ipl-logo

Black Culture In A Raisin In The Sun

623 Words3 Pages

In the play A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, many characters in the younger family express their black culture in the first two acts of the play. However, other characters in this play also express different forms of black culture. Asagai and Mrs. Johnson represent two different cultures in the play, but also affect this culture greatly as a whole. Asagai’s and Mrs. Johnson’s divergent cultural views and background highlight the many viewpoints in black culture. The two characters Mrs. Johnson and Asagai are very different in their viewpoints towards black culture. To start, Mrs. Johnson is a very anti-black black. This meaning that she wants to see blacks succeed, however, does not see it to be possible and nearly discourages blacks …show more content…

Asagai is from the country of Nigeria and because of this he also has Nigerian culture. This very different black culture does not fit in with the black culture of south side Chicago and is even shamed by many such as George. Despite this Asagai confides in Beneatha about avoiding assimilation. Asagai represents the culture of blacks before their slavery in and oppression in America. Everything from his music and clothes that he gave to Beneatha to his attitude towards American black culture suggests that he disapproves of the new black culture he is engulfed in. Asagai also wants to share his culture and try to convert other assimilated blacks like Beneatha to support his traditional Nigerian culture. This is very controversial, especially since Nigerian culture is commonly thought to be constructed on living in “grass huts”. Like the Youngers, Asagai is fighting against the common black culture of Chicago and wishes for more blacks to embrace what he sees as the true culture of the blacks. The only person who really wants to embrace the black culture that Asagai professes is Beneatha and even she has misconceptions of what Nigerian culture truly is. This shows that the culture of the blacks’ ancestry has been forgotten and has not been taught. Overall Asagai is displeased with the assimilation in America at this time. He wishes that the black community of America embraced their heritage rather than discard

Show More
Related

Summary Of 1829 By David Walker

549 Words | 3 Pages

He says that the White think that African Americans want to be them and have their skin color and riches. But he portrays that they think wrong. He says in his appeal that the African Americans do not want to be their color because they know that they could not do the same harm as the whites did as of beating as they slowly die in the inside. He says that they have so much anger towards the white that the first thing that they would do is murder each and every one of them for the suffering that they bought on to their families of their kind. He would like to see them suffer the same way before they would ever become a white person.

Read More

A Raisin In The Sun Analytical Essay

625 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry brings in multiple characters for brief periods. Each character impacts the story in his or her own specific way. In Hansberry’s realistic fiction novel, she allows the reader to experience what it is like to live in a time period where African Americans and Whites are not considered equals. She gives in depth scenarios, showing what it is truly like to be an African American in Chicago during the 1950’s. The characters in the story experience a multitude of issues involving society, culture, and family.

Read More

Creating African Americans Chapter 1 Summary

485 Words | 2 Pages

In Chapter 1 and 2 of “Creating Black Americans,” author Nell Irvin Painter addresses an imperative issue in which African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed (2) and continue to be perceived in a negative light (1). This book gives the author the chance to revive the history of Africa, being this a sacred place to provide readers with a “history of their own.” (Painter 4) The issue that Africans were depicted in a negative light impacted various artworks and educational settings in the 19th and early 20th century. For instance, in educational settings, many students were exposed to the Eurocentric Western learning which its depiction of Africa were not only biased, but racist as well.

Read More

Analysis Of Ayim's Blues In Black And White

1468 Words | 6 Pages

In the above poem Ayim tries to fit in her hyphenated/two part identity into one inseparable whole. Although she states that: “[her] fatherland is Ghana, [her] mother tongue is German” (Ayim, Blues in Black and White 46), her Afro-German identity is adaptive to and inclusive in her surroundings: “I have been living and working in West Berlin and feel more at home in this city than anywhere else” (Blues in Black and White 47). However, racism causes her to feel estranged even after the unity of the two Germanys: “The new “We” in “this our country”—Chancellor Kohl’s favorite expression—did not and does not have a place for everyone” (Blues in Black and White 48). Not all immigrants are treated on equal footing. Some, including Black Germans of course, are categorized as foreigners “and cannot be real Germans” (Blues in Black and White 51).

