Setting and Mood in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

Introduction: The Apartment as Character

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the primary setting is the apartment of the Younger family. The majority of the play's action occurs within the confines of this apartment, and the plot itself revolves around it — what the apartment is, and what it is not. Most significantly, the apartment is not an adequate home for the Younger family, for reasons that unfold across the course of the narrative. The apartment is arguably a character in the play, just as the Younger family members and the other assorted figures are. This essay explains how the description of the Youngers' apartment contributes to the mood of A Raisin in the Sun.

Before examining the interior of the apartment, understanding its physical location helps the reader gain insight into the play's mood. The apartment is situated in the slums — one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of Chicago. Not only is it in Chicago, an American city with a well-documented history of crime and racial segregation, but the family lives on the South Side, an area with a long-standing reputation as one of the most dangerous parts of the city.

Location and Historical Context

The Youngers are an African American family living in the poorest section of the most dangerous part of town during the 1950s, the decade immediately preceding the Civil Rights Movement. During this period in America, people who were not white — and African Americans in particular — were frequently targeted and brutalized by various government agencies, including local police departments. The setting of the apartment, even before the reader learns anything about its interior, therefore provides a great deal of insight into the play's tone. It will be serious and, at times, grave. There will be tension and, very likely, danger.

The apartment is home to five people, yet it contains only three rooms, none of which is large. The living room serves simultaneously as living room, dining room, part of the kitchen, and one of the bedrooms. There is no private bathroom within the apartment; the family must share a hallway bathroom with their neighbors, the Johnsons. Sharing a single bathroom among three adults is already a challenge — sharing it among five people, plus an entire additional family, compounds that difficulty considerably.

Among the specific details Hansberry provides, one of the most notable is that although the apartment is kept neat and clean, a pervasive sadness or weariness clings to the place. No matter how cheerfully the family tries to live, no matter how earnestly they struggle for something better, the apartment itself remains sad. This atmosphere of exhausted endurance is central to the mood established by the setting and permeates every scene that takes place within its walls.

Interior Space and Living Conditions

The apartment is a home, but it is marked by a substantial lack of space and an equally substantial lack of privacy. When people are confined to close quarters, social interactions are often more tense. When individuals have no sense of their own space or moderate privacy, feelings become exaggerated and situations more volatile. The size of the apartment literally affects the lives of the family members in consequential ways.

When Ruth learns that she is pregnant, she seriously considers having an abortion, primarily because there would be nowhere for a baby to sleep. The apartment, in this sense, has the power to influence life-and-death decisions — itself a significant theme of the play. As scholars of Lorraine Hansberry have noted, the Youngers' struggle for the money and opportunity to leave the slums and move to a safer, more adequate home is the engine that drives the entire drama.

Conclusion: Space, Mood, and Theme