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Challenges Faced In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Most people have to deal with challenges in their everyday life; however, this does not mean they are set on a path of unhappiness. Almost everyone has difficulties they must overcome to continue being happy. Despite dealing with challenges and obstacles, individuals can still be fortunate. In the novel A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, a poor African American family goes through struggles while living in Chicago during 1959. The family is living in a time were racism is still very emergent and the five family members live in a very small apartment. “…Man, not with that money…I trusted you…I put my life in your hands…” (Pg. 128) One of the family members, Walter, was trying to invest in a liquor store with another person; however, …show more content…

Older times were not always the best and most people back then had it harder than those today. “To fill the gap left by a generation of fighting men, more than a million women took the chance to join the workforce…,” according to Kate Adie. Before the 1900s, women tended to household chores and stayed home to watch the children rather than being in the workforce because those jobs were for men only; however, they were fighting for equality and wanted to join the workforce. Once World War One began women were the only ones around to be in the workforce because all the men were off fighting in the war. Women in the 1960’s fought hard to get their rights in the workforce and were successful at doing so. “[Franklin Roosevelt was] paralyzed from the waist down by polio before running for office,” according to Joshua Spodek. Our 32nd President of the United States could not even walk but was still able to lead our country. Even though he was in a wheelchair his whole term as President he was still successful. Franklin Roosevelt overcame his physical obstacles and was able to achieve his goals. “[Helen Keller] campaigned on issues of social welfare, women’s suffrage, disability rights…,” according to Tejvan Pettinger. Helen Keller is known for being blind and deaf since a child. Although only have three out of the five human senses, she is one of the most successful people and helped many people. She was able to get through her struggles and well-known around the world and in American history. The challenges these historical figures had to go through helped develop them into successful people. Just because life throws obstacles at individuals it does not mean they will be unhappy. Overcoming difficulties helps build up a person’s character and makes them happier. Just like the family in A Raisin in the Sun, the celebrities, and historical figures others can still be happy even when

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984 Words | 4 Pages

I also find that the characters in A Raisin in the Sun are over exaggerating the situation they are in given the archetypal standards they represent. Each character is representation of something generational, a gender or race issue, and it's a testament to Hansberry's writing that the characters don't come across as mouthpieces for the story. They are living, breathing human beings. It's not impossible at all to imagine the Younger family crowded together in their tiny roach-infested apartment on the south side of Chicago struggling, striving, and dreaming. “Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?

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Walter goes into immediate denial, making excuses for where Willy, their second business partner, could be with the money. He continues on until he realizes “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY [HIS] FATHER’S FLESH-” (128) and he had lost it all; he felt he lost his chance of pursuing a better life now that he had even lost his father’s support. His false pride is severely injured up until he is struck with an idea which he believes could save the family. He abruptly calls Mr.Lindner, who he had originally turned away, and tells him to come by because he wants to take his offer of being paid to not move into the new house.

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179 Words | 1 Pages

Hardship is an endeavor no person yearns for, and logically it’s fathomable why we’d steer away from difficulties. However, one can only value what they have when they’ve survived the unimaginable, because without hardships we’d be oblivious to the triumphs in life. History is an abyss of unfortunate events, nevertheless we have conquered every setback. The civil war, for example, was one of the United States most traumatic times. Much can be said about the bloodiest four years in american history, but overall in order to find harmony between the divided sides, we had to fight battle by battle for a cause that, with all the gruesome sacrifices no longer seemed worth it.

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921 Words | 4 Pages

When Walter states the family will be moving into the house despite Lindner’s offer supports the importance of fighting against racial discrimination, which ties into the idea of the rejection of assimilation seen with Beneatha’s

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” led a great quest for the Younger household. Raisin is set in subsidized housing in Southside Chicago, in which three Black female relatives live and interact with their brother, husband, and son Walter. African Americans were frowned upon before the writing of “A Raisin in the Sun”. However, it her notorious story provided individuals of multiple races new hope for life. In 2006, Diana Adesola Mafe provided the world with her opinion of “A Raisin in the Sun”.