Read More

Examples Of Equal Rights In A Raisin In The Sun

831 Words | 4 Pages

One of these flaws is equal rights. African Americans are having difficulties obtaining their own spot. “[Hansberry brings] local, individual struggles of African Americans—against segregation, ghettoization, and capitalist exploitation—to the national stage. (Gordon, 121 and 122)” The play first points out segregation.

Read More

Black Women In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

714 Words | 3 Pages

The author’s plays theorize constructive models of "universal" femininity. The some of the critics label “A Raisin in the Sun” as an "American classic" either because of its American-ness or because of its African American-ness. I believe that the play was considered an American classic because Lorraine Hansberry brought light to the everyday struggles that African Americans suffered due to their race. In the past, many African Americans wanted better future; consequently, they were profited by some Caucasians due to

Read More

Stereotypes In Things Fall Apart

1145 Words | 5 Pages

Many stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western

Read More

The Importance Of Family In A Raisin In The Sun

963 Words | 4 Pages

Family is important to everyone in some way because family sticks together no matter what. The play A Raisin in the Sun is about a black family named the Youngers and the hardships they face together as a family. In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Ruth Younger is motivated by her family. This is shown by Ruth wanting to make her family happy, her working even though she is tired, and later when Ruth finds out there is going to be another mouth to feed. Ruth Younger is constantly worrying about her family’s well being and happiness for them.

Read More

Racism In A Raisin In The Sun

873 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Social Issues In A Raisin In The Sun

816 Words | 4 Pages

The famous play shows the audience the life it was like to live as a black female, and shows the struggles that the Young family faced being the first African American family to move into a white neighborhood. This play is considered a

Read More

Theme Of Feminism In A Raisin In The Sun

1502 Words | 7 Pages

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun presents the rise of feminism in America in the 1960s. A Raisin in the Sun is feminist because, with the feminist notions displayed in the play, women establish their rights to fulfil their individual dreams which diverge from traditional conventions of that time. Beneatha Younger, Lena Younger (Mama) and Ruth Younger are the three primary characters displaying evidences of feminism in the play. Moreover, Hansberry creates male characters who demonstrate oppressive attitudes towards women yet enhance the feminist ideology in the play. A Raisin in the Sun is feminist because, the play encourages women to develop an identity for themselves, particularly through education and career.

Read More

Black Bourgeoisie

193 Words | 1 Pages

To me Amiri Barakka has inspired the revival of Black literary and his expressions kindled the spirits of African Americans. His opening narratives of describing South as “Scene of Crime” provides the readers firsthand account of the atrocities committed at their cruelest on the African Americans. This stirred the emotions and the will of the African Americans to survive and live despite the atrocities tearing their families apart. He founded the Black Arts movement and Black Nationalsim to establish Black Aesthetics to reflect the experiences of African Americans. In his poem ““Black Bourgeoisie ´he also reflects the unfortunate confused situation the middle class blacks caught between the lifestyle of Whites and their own.

Read More

Masculinity In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

1794 Words | 8 Pages

Chinua Achebe’s 1958 literary classic, Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958), is renowned for its authentic account of the black African experience. Set in post-colonial Nigeria, the fictional novel discusses the cultural roots of the Igbos and follows the life of the tragic hero, Okonkwo. This acclaimed novel deals with strong patriarchal ideals of masculinity within the Igbo culture and how Okonkwo is a direct manifestation of this. Achebe depicts the relationship between masculinity and both male and female characters, and how this, in turn, has an effect on Okonkwo’s relationships. The strongest relationship in the novel is between father (Okonkwo) and daughter (Ezinma); their bond is strong because Ezinma is everything Okonkwo would want in a son.

Read More

Gender Roles In A Raisin In The Sun

845 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Analysis Of Igbo Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

837 Words | 4 Pages

Achebe’s goals for Things Fall Apart is to counter the single story and portray a more cultured and complex of Africa opposing westerners ideals with the inclusion of Igbo folktales, Igbo proverbs, and 3rd person narration. Igbo folktales are an important piece of what makes Igbo culture complex, and unique. One Igbo folktale from Chapter 11 tells the story of a greedy tortoise who wants to join some birds in the sky for a feast. He tricks them and tells them his name is “All of you” then the birds say the meal is for all of you the tortoise takes all the food. The bird then punishes him by taking his feathers to fly away, the tortoise tells the birds to deliver a message to his wife.

Read More

More about Black Culture In A Raisin In The Sun

Related Topics

Open Document