Oppression in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

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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.
Sunlight plays a key role in the growth of both plants and the Youngers. The Youngers’ residence lacks sunlight, so Ruth is thrilled when Lena informs her that there is an abundance of it in the house that she has just bought (Hansberry 4). The sunlight, which symbolizes hope and growth, gives Ruth reassurance that she and her family will eventually move out of their current residence in a cramped apartment in Southside Chicago in the post-World War II era. The close quarters and the constricting racial views of the society in whic...

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