Lorraine Hansberry 's A Raisin Of The Sun

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the ideas of the “American Dream” of the American 1950’s. Though the idea of the “American Dream” commonly refers to white suburbia, Hansberry takes a different stance on the idea. Set in the South Side of Chicago, the play details a few days in the life of an African American family known as the Youngers. The Family consists of the grandmother, known as “Mama”, her two children, Beneatha and Walter, and Walter’s wife Ruth and son Travis. The family lives collectively in their tiny apartment, where much of the play takes place. After the Patriarch of the family passes away and leaves $10,000 to Mama, the Younger family debates about what the money should be put towards. Ultimately, though their ideas compete, each individual's goal ultimately aims at escaping poverty and

In A Raisin In the Sun Lorraine Hansberry uses everyday objects-a plant, money, and a home to symbolize a family's struggle to deal with racism and oppression in their everyday lives, as well as to exemplify their dreams. She begins with a vivid description of the family's weary, small, and dark apartment in Chicago's ghetto Southside during the 1950s. The Youngers are an indigent African-American family who has few choices in their white society. Each individual of the Younger family has a separate dream-Beneatha wants to become a doctor, Walter wants to open a liquor store, and Ruth and Mama want a new and better home. The Youngers struggle to accomplish these dreams throughout the play, and a major aspect of their happiness and

“A Raisin In The Sun” is a play in which Lorraine Hansberry, the author, shows on how money can have a major effect on many people’s lives. Walter, the main character, experiences on how the theme Money and Mortality has affected his own life. In the play “A Raisin In The Sun” Lorraine Hansberry uses certain characters to show the theme Money and Mortality, such as Walter, Beneatha and Mama.

A Raisin in the Sun is a Move about dreams. The movie starts off in south side Chicago, evolving around a time period where racism was still common. The genre of the film is known as drama, and is based upon the Younger family. They receive a check from the death of the father in the story. The main characters’ struggle to deal with society, or in other words the “man.” The Younger family all have dreams that they wish to fulfil, and the ten-thousand-dollar check is the ticket to their dreams. There are many roles in the characters in the movie, for example gender. Walter feels that he’s supposed to be the man of the family. Once again, their race inhibits them from accomplishing their dreams.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun features an African American family in the late 1950’s as they look forward to achieving their individual dreams in the era where racism and economic hardship among African Americans was the norm. While Hansberry doesn’t directly mention well-known events in the civil rights movement, she illustrates the realistic struggles an African American family would have faced during this time. In the introduction of the play, Robert Nemiroff illustrates several themes and issues that are addressed throughout Hansberry’s play. One of the subjects Nemiroff mentions is the “value systems of the black family”(Nemiroff, “Introduction,” 5-6). A main value that Hansberry illustrates throughout the play is the

“ A Raisin in the Sun” is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry about the life of an African American family during the era of segregation. The play starts off with the Younger family receiving a 10,000 dollar check from Mr. Younger’s insurance policy. The family argues over what they are going to do with it. Mama wants to buy a house with it, Walter wants to invest in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to use the money to go to medical school. The contrast of the characters’ personalities fuels the conflict and drives the story forward. Beneatha is a young college student and the sister of Walter. She has a dream of becoming a doctor. Beneatha is a dynamic character who is easily influenced by her family and the people

Raisin in the Sun is a play on Broadway that tells about a tragedy faced by an African American. The play is about Youngers family that lives in the ghetto and one that is at crossroads following the death of Younger’s father. Mother Lena Younger and her children reside in a cramped apartment in a poverty-stricken district in Chicago. Her grown-up children include Water Lee and Beneatha. The life insurance that matured following the death of Lena’s husband earns the family ten thousand dollars, and everybody is eagerly waiting for the full payment. The question that the entire family is faced with is whether the money should be invested in supporting studies of her daughter through the medical school, the business deal with the sons, or other dreams.

