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Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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Have you ever had a dream that wasn’t or was accomplished? Well many people always don’t accomplish their dreams. Lorraine Hansberry, based a play on Langston Hughes’s poem called “Dream Deferred”. Langston Hughes was a black American writer. He was from Joplin, Missouri. Lorraine Hansberry was a black writer and playwright. She was from Chicago, Illinois. They both met in New York when she was hired to write for a newspaper. Lorraine Hansberry created a play called Raisin In The Sun that reflected Langston Hughes’s poem “Dream Deferred”. “Dream Deferred” is about how dreams could possibly go good or bad. In Raisin In The Sun it is about how the characters accomplish or fail their dreams. In her play, Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry …show more content…

Walter Lee is living in the Southside of Chicago. He wants to be the the head of the household. Walter’s dream was to open a liquor store. As the book continues Walter tries to make his dream come true, but the money is stolen by his best friend Willy Harris. Willy Harris is a really good friend of Walter Lee. He gives the idea to Walter Lee about opening the store. He wants to open the store illegally in Springfield, Illinois. But when the day comes Willy Harris disappears with all the money. The next quote is Walter Lee talking to his friend Bobo. Bobo is one of the 3 guys that were in the deal to open the liquor store. In Raisin In The Sun Walter Lee says “... Man not my money with that money … Oh, God … Don’t let it be true. THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH” (Hansberry 128). This quote means that when his friend Willy Harris left with that money and Walter realizes that money came from his father's death. This quote is related to the poem “Dream Deferred” because Hughes asks “Does it dry up/ Like a raisin in the sun” (Hughes 2/3). The line means that does your dream keep on getting smaller and smaller as time goes by. It connects to the character because throughout the whole play Walter’s dream is getting smaller and smaller until it is absolutely gone. This connects to the thesis because by Walter doing bad things his dream is

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The American Dream is a byproduct of pride that is shown in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, and in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. In A Raisin in the Sun, the play follows a black family’s struggle to achieve their American Dreams to fruition. Walter Lee Jr. is the head

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Act 1, Scene 1, we begin with the emergence of the character straight from the gate. Walter Lee, upon awakening almost immediately asks his wife Ruth, “Check coming today?” He seems, almost as if a child on Christmas morning wondering if Santa had visited and left him his present. For Walter’s character this money represents an end to his oppression and answer to his plight. The life he leads is filled with people pushing him down and keeping him in a “ditch “ of sorts.

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Her dreams were unconventional because no female wanted to become a doctor and get a nob , females in that time period where just housewives. In all A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a realistic fictional drama that explores not only the tension between white and black society but the story is often reffered a sa turning point because it adressess so many important issues un the United States in the 1950s-1960s. Not only that but Hansberry touches on topics such as dreams being deferred. Dreams are important to everyone because they are neccesary for surviving and

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When Walter's father died, his family was going to receive a check from a life insurance policy. Walter planned to use the insurance money to open a liquor store and financially prosper. His mother though, would not let him do this though because it was unholy and an immoral way to make money. Walter, who was already bitter because he was a chauffeur, felt deprived. He saw an opportunity to make money and grew increasingly resentful because his family would not allow him to pursue those avenues, instead his family wanted to buy a home they could call their own.

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A Raisin in the Sun is the breakout story of Lorraine's career. A Raisin in the Sun is about her struggle through her life with dealing with racism. She wanted to write about her struggle through one of the hardest parts in American History. Lorraine wasn’t just dealing with her sexality but, she was dealing with racism while people were fighting for African Americans lives. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 talking about racism and family struggles but, African Americans lives didn’t change until 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech.

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In the book Raisin in The Sun the characters talk about their dreams. Dreams are most helpful because they give you hope of one day reaching those sensations in people’s lives. The author Lorraine Hansberry intended the book to have the certain impact about how people back then struggled to deal with harsh circumstances that act in their everyday life. The dreams of Mama, Ruth and Walter show us that, despite great obstacles, the American Dream is still possible. First, one character who possesses a powerful dream is Walter.

