ipl-logo

A Raisin In The Sun Character Analysis

1352 Words6 Pages

Hansberry uses 8 Black characters to perform on the stage and it was the first time ever for a play to have that large number of BLACK people. Also, it reflects the background culture of the 1950s and racism against the Black in South Chicago. Also she uses White characters to indicate the power belongs only to the White Man. Hansberry’s crew were real victims of racism so they managed to deliver the message and express their feelings spontaneously (Carter 64). The author uses a Black family from a working class, which she knows what it means to be a Black inside a society hates them. “put more of the truth of black people’s lives on the stage than any other play in the entire history of theatre” (Hickling, par.6). …show more content…

She is not like her mother or Ruth. She is the most educated person inside the house. She a flat character seeks for her dream as a doctor. She refuses the gender role and has her own personality.

As for the minor characters in the play are less important than the major ones. There is Travis Walter’s son also, Bobo who represents the failure of Walters dram. Joseph Asagia and G. Murchison both represent two different types of Black men they are intelligent, educated and share opposite views about the value of the African heritage. Finally, Mr Linder, who represents racism and danger in the play.

Regarding the plot structure, it's a type of play construction as the initiation of the play the family lives in a cramped apartment. They are waiting to have a better life. That life is represented in the insurance money, then the events take another step forward with Lena’s announcement about part of the money. The rising in action starts with the refusal of the deal offered by Mr linder, followed by falling action, as Walter loses the money, which causes a shock to the rest of the rest, they saw their dreams vanished. The climax, Walter’s decision to refuse Mr Linder’s bribe. By this decision Walter finds the real character and his mother felt the change, reaching the solution of the play when the family finally moves to the new apartment (Vera and Feagin

Show More
Related
665 Words | 3 Pages

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, many lives were lost. There were 2,335 deaths and many more were injured. In the novel, Under the Blood-Red Sun, Graham Salisbury tells about a Japanese boy who lived through Pearl Harbor which was one of the worst days in American history. The author taught the reader about bravery, different customs of the Japanese people, and not to judge people based on their race. Tomi shows bravery through tasks that happened to him throughout the novel..

Read More
333 Words | 2 Pages

This is a problem. It’s important to remember the past. Even if you’re not African American, there’s something to gain from the play. We all have a cultural heritage, and we should be aware of where we all came from. This play is taken place in Pittsburgh in 1937, but we have gone a long way since the time of slavery and segregation.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

This shows that the blacks were treated very unfair as compared to the whites who had more advantages. The audience on the other hand would not be

Read More
401 Words | 2 Pages

Actors (mainly white) dressed up in ridiculous garments, decorated themselves in stereotypical ways (extremely dark skin and red lips), and behaved in a primitive way which was associated with black fellows. Onlookers were amused, as black men were getting embarrassed against their will. There are individuals who believe that the symbols of African-American men in society helped develop a system in which blacks were “marginalized and helped to shape white perceptions around blackness for more than a generation.” In his book From Jim Crow to Jay Z: Race, Rap, And The Performance of Masculinity, Miles White believes that minstrelsy has been prevalent for quite some time. “Minstrelsy represents the first sustained cultural project in which the agency of the black male body and black subjectivity are usurped by white actors as fetishized commodity.

Read More
940 Words | 4 Pages

Lyra D. Monterio wrote the essay “Race-conscious casting and the Erasure of the black past in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton” to address the racial history that was unfortunately left out of the musical “Hamilton”. The irony behind this is because of the actors of color who play the roles of founding fathers who were slave-owning, white men. This questions if the roles should have been played by nonpeople of color due to the way the play leaves out their racial history which was a key factor in many instances throughout our history. The question Monterio leaves us with “Is this the history that we want most brown and black youth to connect with, one in which black lives so clearly do not matter?”. Monterio questions whether Hamilton is a reliable

Read More
1500 Words | 6 Pages

This shows the family such as Mama and Ruth that they can’t trust Walter with anything now because he lost all of the portion of the money. He is looked down upon for not becoming the “Man” of the house and taking full responsibility when he is supposed to. Another traditional gender role that I see Hansberry challenging is Beneatha in the middle of the book. Beneatha explains how she has started taking guitar lessons Mama and Ruth laugh out loud making fun of her and asking why she wants to play the guitar. All of sudden she gets upset when Mama and Ruth don’t take it seriously “How come you done taken it in your mind to learn to play the guitar?”