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1585 Words | 7 Pages

From the start of the play he is more than determined to invest the insurance money in opening a bar with his business “friends” and is positive it is only going to benefit the Younger’s. A narcissistic attitude comes through more and more as Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha demolish his dream. They don’t view the money the same way he does. Walter believes that “[money is] life!’ (74) and thinks very little of the true meaning of what it is meant for, what his father did to ensure that money for the entire Younger family’s well-being and future.

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1138 Words | 5 Pages

Walter has a dream to own a liquor store so that he makes money from that business and is then is able to financially provide things for his family like he believes a man should, but him being blacks affects his dream. (add more words b4)Walter brings

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743 Words | 3 Pages

Through characters, settings, and details, Lorraine Hansberry accurately portrays the 1960s and it's racist and sexist attitudes towards men and women in A Raisin in the Sun. To begin, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on a family that struggles with racial discrimination along with financial instability. With this in mind, the Younger family receives a 10,000 dollar check that causes conflict within the home. During this novel, Hansberry comments on the American dream during the 1950s and 1960s and how race and gender may play a role with decision making().

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977 Words | 4 Pages

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle” -Napoleon Hill. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, the poem The Negro Mother, and article Innocence in Irrelevant all show struggle. How their lives aren’t all rainbows and butterflies. It shows how you have to make certain sacrifices to protect your family, how some people aren’t accepted like others, and how someone who is struggle should be remembered. Lorraine Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun.

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Being the man of the household, Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and plans on using Lena’s money to do so. Walter is always after money and believes that the only way to succeed in life is with money. For example, when Walter is talking about the check, he says, “Mama, sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking about things, turning deals worth millions of dollars, sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (992).This shows how Walter wanted something more out of life and not just be a poor black man. Everyone in this family had dreams but no one supported each other dreams.

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359 Words | 2 Pages

One idea that I gained from my literature circle was that I understood that people can have problems all around. Before I thought that people may have some problems and others don’t have any at all. However, in many of the stories the main character has to go through a struggle of some sort. In The Outsiders Ponyboy describes his story as being very hard and tough to go through. In Mud city, no safe place, A Troubled Peace and ‘Thunder over Kandahar’.

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828 Words | 4 Pages

Poems are tools used to demonstrate dissatisfaction. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry leads by foreshadowing its theme of crushed dreams by starting with the poem A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes. The play follows an African-American family in 1950s Chicago, consisting of protagonist Walter Lee Younger, his son Travis, his wife and Travis’ mother Ruth, sister Beneatha, and mother/grandmother Lena, called simply “Mama” in the play. Walter is ambitious and wants to move out of his small and run-down home and find a better job than a chauffeur for the kind of man he wishes he could be.

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873 Words | 4 Pages

Out of a family of five, three people work: Walter Lee as a chauffeur to a wealthy white family, Ruth as a housemaid, and Mama as a nanny to other peoples children. This is clearly necessary to afford basic needs as shown in their apartment, with “weariness [having], in fact won” (Hansberry pg.23). It is clear in Hansberry’s characterization that the members of the Younger family are dissatisfied with their station in life, albeit to varying degrees; Walter Lee in particular is very vocal regarding their poverty, as he states at one point: “I got boy who sleeps in the living room- and all I got to tell him is stories about how rich white people

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825 Words | 4 Pages

The Younger family purchases a house in Clybourne Park and Karl tries to pay them over ten-thousand-dollars so that they would not move there. He feels as if it would be a threat for colored people to move into white neighborhood. Walter is in conflict with Karl. When Karl comes into the Youngers family house and starts to talk about the community not wanting colored people to live there, Walter kicks Karl out of the house because he feels that Karl is talking about nonsense.

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1033 Words | 5 Pages

Outline General Statement : Happiness is not the absence of problems as life would not be that perfect without problems; they are our guidelines so have the ability to expect them and deal with them. Problem statement : One of the social problems that we are facing nowadays is Divorce .

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