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Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, takes place in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s. This play is about an African American family’s life and their struggles that include segregation and discrimination. This book was based off of parts of Lorraine Hansberry’s life, so some of the trials and events that happen to the Younger family in this book are similar to the author’s. In this play, every character has an influence on the plot, but the two characters that have the most influence are Walter and Mama, based on their actions, dialogue, stage directions, and conflicts.

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When he wanted me to go in the dry-cleaning business with him. And now—he’s grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thousand dollars a year!” (Hansberry 32). This quote is powerful because it also displays a reason for why Walter Lee wants to invest in the liquor store so much, as it illuminates that he feels left behind.

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He is not willing to take the long and winding path to wealth through education; he wants his dream to happen immediately, which leads to the downfall of his dream. Later, when talking to his son, Travis, Walter describes how he made “a business transaction that’s going to change our [the family’s] lives…” (2.2.108). Consequently, this one quick, easy, and large transaction results in the undoing of Walter’s dream; Walter loses all the money he was going to use to buy the liquor store and become a “great” business entrepreneur. Walter has an

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The original poem "Harlem (Dream Deferred)" had a significant impact on both Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream. " The narrator of "Harlem (Dream Deferred)" questions what happens when dreams are postponed. Both Lorraine Hansberry and Martin Luther King Jr. studied the effects of a society where everyone is unable to pursue their ambitions. Both works of literature highlight the difficulties faced by African Americans in realizing the American Dream by significantly referencing the themes and imagery found in "Harlem (Dream Deferred)". King's speech and Hughes' poem both examine the concept of stalled ambitions and the effects of a society that does not permit everyone to realize their dreams.

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The themes portrayed in this play were the value and purpose of dreams, the need to fight racial discrimination, and the importance of family. The plotline of the play itself is mainly about dreams, and the necessity it plays on life. The title itself is refers to a Langston Hughes poem about dreams being forgotten or procrastinated, he creates the idea that the dreams shrivel up like “a raisin in the sun.” Every character in the play has their own personal dream: Mama wants a house big enough to provide for the entire family, Walter wants to own a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Throughout the play, the characters struggle with completing and achieving their dreams, however discover in the end that the most important dream

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The social theory being put forth by Langston Hughes about the American dream in this poem is that a “dream deferred” is a long and frustrated dream for the people in African American communities. I say this because the author is African-American and this poem concentrates, on possible reaction to the deferral of a dream. He states that the dream “dries like a raisin in the sun.” Since a raisin is just a dried grape, I believe it means that you can still use it no matter how long it dried for. When dreams are constantly getting deferred, we lose hope and motivation.

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Genevieve Mahoney Mr. Mischinski English 10 - American Studies 2 March 2018 A Raisin in the Sun: An Analysis of The Kismet of Dreams Deferred “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry details the Youngers, a zealous black family, struggling to make their dreams come true in the slums of Chicago. Langston Hughes’ poem, "A Dream Deferred

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Lorraine Hansberry to show the struggles and dreams of African American family. Which talks about dream deferred, the title of the play has a connection between the poem and the play’s characters and their dreams. Each member of the family had their own dream, in order to realize their dreams, Mama, Walter Lee, Ruth, and Beneatha all depended on the money from their father’s insurance check. This shows how much she firmly believes in working together as a family Lorraine Hansberry wrote her play A Raisin in the Sun based on some of her life experiences. She wrote the play so that readers can have an understanding of her life without her literally explaining that is what occurred in her life.

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A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry during the 1950’s. The book title is taken from a line in the poem A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes, which is about barriers that black Americans in the 1940s and 1950s lived through. The story is told in Hansberry’s way of growing with her family in the Washington Park subdivision of Chicago’s Woodlawn. They believed that this was a way of attempting a better life.

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