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been the source of much controversy recently as to whether or not it should continue to be taught in schools. Although To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t the best book to teach about racism because the black characters are not fully developed and it can easily be misinterpreted on how to deal with racism, it has strong themes of empathy and teaches many great and important morals through Atticus. Teaching about racism and how to deal with it is an extremely difficult topic, and the novel doesn’t get it quite right. There are many black characters in the novel, but none of them are fully developed characters and are more off to the side. For example, theater critics say that Calpurnia is a much more dynamic character in the Broadway Production of To Kill a Mockingbird compared to the actual book.

Read More
1061 Words | 5 Pages

In order to come within closer reach of his dream of becoming rich, Walter begins to sacrifice some of his morals. He gets into an argument with Mama over what is more important in life; money or freedom. Walter’s warped priorities cause Mama to begin to lose faith that Walter can ever become the man his father was because he does not understand what really matters in life. Although it is true that Big Walter thought that Walter should get a different job, he would have told Walter to prioritize his relationship with his son. Granted, it is important to be able to financially support your family, but a man does not jeopardize his morals to accomplish this.

Read More
1707 Words | 7 Pages

It won’t let him get a good job or house, be able to have a car, or allow him to live the way he wants to live. Because of all these stressors, it forces Walter to make a risky business decision that costs him most of his father’s life insurance money. Racism caused Walter to risk every dollar he owned and he lost it all. Later, he almost lost his own dignity by pleading with Mr. Lindner for his money back, but Mama saved him from doing it. Walter and the Youngers decided to move to Clybourne Park to live Walter’s dream of trying to live with the same privileges of white people.

Read More
1389 Words | 6 Pages

A conflict between Mama and Walter occurred in the middle of the play, after Mama showed what she had done with the money. " So, you butchered up a dream of mine you always talking ‘bout your children’s dreams." (Hansberry, 563). At this point in the play, Hansberry demonstrates how the family's financial situation impacts the connections among the different members of the family. She demonstrates to the reader how difficult it can be to provide for your family if you are a black man and society does not give you the same opportunities because of the color of your skin.

Read More
3566 Words | 15 Pages

EXTENDED ESSAY How are African American Characters portrayed in: To Kill A Mockingbird? TUSHAR MANEKLAL CANDIDATE # ENGLISH LITERATURE SUPERVISOR: MR. SHAWN SKINNER DATE: November 2014 WORD COUNT: 3739

Read More
433 Words | 2 Pages

August Wilson’s plays all have a realistic style, they have to do with everyone in everyday situations. Characters that he include in his play before anything are black, and that is clear to the reader by their African-American dialect. He emphasizes on the importance of the need to study one’s cultural identity in order to fully understand one’s personal identity. This is important for African-Americans because back then racism and discrimination was high and blacks were being taken advantage and over looked so much that people were forgetting to take pride in themselves and embraces who they really are which is, black. Wilson was also fighting to find his own identity being biracial, while living in a mixed neighborhood at some point in

Read More
825 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone feels sympathetic for Walter because he has a drinking problem. Lena trusts him with sixty-five hundred dollars and he gives it away trying to do a deal that goes wrong. The antagonist of this story is Karl Lindner. Karl is the bearer of bad news. He is apart of the greeting committee of Clybourne Park which is known as a "white" neighborhood.

Read More
483 Words | 2 Pages

Written in the production notes Ward informs us that the play is to be presented by black actors in white face, this presentational direction obviously takes its cues from the history of American minstrelsy, its birth, and multifaceted role minstrelsy played in the evolution of the social construct of whiteness in this country. Because, in Day of Absence the plot set up, with the mysterious absence of the Negroes, demands that the town’s people and the viewing audience recognize how the division of labor. In this play is the stereotypes are of whites playing their roles against the backdrop of the racialized hot bead of the civil right movement. This is revealed at the onset upon simply reading the character’s name and descriptions. Names like: Clem & Luke two country crackers, Mrs. Aide the overseer of the towns social welfare programs, Mr. Clan whose name speaks for itself, and the mayor appropriately lampooned by naming him Henry R. E. Lee.

Read More
559 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the play, Walter is seen as the shifty, temperamental, and somewhat selfish character who solely focuses on his dream to never have to worry about anything monetary. His means of achieving this at this point, he hopes, is to purchase a bar with two of his friends. When this does not become a reality, Walter is gloomy and depressed, forced to confront the colossal mistake that he made with the money that was not originally his. For this reason, Walter is granted a bar in the added scene with the money from his mother’s life insurance. The hopes of this was to show that Walter has grown as a father, son, husband, and overall as a man.

Read More

More about A Raisin In The Sun Character Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document