has a lot of responsibilities as what I see her to be as the families anchor. The next generation is Walter his wife Ruth and his sister Beneatha. Walter and Ruth have a song Travis who is ten years old at the time of this play. Mama is the moral supporter of the family and believes that everything has a purpose and that things should be done by design. One of the main events in this play is the life insurance settlement check for ten thousand dollars that Mama receives. This being a large amount of money during that time period creates many arguments between the families about what to do with the money. Walter is the type of guy that believes his family shouldn’t settle like everyone else and believes that they shouldn’t be held back just because they are an African American family living in what is referred to as a “white man’s world”. I believe that Walter is the protagonist of the play for two main reasons, he isn’t a selfish man, he doesn’t feel the family should be limited because they are African American and he has distinct options or plans for the future of his family.
Lauren Oliver once said, “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up” (Good Reads). This quote connects very well to the play, A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. The quote conveys the message that if one loves someone, one must give things up. A Raisin in the Sun is about an African-American family living in the south side of Chicago in the 1950s. The Younger family is a lower-class family that has been struggling to make their dreams come true. One of the character’s in the play named Walter Lee has been struggling to make his dreams come true. Walter’s changes that are shown tie to the quote written by Lauren Oliver. The changes that are seen in Walter Lee throughout the book, A Raisin in the Sun, reflects the theme that one must sacrifice something for the love and happiness of one’s family.
Like the Youngers do in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, living in Chicago during the 1950s was tough for an African-American family. In this play, Hansberry presents a story which demonstrates the effects of putting off one's dreams. Throughout this drama, the Younger family tackles trial after tribulation while they struggle to realize their aspirations. In the concluding segment of the story, while many of the characters’ dreams do not come true, some simply do. The poem “Harlem,” by Langston Hughes, embodies this concept of dreams and aspirations. It is apparent that Hansberry used Hughes’ poem as a direct source of inspiration, seeing as she named her story after the line "What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" (Meyer 1730). A Raisin in the Sun is an appropriate title because it figuratively relates to the characters’ dreams.
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry is realistic fictional drama in which the play 's title and the character represent the play 's theme. The play focused on Black America 's Struggle to reach the American Dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness during the 1950s and the 1960s. The idea of everyone having the chance to achieve a better life should exist for all. Hansberry conceives her title using a line from Langston Hughes poem “A dream deferred”. The original poem was written in 1951 about Harlem. Hughes’ line from the poem state that when dreams are deferred “Does it dry up like a Raisin in the Sun”. This meant that they describe them as being small and already pretty withered. Hughes poem further suggested that when
In the book A Raisin in the Sun, the time period is set in 1955. A time in America where African Americans still dealt with a constant struggle between them and the rest of the country. It touches on subjects that were very sensitive especially at the time the work was released. Even though the setting of the book was in the north, Lorraine Hansberry seemed to want to show that things weren’t that much better in the north than they were in the south at that time. Segregation was still being implemented in the law system, and there was a missing sense of equality among everyone. It shows that Lorraine Hansberry took what was going on around her environment and portrayed those situations into her work. The three events listed include Rosa Parks
Langston Hughes’s poem, Harlem, inspired the title of A Raisin in The Sun for it’s close relation with the theme of dreams. His poem can also connect back with Disney’s quote; Disney states that anyone’s dream can come true if pursued, while Hughes talks about what happens when dreams aren’t pursued. He discusses many different things that can happen when dreams are deferred. Many times when they aren’t chased, dreams have a negative impact on that person. Harlem is definitely a negative poem, conveyed through phrases like rotten, crust, sag, and fester - all unpleasant words. The poem’s pace and placement of each guess as to what happens of a dream deferred is important to the message of the poem. In the beginning, Hughes talks about processes that are slower, like “...dry[ing] up like a raisin in the sun” (2-3) and “crust[ing] and syrup[ing] over -- like a sugary sweet”(7-8). At the end of the poem, the author talks wonders “...does it just explode?” (11), something that happens much quicker than all his other guesses. I think the reason for his choice of pace is because that’s often the path that a dream deferred takes; a slow process, the dream slowly fades away until, BOOM, there isn’t a dream left i...
Homologous to plants, humans need certain environmental factors to thrive. When the environment surrounding a person is auxiliary to that person, humans have the ability to grow physically, similar to plants, but also socially and intellectually. This is comparable to the way a plant thrives in its native environment because of the harmony between the plant and its surroundings. However, if someone removes a plant from its native environment and places it in a foreign environment, the environment will suffer because the unfamiliar species is jarring to the harmony of the community. Similarly, an invasive species will dominate and suffocate an environment, leaving no room for native species to grow and thrive. A human environment bears resemblance to this because a poisonous, opposed environment leaves no space for a person to even grow into their own identity, let alone prosper in terms of social and intellectual growth. Observing the notion that an oppressive society does not have the capacity to foster a harmonious, flourishing populous, Lorraine Hansberry unmasks the effect of the oppression of racial, gender, and class groups on the lives of the members of a society in her play A Raisin in the Sun.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry illustrates an African American family receiving money from a deceased family member at the beginning of the play. When the Young family accepted this large amount of money, they moved into a house in an all white community in Chicago around 1950s. During this time period there were many social issues that were uprising. Some of these social issues are the following: racism, gender identity, and roles of women. These social issues are the ones which were explored in the play “A Raisin in the Sun”.
What is a dream deferred? Is it something children imagine and lose as they grow up. Do dreams ever die, as we find out, the world is it what it seems. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Harlem by Langston Hughes talk about dreams deferred. It shows a African American family struggling to make their dreams a reality. Although Walter, Ruth, Mama, and Beneatha live in the same house, their dreams are all different from each other.
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a modern tragedy in which the protagonist, Walter Lee Younger, is unable to find the fulfilling life he wants so badly. A contrasting view of the quest for that fulfilling life is offered in the character of Beneatha (whose name seems a play on her socioeconomic status, i.e. she-who-is-beneath), who serves as a foil against which the character of Walter is defined. Both Walter and Beneatha, representing the new generation of blacks coming of age after World War Two, are in conflict with Mama, who represents the previous generation and its traditions. The character of George Murchison is also opposed to both Beneatha and Walter, since he symbolizes assimilation on the white man's terms. Walter and Beneatha are also in conflict with their environment, a society where they are marginalized and subject to daily humiliation because of what is called their race (not, in fact, a biological distinction but a cultural construct).
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.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Journal of personality and social psychology and. Retrieved from http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~broberts/Hazan & Shaver, 1987.pdf
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.