March 9, 2022 admin

Major Themes In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

The hope to escape poverty is only given concrete assistance by the death of the father, but when most of this money is stolen the family comes together in a show of unity. It is as though the play argues finally that just by having the dream one will become a success as hope has triumphed over adversity. As the stage directions for Act One, Scene One reveal, the Younger family live in cramped conditions and as they talk it becomes all the more evident that their lives are dominated by the combined traps of poverty and racism. As Walter points, it has always been about money and this telling remark represents how this play tries to demonstrate that poverty both justifies and creates inequalities.

He wants to be able to give Ruth pearls and a Cadillac convertible; he wants to be able to send his son to the college of his choice. As a son, he wants to walk in his father’s footsteps and provide for his mother in her old age. At first, Walter is willing to degrade himself in order to obtain these goals, but he faces a critical turning point when he reconsiders Mr. Lindner’s offer.

a raisin in the sun theme essay

The rest of this report will be dialog created by author of this report that will set the stage for the established and pre-existing content from A Raisin In The Sun. double indemnity (novel) Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans and educated at New York and Columbia University. Her first success was the play ‘The Children’s Hour’; she was an active part of political activities and spoke openly about her ideals.

A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis Essay Topics

She says in “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, “Imagine in my mind is a man whom kings might have imitated and properly created their own flattering descriptions of.” She is saying that her father was a man that even a king would look up to. Lorraine Hansberry’s father died when they were young too, and he was also a hardworking man. There are a lot of connections between Lorraine Hansberry’s life and her writing. The Younger’s hardworking father died too, and he also tried to do what was best for his family.

  • The American is defined by reaching the top no matter who you are or where you come from.
  • The competing dreams of the Younger family members make them unable to reconcile with each other.
  • Through the positive influential behavior and wisdom of the character Joseph Asagai, Lorraine Hansberry , the author of “A Raisin in the Sun,” establishes the universal idea that the …
  • Kid, whenever do you think it’s the time to love someone the absolute most; once they done good and made things possible for everyone?

Her mother shows her love to her family when they are faced with obstacles such as racism and a family death. Lorraine Hansberry also used her dad to make connections between her writing and life. In the play, the Younger’s dad died, but they describe him as a very hardworking man that loved his family.

A Raisin In The Sun: What Happens To A Dream Deferred

Houses available in her own ghetto neighborhood are both more costly and less well-kept. Three generations of women are represented in A Raisin in the Sun. Lena, who is in her early thirties, becomes the default head of the household upon the passing of her husband, Walter Sr. Raised in the South during an era where blacks’ very lives were in danger because of the prevalence of lynching, Lena moved to the North with the hopes of leading a better life. The move up North was significant in that she had hopes of a better life for herself.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In the Sun, an African-American family living in a tiny, run-down apartment on the south side of Chicago, encounters barriers due to poverty and structural racism as they try to turn their dreams into reality. I think that he would think about life for blacks, though, and probably wonder how many people have to live with cockroaches around in families where mom is the head of the household because dad left or he died. He would remember the television news coverage of how sheriff Jim Clark behaved in Selma on March 7, 1965. That was the day when sheriff Clark, his vicious dogs, and other officers on horseback just went into a crowd of black demonstrators . They beat women, boys, girls, older men, with their nightsticks and the TV showed the whole ugly situation. This was the Selma to Montgomery march let by Rev. Martin Luther King.

Mama would rather spend that money on a new and better house for the family to live in. Walter has a new idea that Mama’s family had never thought of in the past. Later in the play, Walter then realizes that his mother is right and he did not invest in a liquor store.