Not long after his father’s death and the news of war reached the Duttons plantation, Johnny, Big Missy’s only son, decided to go to war as a commander along with Kevin, Miss Lillian’s husband, who at first was reluctant to go. Not only the men showed their burning patriotism by going to war, but also the women back in the Big House who were giving their contribution for the Confederate by making uniforms and Confederate flags. As if those things weren’t enough, the Duttons were also more than willing to lend their slaves to work in the southern factories, even though many managed to run away and fought for the Union
An amazing book, with a ton of amazing lessons that are taught in the book. This one takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. In this time, the Jim Crow laws were still in effect, and because of it, even an American citizen would be treated differently, because of a skin color.
During the 1950s in Chicago blacks were in poverty. The city was filled with discrimination, racism and segregation. The Younger family was a black family living in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago at the time. They had big dreams but lack of money. In the play, A raisin in the sun, Lorraine Hansberry created the central idea of “feeling trapped” in the character Mama through the setting, symbolism, and figurative language.
The setting is illustrated in Southside Chicago and shows the struggle of a black family trying to prejudices when wanting to become successfully wealthy. Between these 2 excerpts, they show that their lives are similar, but have more differences in fulfilling their American Dream. A Raisin in the Sun and The life of Fredrick Douglass have many similarities in regards to their dream. Fredrick and Walter both find their American Dream through different situations, but have meaning to them.
The story is set in the 1930s, Countryside, America, during the Great Depression. We see the relationship between the characters Lizabeth and Miss Lottie, as well as the difficulties of growing up culturally deprived. In the story, Lizabeth is struggling to come to terms with growing up and she says “Where did I fit into this crazy picture?” “I was lost.” This quote tells us that Lizabeth felt confused and didn’t know what to do since she was “lost.”
The fictional novel Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck depicts a tragic time during The Great Depression of two migrant ranch workers. George Milton and Lennie Small are the main characters, who have known each other since they were younger, and because of special circumstances George vowed to look after Lennie. The novel takes place near the Salinas River in California resulting in their shared dream of having a ranch of their own. As the two approach a ranch, they realize that it would be a felicitous place to stay in, as long as their plans go as planned. Despite the troubles they endure Lennie and George manage to stick by each others side.
Many of the African Americans in the play are fighting for equal rights and against injustice. Even women held their own part, gaining their own equality. The play set a time of simple oppositions and an eager, personal justice system. Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun” does a good job at pointing out all of society’s flaws at the time.
Babbitt, a historical fiction novel by Sinclair Lewis set in the 1920s, depicts the life of a middle-aged man, George Babbitt, and his relationship with his family, friends, and society in post-war America. How the Other Half Lives, a non-fiction novel set in 1890, by Jacob Riis describes the situations that Riis encountered while helping people in the slums. Both Riis and Lewis depict the hypocrisy of the middle class and injustice to the poor at the turn of the century. However, Riss causes the reader to be able to empathize with the plight of the poor, whereas Lewis allows to critique society as a whole during this period. Set in the 1920s, Babbitt captures both political and personal unrest, as well as social rebellion.
In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions. Hansberry challenges the traditional gender roles and issues of dominance throughout the play when Mama gives Walter lee the rest of the money at the end of the play. He becomes all excited and was supposed to save some for himself and put the rest of the money to Beneatha 's education. Instead, he gave all that money to Willy another character in the play which later on that he stole from him.
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun follows the struggles of an African American family living in a neighborhood in 1950s South Side Chicago. The play discusses several issues pertaining to African Americans of the time, such as poverty and discrimination. One of the major themes of the story is the search for a sense of belonging; whether that’s a sense of belonging to the continent of Africa, a neighborhood in Chicago, or on a personal level within the Younger family. The play explores this theme through its characters Beneatha, Mama and Walter.
“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.
In Cannery Row, Steinbeck compares and contrasts the positions of the “wealthy” and the poor through different characters, in order to manifest exactly how horrendous the lives of the poor had been. Grocery store owner Lee Chong, a more fortunate and noble man of the town, understands the other characters struggles throughout the novel and “everyone in Cannery Row owed him money” (p 5). He went as far as accepting frogs as money for liquor and food from Mack and the boys (p 123), an extremely radical action. Steinbeck included this situation to vividly describe the intense way of life of the people amid the Great Depression and how everyone did their best to help each other out. Just as the “wealthy” helped the poor, the poor would help the “wealthy” .
The play “ A Raisin In The Sun “ wrote by Lorraine Hansberry is a inspiring play about the Younger family. A typical African American family in the late 1950’s trying to make life better for themselves. They’re a family trying to overcome the difficulties and obstacles that comes with being black in America in that time. Obstacles such as lynchings,segregation,racial discrimination and overall the difficulties that comes with being black in America. With external problems within the family the characters also internal conflicts within themselves.
Big Walter 's dream drys up like a raisin amidst the harsh and imprisoning environment of poverty in Chicago. Mama experiences this first-hand as her husband withers away as she says, “I seen….him….night after night….come in….and look at that rug….and then look at me….the red showing his eyes….the veins moving in his head….I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty….working and working….killing
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.
