Analysis of A Raisin in the Sun

Overview

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry first performed in 1959. The play is about a small black family in Chicago. The family is poor, but Mama has come into some money by way of inheritance. Ruth is pregnant and considering an abortion. Walter is focusing on a get rich quick scheme. And little Travis has pluck and heart and shows why life is special. The family comes together over the purchase of a house in a white neighborhood. A rich white neighbor offers to buy them out of the property. Walter considers taking the offer, but in the end chooses to stay there with the family and essentially chooses life over any more get rich quick schemes. The ending is hopeful and bright because the family is no longer deferring on a dream. They are now pursuing the American Dream of owning a house and being a nuclear family. The title of the play comes from a line in Langston Hughes poem in which the question is asked, What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun?

Author

Lorraine Hansberry was the first black female playwright to have a play performed on Broadwayand that play was Raisin in the Sun. Hansberry actually knew Hughes, whose poem became the inspiration for the play. Her family was well-known and had many visitors, but at the same time the family also experienced segregation, and that experience also served as the inspiration for the play. Hansberry died of cancer at age 34 and therefore did not have a long writing career.

Language in the Work

Language in the play is that of every day Americans: it is simple, direct, unpretentious, and realistic. The author has an ear for how people actually talk and it is reflected in their speech. The stage directions are also clear and give a good sense of how the play is supposed to be staged. For example, it is written that Travis is asleep on the make-down bed at center in the opening scene of the family living room, and this is written specifically to give the impression that the living quarters are cramped (Hansberry 27).

The play also uses language to create a sense of how the American Dream seems attainable to some and unattainable to others. For Walter in the play, the Dream is only attainable through a get rich quick scheme. He is swinging for a home run with his liquor store investment idea; but he ends up striking outand it is only through Mama that they have a chance to put a down payment on the home. Walters language is somewhat dried up like the raisin in the title because it has given up on the dream. Thus, Brown states that the language of the play is ultimately based on an acceptance of the dream idealspiritual and material fulfillment in Americaand, simultaneously, on a realistic recognition of those (like Walter Younger) whose dreams, or hopes, have dried up (240). But of course Mama has not allowed the dream to die and her language is full of benevolent ideas and it is always focused on the good rather than on the bad. This is why Washington writes that her vision sets her at odds with her son Walter (113). They have two different ways of looking at things and two different languagesbut in the end they are speaking the same way because they are both working on living out the same bright dream.

What is to be Gained

What students will gain from studying Hansberrys play is a great deal: first, they can gain insight into how conflict is created in a play by way of characters. For instance, Mama and Walter are on two different sides of the spectrum. Travis is there with Mama and he reflects the goodness and purity of the life of love that Mama represents. Walter is not outside that life and love but he is losing hope in its reality. That is why the title is about dreams being deferred. He has put off his dream for so long that he does not really believe in it anymore. But the play shows that if we pay attention to the little voices around us, we can learn a lot from them and spare ourselves a lot of suffering.

That indeed is one of the other major things to gain from studying this play, for it is really a play about life and the American Dream. What does it mean to have that dream? What does it mean to compromise? What does it mean to fight, survive, and stand up for yourself? All those questions are answered in the course of the play. For example, Washington points out that the American Dream is central to the play...…never want to lose.

I also hold up Mama as an example of the person who never lets go of the truth or the love that matters in life. Without Mama there really is no family because it is her great heart and understanding that keeps it together when times are toughest. I always think of her and what she might say when I am facing a tough decision in life and am trying to figure out how to make things work.

I also think too of Walter. After all, he is the one upon whom the conflict resides: he is the one who has to make the turn, who has to make the change. I think about how in my own life I have not always acted perfectly but have struggled with how to act the right way. I have thought things in a particular light that was not always fair or based on love and respect. So I keep Walter in mind because in some ways he is also a reflection of me and I do not want to forget that we are all in this struggle together.

Then there is the context of the play itself and how it is situated in a world where there is the problem of racism, and the problem of how someone can reach out and bring dreams to life without dying inside. That pursuit of the dream is really important and special and sometimes it seems like it will never be reached. But everyone has to be willing to give up a little something in order to reach out and grab that dream.

Walter and the family finally realize the dream but it is not without some cost to themselves. They have to be able to make choices and figure out what matters most. It is about putting priorities in order, about seeing where ones heart should be. The family is finally seen as te most important thing, and making sure that even the little ones have room to grow. That is what matters more than anything else. So these are important concepts that I have had to think about and I could always rely on this play to help me see things in the right way. The play is so good at highlighting the conflict and explaining the impulses and motives of people that we all come out a little clearer in the end since we are able to understand and appreciate…