A Raisin in the Sun remains important as a cultural document of a crucial period in American history as well as for the continued debate over racial and gender issues that it has helped spark.
What is the main point of A Raisin in the Sun?
A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The title of the play references a conjecture that Langston Hughes famously posed in a poem he wrote about dreams that were forgotten or put off.
How did A Raisin in the Sun impact society?
The 1959 Broadway premiere of A Raisin in the Sun brought fame to Hansberry—who had previously been active in leftist circles and written for Paul Robeson’s progressive newspaper, Freedom—and black audiences to live theater in unprecedented numbers.
What is the main idea of raisin?
The main themes in A Raisin in the Sun are dreams, selfishness, and race. Dreams: Everyone in the play has a dream. However, achieving one’s dreams proves a complicated endeavor, especially when factors like race, class, and gender interfere.
Why was A Raisin in the Sun controversial?
Nelson Algren disparaged it as “a good drama about real estate.” Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka originally described the play’s subject as “middle class—buying a house and moving into white folks neighborhoods.” But he later said that its themes “are actually reflective of the essence of black people’s striving and
What are the themes in the story A Raisin in the Sun?
Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation
Set in de facto segregated Chicago, Hansberry’s play draws on stories from the author’s own life, such as her family’s experience with housing discrimination in 1930s Chicago.
What does A Raisin in the Sun say about identity?
Identity is who someone is as a person. People have different views of what identity is and what can be done to find it. Identity can be your actions and thoughts.
What does Mama’s plant symbolize?
The most overt symbol in the play, Mama’s plant represents both Mama’s care and her dream for her family. In her first appearance onstage, she moves directly toward the plant to take care of it.
Why did Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun?
Lorraine Hansberry drew inspiration from personal experience when she sat down to write a play about a working class family on the South Side of Chicago. See how she worked to find the words to describe their hopes and struggles, and how she pressed on to complete “A Raisin in the Sun.”
What is the American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun?
Walter’s American Dream was to get out of poverty. He was going to achieve this dream by opening a liquor store to get the money. His dream was deferred because he didn’t have money to support his family.
What is Mama’s identity in raisin in the sun?
A proud woman, Lena Younger does not have much material wealth, but she walks tall, exudes dignity, and carries herself, as Hansberry says, with the “noble bearing of the women of the Heroes of Southwest Africa [a pastoral people],” as though she walks with a “basket or a vessel upon her head.” Her children are her
What is the irony in a raisin in the sun?
Rather than the world holding him back from his dreams, it is, ironically, Walter Lee’s friend, Willy Harris, that leaves town with all of Walter Lee’s money, plus the money set aside for Walter Lee’s sister, Beneatha, to go to medical school.
What are 3 symbols in a raisin in the sun?
What are some symbols in A Raisin in the Sun? Some of the symbols are Mama’s plant, Beneatha’s hair, music, the phrase “eat your eggs,” the $10,000 insurance payment, and money more generally.
Who is the only white character in a raisin in the sun?
Karl Lindner
Karl Lindner. The only white character in the play. Mr. Lindner arrives at the Youngers’ apartment from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association.
Is Raisin in the Sun a true story?
The events of the play, which portrays an African-American family’s effort to improve their lives by buying a home in a racially restricted neighborhood, are based on true events to a degree not fully appreciated by many theatergoers (or at least this one).
What is a good thesis statement for A Raisin in the Sun?
The saying “money can’t make you happy” is a popular and controversial statement. For someone with money it is almost unfair of them to comment, for someone without money this can be used as a comfort and a way to look past financial issues.
HOW DOES A Raisin in the Sun end?
A Raisin in the Sun ends with the Younger family leaving their longtime apartment in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood in order to move into a house they’ve purchased in the otherwise all-white neighborhood of Clybourne Park.
How does A Raisin in the Sun relate to a dream deferred?
The epigraph to A Raisin in the Sun is Langston Hughes’ poem “Montage of a Dream Deferred” which was written as a critique of Harlem life. The eleven lines are a hypothesis about the ramifications of white society’s actions to withhold equal opportunity from black citizens [13].
Who does Beneatha end up with?
Unsurprisingly, Beneatha seems to not be into George at all by the end of the play. When we leave Beneatha at the play’s conclusion, she is even considering marrying Asagai and practicing medicine in Africa.
Who is the hero in A Raisin in the Sun?
Walter Lee Younger
Lesson Summary. Walter Lee Younger is one of the main characters and the antihero, or unconventional hero, of Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning play A Raisin in the Sun. Walter feels useless as a man because he doesn’t make enough money to provide for his family.
Why did Beneatha not want to be a doctor anymore?
Why didn’t Beneatha want to be a doctor anymore? she’s sees no human battle worth fighting no human life worth saving . she decided to go to Africa instead. she doesn’t want to have to treat the oppressors.
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