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A Raisin In The Sun Essay

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Recommended: Comparison/contrast in A raisin in the sun by lorraine Hansberry

In our modern society, the issue of poverty continues to impact African Americans across the globe. A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. The title of Hansberry’s play stems from Langston Hughes' poem, Harlem; this says a lot about what the play is about to untell. This play is based on an African American family during the 1950s – Civil Rights Movement– and how the struggles they faced. Lorraine Hansberry illustrates how systemic racism can limit opportunities, bring about financial instability, as well as diminish the dignity of African Americans individually and as a unit. This play explores how race can impact poverty amongst African Americans and how it correlates with today’s society. The Younger family lives …show more content…

The family members all have different dreams and goals, but they are all restricted by the lack of financial resources. An example of this is how Walter dreams of owning his own business, though he is unable to get the money he needs to invest in it. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor, but she is unable to afford the education she needs to achieve that goal. Ruth, the mother, dreams of providing a better life for her family, but she is limited by their poverty. The family’s poverty also impacts their relationships with one another, as they are all under constant pressure and stress because of their financial situation. The book highlights how poverty can limit African Americans' opportunities and prevent them from achieving their dreams, and it shows how difficult it can be to escape the poverty …show more content…

The family members have many disagreements, but they also have a decent amount of love and respect for one another that can help them overcome the challenges they are faced with. For example, when Walter loses the family’s money, he’s heartbroken, though his mother, Lena or Mama, forgives him and even encourages him to keep going after his dream. When Beneatha is discriminated against at school her brother, Walter, supports and encourages her to keep fighting for her goals. The Youngers’ relations with each other are not always easy, or pretty, but they are built on a foundation of love and respect that helps them when they are at their lowest. The play shows that family relations can always be a powerful source of strength and support, even when going through

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The two stories illustrate that African-Americans are not given an equal chance in terms of gaining opportunities for a successful life. However, it may be possible that one key factor among all can develop a whole problematic image on success and why White Americans think of the African-American society as to not having the capability for a chance towards success. At the time, the economy could have been at a huge disadvantage for the African-Americans because majority of them did not have the chance to rise up from it in terms of creating revenue for themselves. The whole world around them built this image and it is hard to come out of when no one can give opportunities for them to improve and grow. Harlon L. Dalton expresses how unfair the

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Contrasting All My Sons to A Raisin in the Sun Not everything is seen by people the same. Everyone has their own take on things. All My Sons shows Chris’s thinking when it comes to money, and then there's Walter from a raisin in the sun and how he feels about money. Plus the contrasting of different American dreams between the 2 plays.

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The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry debuted on Broadway in 1959, and the movie was made in 2008. “A Raisin in the Sun” is about the Younger family, the fifth generation of lower-class African-Americans living in Chicago’s Southside. They are faced with problems such as racial discrimination, poverty, and conflicting dreams. As the family decides on how to spend the insurance check of $10,000 from Walter’s father’s death, these problems cause many conflicts to rise. Reading the 1959 play and the 2008 movie, I have realized certain similarities and differences in how the story plays out.

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The Pima and The Maricopa The two tribes, the Pima and the Maricopa are united as one people on the Salt River Reservation. The SRPMIC was established in 1879 by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Both tribes have been dwelling on the desert for thousands of years. The culture, language, and pottery have many similarities and differences.

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After reading and analyzing “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara I discovered that the short story not only showed the struggles of economic inequalities but also showed critical points of African American culture from the twentieth century and Marxism in economics. The author, Toni Cade Bambara, grew up in two of New York’s poorest neighborhoods, Harlem, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Bambara’s childhood gave her vision and insight into her writing. The short story “The Lesson” is based on the experiences of the author living in Harlem, how economic inequality can form a different viewpoint on the world, and how those viewpoints can be the deciding factor on children deciding and trying to be better and strive for greatness.

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, But are consistently being differed. Lena Younger, otherwise known as, “Mama” is Walter and Beneatha’s mother and the head of the household. With her deceased husbands ten thousand dollar insurance check Lena bought a three thousand-dollar house with a garden where her family would be happy and hopes to save the rest of the money for Beneatha’s medical school. Lena’s dream, “ Festers like a sore” and is the only dream that somewhat comes true.

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831 Words | 4 Pages

In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.

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Beneatha 's dream is to go to college and become a doctor. She wants to prove her family´s disbeliefs of her becoming a doctor wrong. Yet she feels defeated after her brother, Walter, goes out and gives away all of her college money to some man that ends up disappearing with the money. She faces challenges financially and faces backlash from her family.

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African-Americans lived in impoverished neighborhoods and received inadequate education and resources. African-Americans struggled to have better lives and generational poverty became prominent within African-American families. Along with generational poverty often times involves; emotional and physical abuse, substance abuse, violence and an ongoing need for survival. Individuals are raised on survival and not on the love and care that they need as children. Significant interactions with their parents are rare, because they work a lot just to keep their household in order.

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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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Hardships of the Youngers In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter ,and Beneatha are faced with hardships associated with their dreams being destroyed by discriminatory housing,racial inequality and lack of support from her family towards her education. In the play all the characters have some kind of dream. Mama wants to get a house for the family, Walter wants to have money to provide for his family and plans to do that with a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Beneatha is going to school and at the same time she’s trying to discover herself,but her family is not supportive of this.

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The world stereotypes rich people as rude, stuck up and selfish. Ever wonder why? Studies from Yale, The New York Times, TED and more have concluded, money changes everything. Whether it’s attitude, morals or values, money can affect and change all aspects of someone’s life. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, has a theme showing this claim clearly.

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She is also upset because Walter is giving in to racial tension and calling Mr. Lindner back to negotiate taking money in exchange for not moving into the white neighborhood. Lena immediately snaps back and calls out Beneatha for not learning to care for her brother. In this scene Lena’s maternal instinct really shines through. Even though she is disappointed in Walters foolishness and lack of pride, she knows that Walter is at his lowest point and that persecution and ridicule will not help the situation in any way. She also understands that his pursuit of money wasn't for self interest but to make things better for the whole family.

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A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period.

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“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” —Langston Hughes, American poet. Imagine a world where people are not allowed to live where they want to, dress the way they want to, and even have a family due to the harsh and cruel world they live in. Imagine living in a world where people are denied the right to be regular, equal citizens due to the color of their skin. This was the main idea behind the Jim Crow Laws that existed in the United States from the 1890s until the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

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