The events of A Raisin in the Sun revolve around the main theme of dreams and manhood. In the story, the Younger family has always had big dreams, but due to racism and prejudice, they unceasingly watch their dreams deferred. Walter’s dream throughout the play is to provide for his family by becoming a businessman, but his dreams are postponed after he must work full-time at a menial, trifling, and meaningless job as a chauffeur. When Mama gives him the remaining sixty-five thousand dollars of the life insurance check, he believes that he can finally achieve his dream, only to loose the money and have his dreams deferred once more. The title “A raisin in the sun” is also a reference to dreams, from the poem “Harlem”. In the poem, “a raisin in the sun “is a metaphor for deferred dreams. When a grape is baked in the sun, it shrinks, and withers, but does not disappear. Similarly, members of the Younger family have dreams, but the dreams wither and are deferred due to their financial struggles. Even though the dreams wither, they do not disappear, and they renew their dreams after they receive the life insurance check. Mama’s old plant is a symbol of her perseverance for her long-time dream of having her own house in spite of austere circumstances. The plant struggles to grow by the apartment kitchen window with its lack of light and resources, but Mama keeps it alive regardless. Similarly, her family does not have adequate recourses (they don’t have a house nor enough money). When her dream of moving the to house seems to be delayed, she goes to the window and looks at her plant before declaring, “Well—ain’t it a mess in here, though? […] All this unpacking and everything we got to do.” It is significant how she looks at her plant when her dream seems to be deferred again, since it means that she is looks at the plant for hope. At the very end of the play, Mama returns to the apartment to move her potted plant to a garden in the new house, symbolizing that she finally achieved her dream of raising her family in a true house.

Set in the 1950’s, “A Raisin in the Sun” is about an African-American family, the Youngers, living in Chicago. The Youngers have received a check for $10,000 from the late Mr. Youngers life insurance policy. Each family member has their own idea of what to do with the money but the main character, mama, wants to buy a house because it was a dream that she shared with her late husband. As you can imagine, this results in turmoil for the family. Mama’s son Walter wants to invest the money into a bar. Mama’s daughter Beneatha wants to use the money to cover her costly medical school tuition. The turmoil continues to grow when mama makes a down payment on a house that just so happens to be in a predominantly white neighborhood. Shortly afterwards, a man named Mr.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, “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!” (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-American community for the 1960’s, is built upon a loose ideology that is a brutal cycle that infects the lives of those who inhabit the area; tired of all the commotion from the Caucasians who, to them, miraculously achieve a life of ruling and

A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry in the period following the Second World War. It is divided into three acts and explores the circumstances of the Younger family, a colored family living in the ghettos of southern Chicago. In particular, the play deals with the efforts of Walter Lee, the scion of the family to bring his family out of poverty and into riches by entering into a business venture. The play highlights the psychological and societal barriers to Walter's goal of becoming rich like the white people he sees around him. In effect, Walter's ambitions typify the American dream and the play discusses how the American dream is only a myth against the reality of financial inequality, racial prejudice and constricted social mobility.

The Raisin in the Sun is a movie about a colored family who is trying to make it. There are five family members who all live in the same small two bedroom apartment. They all know that things are about to change because they know that Mama Younger is about to get a 10,000 check from where her husband had passed away recently. Each family member have their own dreams about what they want to do with the money, but they just don’t want to ask Mama if they could use it for their dreams, especially Walter Lee; her son. Right before Mama gets the check in the mail, the whole family gets surprised by some news from Ruth, who is Walter Lee’s wife. Ruth ends up finding out that she is pregnant, and that she wants to get rid of the baby because she

The Proverb goes, “Money is the root of all evil”, yet the irony is that without it, a person would not be able to survive. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (1958) follows the lower class Younger family living in Southside Chicago as they try and figure out how to manage the life insurance check of the late Big Walter Younger. Ruth Younger claims the money has little to do with herself, her son, and her husband; and Beneatha Younger desires to use a portion of the money to attend medical school. However, tempers flare when Walter Lee Younger’s ambition collides with Mama Younger’s power as the matriarch of the family. As strong leading characters, both find humility in the midst of sacrifice and hardship.

The American Dream is like a ladder that allows people to climb up and achieve their dream. The American Dream is an idea of gaining wealth and achieving the ultimate success that a person wants. Literature often reflects the idea of the American Dream. The play A Raisin in the Sun by, Lorraine Hansberry portrays different aspirations of an African-American family who struggles to attain their dreams. In the article and speech,“For Foreign-Born entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley is the American Dream” by Joseph Jaafari discusses how immigrants achieved their dreams.

In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, It takes place in the family’s apartment in 1950’s. All of the characters influenced the plot greatly. But the two characters that influenced the plot the most are Walter and Mama. They are most important because Walter during the whole play wants the money for himself. But Mama wants to use the money for the family to make everyone happy and to be safe.