Lea Geller Mr. Green AP English 4/22/24 When harassment against Lorraine Hansberry’s family reached its climax, “a brick thrown through [Hansberry’s] living room window barely missed [her] head” (“Hansberry”). Despite this incident, Hansberry persisted in her battle against racial discrimination. In Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters in the Younger family mirror her plight, when they confront adversity with perseverance. Although A Raisin in the Sun has an optimistic ending for the Youngers, Hansberry reveals that African American families in mid-twentieth century America faced the enduring challenges of economic instability, unfulfilled dreams, and systematic racism. Published in 1959, the play reflects the early challenges …show more content…
Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Hansberrys, declaring “restrictive covenants unconstitutional in a case that came to be known as Hansberry v. Lee” in 1940 (“Lorraine”). As an adult, Hansberry viewed a production about a poor urban family in Dublin, which sparked her interest in “creating a comparable work about an African American family” (“Lorraine”). Therefore, Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun to express her family’s difficult yet successful experience with overturning the discriminatory housing laws in Chicago. Hansberry triumphed as the youngest writer and the first Black person to receive the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Additionally, A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway as the first play by a Black woman. Writing about characters with troubles and motives similar to her family’s allowed Hansberry’s stories to remain authentic and thus relatable to the audience. Because of the Youngers’ economic instability, the characters experience unhealthy relationships with money. When Mama’s husband dies, the family receives ten thousand dollars in life
these writers do publish pieces that reflect their lives, we must analyze both the writing and the author to fully understand how the two are related. In Lorraine Hansberry’s
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun: Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit of Happiness “A Raisin in the Sun” resonates with many of its readers, but why? Many of its readers differ in race, religion, gender, and socioeconomic background. So how is it that a black family struggling with racial prejudice and economic hardship appeals to so many? Each member of the Younger family has a dream, a want to be more. As Hansberry’s play unfolds, the reader senses that these dreams could be the demise of a
A Raisin in the Sun is a play written during the Civil Rights Movement by Lorraine Hansberry. The title of the play, A Raisin in the Sun is built on a poem by Langston Hughes, Harlem; specifically the line, “a dream deferred.” The play shines light on the struggles the Youngers go through with oppressive circumstances. The Youngers struggles are still relevant for all races about 60 years later, how depressing that history repeats in such ways. Like a Raisin in the Sun society still expresses racial
A Raisin In The Sun Essay The author of the play A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry, wrote this play in 1959 when she was 29 years old, she had the first play on broadway written by an African American and she was the youngest American to win the New York Critics Circle award. Back in the 1950s, women were expected to stay home and cook and take care of their kids while the men went out and had jobs and made all the money but Lorraine wanted something different. In A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine
Welcome to Windham High School’s production of Raisin in The Sun from the school's drama department. This information in the following will help you get more information of the play. Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. As noted in the biographical video from “Project Dystopia”. She grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood in the south side of Chicago. She was a daughter of civil rights activists named Carl and Nannie Hansberry. At eight years old, Hansberry and her family moved
“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”(Langston Hughes). During the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, everybody has a dream, but due to financial problems, not everyone was able to reach their goals. In Chicago, there is a family of 5 living in an apartment that has big dreams for in life. Walter wanted to make money by opening a liquor store, Mama wanted a house with a backyard so she could start a garden and plant flowers, Beneatha wanted to go
Ronils Review of A Raisin in the Sun. This is probably the first play I've ever seen that I REALLY HEATED. A Raisin in the Sun The Madison Repertory Theatre has produced many plays by African American playwrights recently, such as last year's From the Mississippi Delta, but their most recent, Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is certainly one of the veryWorst. The play starts in a darkened living room. Ruth Younger wakes her family on a Friday morning. Her father-in-law has recently died
oblivious to this fact, and to those who are aware and accept this knowledge. The people who are oblivious represent those who are ignorant of the fact that their dream will be deferred. This denial is the core of the concept used in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. The perception of the American Dream is one that is highly subjective, but every individual dream ends in its own deferment. During the 1960s, the African-American people were in racial situations due to their “lowered status”
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun”, centers on an African American family in the late 1950’s. Her work focuses on the struggles African Americans face during this time. Racism was and still is, a major issue in the United States during the 1950’s. Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a different race based on the belief that person’s own race is superior. Throughout this play, Hansberry discusses many racial obstacles that the Younger Family experiences
Every human has dreams, whether it be a doctor or a store-owner and to initiate and achieve these goals money is the biggest factor. Lorraine Hansberry’s central idea of her play A Raisin in the Sun set in the 1950s are money controls our dreams. The character’s aspirations are achieved through finances in which they lack until given a security check following their father’s death. Money controls the dreams of Walter, who wants to become a business owner, Beneatha who dreams of being a doctor, and
while others do not. For those who do not reach their dreams a lesson is learned. In Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin In The Sun, we read that the Younger family is a low income family that faces racism and discrimination everyday and the only thing that is keeping them going is the hope that one day they will reach their dreams and create a better future for their children. In Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses the Younger family to show that as individuals strive to reach their dreams
A raisin in the sun, to understand the concept we must know the title’s origin. Author Langston Hughes first used the term "a raisin in the sun" in his poem Harlem. Using poetic similes to pose the difficulties of acquiring the American dream. He uses the idea of a raisin being one’s dream that has been left to rot in the sun, not being able to change the destiny of the dream. This later inspired playwright Lorraine Hansberry to write the popular play, A Raisin in the Sun which depicted the discrimination
Lorraine Hansberry is the author of the play A Raisin in the Sun. This play is very significant because it was the first play written by a black playwright to win the Best Play of the Year Award. Another interesting point about the play is the title. The title A Raisin in the Sun also refers to Langston Hughes poem Harlem. In many ways Langston Hughes’ poem relates to Lorraine Hansberry’s play. In the play a family of black Americans have a chance to move ahead in the cruel prejudiced world. Lorraine
time of change when dissatisfaction with the status quo was developing. Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun identifies various gender dynamics that reflects many of the biases that women in the American society continues to face in the 1950s. The rise of sexual revolution and feminism in the 1950s was a major influence in transforming the American way of life for the following decade. Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun depicted many of the controversial gender issues that women in America
“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in awhile and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy” (Lorimer). Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun is about the Youngers, an African- American family, who discovers that money is not the most significant thing in life. The setting takes place in a crowded, run-down apartment on the southside of Chicago during the 1950s. Throughout the story, there are various conflicts