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How Does Lee Present Racism In A Raisin In The Sun

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Racism in A Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun reflects life in Southside Chicago during the 1950’s. Racism still occurred during this time period and viewed as a common way of living. The Younger’s were an African American family who were treated no different than the rest of the black community, inhumanely. This play portrays the common struggled faced by African Americans who seek nothing more than to better their lives and to truly have an opportunity to acquire the American Dream. In A Raisin in the Sun, the usage of symbolism, imagery, and characterization, are promoted throughout the play to assist the demonstration of how racism can completely affect a family. To begin with, the Younger’s family consisted of 5 members. Lena or “mama” who was the mother of Walter and Beneatha, Ruth the wife of …show more content…

As a person of color in the 1950’s finding decent employment seemed nearly impossible. Only jobs available for African Americans were ones whose purpose was strictly to serve or attend a white person’s needs. “Lena and Ruth are maids who work for white women and Walter is the chauffeur of a white man.” (Tayebeh Nowrouzi, Sohila Faghfori and Esmaeil Zohdi) As a human being, it’s frustrating to want to be successful in life, but be rejected for a reasoning that’s out of your control to produce a metamorphosis like in skin color. Throughout the play, Walter experiences an emotional roller coaster concerning his desires that confront his reality. In continuation, his demeanor to open a liquor store, but lacking financially causes his temper to procure out of hand. His negative and ruthless attitude towards his family compelled them to feel utter disappointment in the future that awaits them as a whole. As the play continues, mama’s love for gardening is introduced to the audience. Specifically, she cares for a dying plant

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The author, Lorraine Hansbury wrote the story Raisin in the Sun with characters who are more influential than others. Lena (Mama) and Walter Younger influence the plot in different ways and have different aspects on the life they are living with their family. Lena always does what she believes is best for the family and tries to make the family’s life stupendous. Walter pushes the family away and is selfish with his actions. Both characters are very different, but affect the plot in more ways than one.

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1449 Words | 6 Pages

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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614 Words | 3 Pages

A Raisin in the Sun is a play that addresses gender inequality through Beneatha and her experiences. Throughout what we see about her life, she thinks all men and women should be treated equal. These experiences that Beneatha goes through effects her life and her

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1105 Words | 5 Pages

A Raisin in the Sun is a play, which consists of three acts for a total of six scenes. From the very beginning, the plot line begins with the Younger family waking up, going about their morning as they normally do. The family living in the small apartment consists of Mama, Beneatha, her daughter, Walter, her son, Ruth, Walter’s wife, and Travis, Walter and Ruth’s son. The apartment that accommodates this family consists of a small kitchen, containing one small window, a living room, which also serves as Travis’ room, and two bedrooms, one for Walter and Ruth, the other shared by Mama and Beneatha. In the kitchen window lays a potted plant, second to only family in Mama’s most prized possessions.

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1500 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1601 Words | 7 Pages

“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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Reader Response: 3 “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.

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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.

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795 Words | 4 Pages

Raisin in the Sun Book Report     Being in close relations with family member definitely has its ups and downs. There is nothing easy about being in a close relationship with family, but to many family is the most important relationship in their lives. In the story “A Raisin in the Sun” there are many great examples of importance in family relationship just from the way they treat each other and the conversations they have. In the story, Lena Younger, Ruth Younger and Walter Younger all make it very obvious how important family relationships are. Lena Younger (Mama) is the head of the family.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the 1950s, people of color have struggled with achieving their dreams due to the lack of equality that is portrayed in that specific time era. It has been a constant battle for equality for all races and genders over the course of time. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin In the Sun the character Beneatha struggles with her racial inequality, education, and gender stereotyping. These specific struggles are the blocks she deals with trying to achieve her dream.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

The setting of the Raisin in the Sun is the ghetto of Chicago, where most black families lived and most of these black families had dreams of moving to a better neighbourhood, because of crime, but the housing industry causes segregated housing and manipulates communities with white fears of black integration. When Lorraine Hansberry was a child, her family also experienced the results of a government unconcerned with blacks leaving segregation. Lorraine used her play to tell people about her own struggle with racism, her play shows us that her problems were handled with determination. Linder speaks to the Younger family and offers them money to buy their house, because they, the white people feel that a community should share a common background and that negro families are happier when they live in their own communities. This is an example of how the Younger family has experienced racism, while it is true that people with the same background will be happier together, it is also their right to live where they feel they are progressing.

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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.

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816 Words | 4 Pages

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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825 Words | 4 Pages

A Raisin in the Sun "Education has spoiled many a good plow hand" (Hansberry 103). This quote is significant because it is applying that education is better than being a hard-worker. A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, is taken place in South Side, Chicago between World War II and the present. The main focus of this play is about a poor African-American family who has a chance to escape this lifestyle with a ten-thousand-dollar life insurance check, but is not desired to live in a "white" neighborhood.

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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.

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