Lessons Learned from Raisin in the Sun

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 Broadway—and 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 out—and it is only through Mama that they have a chance to put a down payment on the home. Walter’s 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 ideal—spiritual and material fulfillment in America—and, 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 languages—but 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 Hansberry’s 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 and that Hansberry represents Mama’s sense of the Dream “as a second-class version of it reserved for Black Americans and other poor people. Considering all the obstacles she has had to face as a Black woman, one can hardly fault her for what she does. Nevertheless, her dream is unacceptable to Walter, who will have nothing less than the complete American Dream” (114). Why is unacceptable to Walter? Because for him it is not enough. He wants the riches; he wants the wealth. He is not content just to have a house. He wants more. Yet he is missing what he already has. He does not see that he has a family, that he has a responsibility, that he has new life coming into the world and he needs to make sure the family has room to grow. That is what the play is about, and students could gain from reading about it.

The play is also about race, and it shows that tensions between whites and blacks often appear but they do not have to be insurmountable obstacles to the Dream. So long as one is willing to stand up for oneself, one has as much right to self-determination as anyone else. That is another message the play has to give for students. Brown points out that “the point is not that Lorraine Hansberry rejects integration or the economic and moral promise of the American dream, but that she remains loyal to this dream ideal while looking, realistically, at its corruption in the United States” (240). Hansberry shows that material possessions are not all that matter: what matters is life, love, and family. And as Matthews points out, the family is united in the end—and even though the family is not fully integrated into society, and is still somewhat poor, what matters is that they are together.

Awareness of Self

Studying the literary work will create an awareness of self within students by giving them a sense of who they are. When Walter at the end of the play says, “There ain’t no causes —there ain’t nothing but taking in this world, and he who takes most is smartest—and it don’t make a damn bit of difference how,” he is basically saying that the only thing to do in life is jump at fast cash when the opportunity is presented (Hansberry 142). It greatly upsets Mama, however; for she does not know to make of her son. She thinks he has completely gone over to the dark side since he does not appear to care at all about his family or their living quarters. Beneatha says it best when she describes Walter: “That is not a man. That is nothing but a toothless rat” (Hansberry 144). That is true. And it is this kind of plain, direct speech that students need to hear from characters when the truth needs to be told.

Why is this important? For one thing, this age is just as materialistic as any other that has passed, and young people especially are vulnerable: they may be tempted to jump at the fast cash just like Walter. They may think that the world is run by a dog-eat-dog spirit and the only thing to do is be a dog and to have no pride, no self-worth, no allegiances. They may think that family does not matter and that there are no principles to live by or virtues to acquire other than a sense of one’s own ego. But this play should help to set them straight on that account. It shows that the one thing that matters is the value of the life inside, as Mama points out: “Baby, how you going to feel on the inside?” she asks to Walter after he speaks of selling out the family for a quick gain from the racist neighbor (Hansberry 143). The life inside matters more than the possession of material treasures. The life of the soul is a sacred thing and it should not be taken lightly or surrendered easily. Every student can be made to appreciate this by studying the play as the play essentially pits two worldviews against one another—the view that money is all that matters against the view that family and self-worth are what matter. The characters have to navigate this conflict and it is a difficult one to navigate because the worldviews are strong. But by reading and studying the play students can get a sense of how their own inner worldview is shaped and constructed and what it means for them in their lives.

Students should study this work because they can see how guilt, honor, duty and shame play a part in the life of the soul. They can see the dramatic conflict of these elements pushing and pulling inside a man. That man is Walter and it is in him that these elements come together. They may recognize that in themselves they also have some of these elements, that they also have this same conflict at times within their own hearts. They may see that within they are just as much like Walter in their own ways. They may be petty on some accounts, prideful on others. The point of great art is that it holds the mirror up and helps us to see ourselves better. Students who study this play will basically be studying themselves in the mirror, getting to know themselves better, getting to see the conflict that is in everyone’s heart a bit more.

Awareness of self is also established by experiencing the catharsis that the play helps the audience to feel. This is the experience of purging the emotions. The student who studies this play will see what it means to go through the experiences of Walter and the rest of the family. The student will get to walk in everyone’s shoes. It is that experience of traveling in another person’s shoes that will help each one to understand how they themselves have traveled in their own life. They can use the opportunity to reflect on their own attitudes and actions, and they can compare themselves to the characters in the play to see how they measure up.

Why the Work Has Impacted My Life and Learning

This work has impacted my life and learning because it has helped me to put things in context, to understand what goes where in my life, and why my priorities are what they are. I have duties to my family that I take very seriously, and I hold up little Travis as the kind of person with a pure heart that I want to be—to have the childlike innocence and resilience is a real treasure and one that I 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.