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A Raisin In The Sun American Dream Essay

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In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters struggle to achieve their dreams in a society that is often hostile to African Americans, and their efforts are complicated by questions of identity, assimilation, and empowerment.The play "A Raisin in the Sun" explores the complexities of the American Dream and the challenges that African Americans face in a society marked by systemic racism and inequality. Through the character of Mama and her decision to buy a house, Hansberry promotes the idea that material circumstances are important for achieving the American Dream, but she also highlights the limitations and challenges that African Americans face. Mary Louise Anderson's essay "Black Matriarchy: Portrayals of Women in Three …show more content…

Through her portrayal of characters like May and Louise, Anderson highlights the resilience and strength of black women, as well as the unique challenges that they face. As Anderson notes, "Black women are not simply the victims of oppression; they are also active agents in the struggle for social justice and equality" (Anderson 23). By foregrounding the experiences of black women, Anderson challenges the dominant narrative of American history, which has often erased or marginalized the contributions of women and people of color. Through her use of dialogue and characterization, Anderson shows how black women have been able to carve out spaces of resistance and empowerment, even in the face of overwhelming adversity. As May explains to her daughter in "May," "You got to learn to be strong...Ain't no man gonna take care of you, you got to take care of yourself" (Anderson 45). May's words reveal the extent to which black women must rely on their own strength and resilience to overcome the many obstacles that they face. In this way, Anderson's plays serve as a powerful testament to the courage and determination of black women, and a call to action for a more just and equitable

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“A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, was the first play ever produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and was considered ground-breaking for it’s time. Titled after Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” the play and the subsequent film adaptations are honest examinations of race, family, poverty, discrimination, oppression and even abortion in urban Chicago after WWII. The original play was met with critical praise, including a review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times where he wrote, “For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate. Not having any axe to grind, Miss Hansberry has a wide range of topics to write about-some of them hilarious, some of them painful in the extreme.” The original screen adaptation released in 1961 was highly acclaimed in its own right, and was chosen in 2005 for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.

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In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.

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Through the use of the historical lens, looking specifically at the economic struggles, the struggle of unequal opportunity, and the housing covenant that African-American’s faced in the 1950’s, Hansberry’s message of A Raisin in the Sun is revealed: the perseverance of an ethnic minority in a time of racial discrimination. A Raisin in the Sun is set in a time of great racial discrimination, the 1950’s in the united States. This featured racism towards those of color or non-caucasians, and the struggles commonly faced by the African-American family is shown through the eyes of the Younger family through the writing and experiences of Lorraine Hansberry. Of the three major struggles the Younger family faced, the most prominent in Act one is that of financial disability. This is best shown through the working lives of the family.

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Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family.

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