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¶ … Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry [...] elements of drama and literary qualities of the play. This play was anything but conventional when it debuted on Broadway in 1959. It explored issues of racism, prejudice, and the dreams of others that made playgoers stop and think about what they were seeing acted out on stage, including themes Broadway theatergoers did not expect and it made many firsts on the Broadway stage.
"A Raisin in the Sun" became Lorraine Hansberry's first play, and it made a lot of history in the American theater. One literary critic notes, "The first play by a black woman to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway, the longest-running play by a black writer on Broadway for a quarter of a century and a production which launched the career of a number of major black actors, it marked the beginning of a new direction in the American theatre" (Bigsby 277). Made into two films, the play's themes include dreams, prejudice, and poverty -- themes Black Americans still face every day.
One of the historic themes of the plays appears in the attitudes of the Younger family. Each member of the family nurtures their own dreams of the future, dreams...
Walter says, "WALTER (Quietly): Sometimes it's like I can see the future ... stretched out in front of me -- just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me -- a big, looming blank space -- full of nothing. Just waiting for me. But it don't have to be" (Act 1, Scene 2, 226-228). Mama's dream is to own a home with a yard, while Ruth wants financial security and the best for her son. Literary critic Domina continues, "Each of the major characters (and some of the minor ones) has a dream, and these dreams urge the plot forward" (Domina 2). However, the play clearly shows the difficulty of attaining those dreams. Big Walter, Mama's late husband never got his dreams to come true, as Mama remembers. She says, "Yes, a fine man -- just couldn't never catch up with his dreams, that's all" (Act 1, Scene1, 208). The family worry they may never find their dreams, especially after Walter gives away the insurance money, and the topic resonates today, with the financial crisis so prevalent in the news and on people's minds.
Another theme the work in the work -- courage -- comes up when the family decides to stand up to the whites who want them to keep away from their neighborhood. Even though they experience poverty and bigotry, they stand up to these racists and refuse to back down. Another critic notes, "Without addressing the important complexities and ambivalence of those decisions, they represent the courage and moral resourcefulness that were both instrumental in, and essential to, the successes of the following decade's Civil Rights struggles" (Emerson 61). This play takes place before the Civil Rights movement won rights in 1964, but it represents the hopes and dreams of an entire race in the country, and…
References
Bigsby, C.W.E. Modern American Drama, 1945-2000. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Domina, Lynn. Understanding a Raisin in the Sun: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Ed. Johnson, Claudia Durst. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Hansberry's a Raisin in the Sun." Explicator 52.1 (1993): 59-61.
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Signet, 1988.
The end of the play is not entirely happy. Beneatha cannot going to go to medical school because of her brother's mistakes. The Youngers will likely face racist in their new neighborhood. They will have to struggle to meet their mortgage payments. (Corley, 1998) Yet Walter has become a man, Travis, the new plant under Mama's care will have a better home than his older brother or sister, and even
His actions motivate the entire family to draw upon each other, and rely on each other's common strength to challenge the established racial and social standards. Walter's brave decision to move regardless of the racial and financial problems that they will face exhibits his strong core reliance and attachment to his family. Ultimately, social and political groups show that despite surface level tension between the Younger families, these individuals
.. Don't understand nothing about building their men up and making 'em feel like they somebody. Like they can do something" (Hansberry, I, i.). It is clear that Walter Lee still believes it is the woman's role to support the man in his endeavors, and not to make decisions or act on them. In her responses to him, Ruth displays her growing frustration with and rejection of this belief, which
Arthur Miller / Lorraine Hansberry The idea of the "American Dream," of achieving material success through one's own efforts, is not merely a constant topic in American literature, it seems to be a fundamental archetype of American national mythology. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the popular stories of Horatio Alger in the 19th century established this motif as central to the American concept of manhood: we can see the precise
Raisin in the Sun Beneatha is ahead of her time in a Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Beneatha is the daughter of Lena Younger and younger sister of Walter Lee who is married to Ruth. Walter Lee and Ruth have a ten-year-old son Travis, who gets his way often being the only grandson. Beneatha is a college student who desires to attend
As to Walter's decision to use the money as he saw fit, we find a man who's suffering and discontent had blinded him to the real sustenance and value in his family. Truly, for the unhappiness which he had bore, and for the racial abuse shown to the family through such archetypal figures as Mr. Lindner, Walter might have seen himself as fortunate for the presence of all the family