Being able to dream is one of the major rights a person can have. And also being able to pursue that dream is also another step forward. Having the same opportunities as other people is seen as one of the most important rights a person can have in this world. Each of the characters in the Younger family has a particular individual dream. One wants to move to a bigger home, one wants to attend medical school, one wants to rise above his social class though does not necessarily have a plan to do so.
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.
The narrator tells a background story about his grandfather and how he used to be a slave. The narrator is a normal person and he is someone who studied to be in the same workforce as the other white men. The struggles that the narrator faces throughout the story are race, gender, and class. For instance, “But now I felt a sudden fit of the blind of terror. I was unused to darkness.
In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the characters Mr Lindner and Mrs. Johnson symbolize the foreshadow of the Younger’s destruction. Mr. Lindner tries to prevent the Younger family from living in Clybourne Park, an all white neighborhood. He symbolizes white supremacy and the end of hope for the Younger family because if the Youngers comply to his demands, their dreams will not come true and shows that whites are superior to blacks. After Walter calls Mr. Linder about the house in Clybourne Park, Beneatha says “All the talk about dreams and sunlight that goes on in this house. It’s all dead now” (143).
In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, One theme is that a mother will do anything to teach her children money isn’t everything, to never give up on their dreams, and to make her family happy. For Mama’s whole life, she has been trying to teach her family that money isn’t everything, but it seems that ever since they knew that they were getting an insurance check that seems to be all they talk about. Right, when Walter woke up he started to ask about the insurance check and when it was coming, so when Mama wakes up she says "Somebody would have thought my children done starved to death the way they talk about money here late...”(330). This quote is important because it shows that the family is talking about money like they are starving and don't have food, but in reality they are so worried about what mama is going to do with the money because they all want it used a different way to benefit themselves or their dream, but some of the family disagree and want to leave it to Mama to choose what happens to it because it's her money and it's not right for them to ask for it or use it how they want to.
Simone de Beauvoir a literary critic analyzed Louise Anderson’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and the black matriarchal stereotypes. The American Black woman in this case mama faces a daily struggle in the Southside of Chicago. The First black matriarchal stereotype presented to the reader, as black males are not independent. Anderson uses the example of mama and how she interacts with her son and daughter in law. The second stereotype as black matriarch being “very religious.”
Josh Jameson, an avid author, once said, “There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.” When facing a crossroads in life, one must always question whether to face adversity or give up in the pursuit of happiness. This idea also applies to the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, where Big Walter and his son, Walter Lee, choose between sacrificing their lives and dreams or giving up and living a monotonous life. Big Walter is an overworked father whose death provides his family a chance to escape their financial crisis. All the while, Walter is sacrificing his dream of investing since no one supports him.
“Choices made, whether bad or good, follow you forever and affect everyone in their path one way or another.” J.E.B. Spredemann. The theme I chose to analyze is choices and consequences. For this type of writing assignment, I’ve decided to choose the following readings. The poem titled Harlem was written by Langston Hughes in 1951.
Set around 1890s, the story is seen from a boy, Sarty’s point of view about his father’s doing. He and his father is a white family living in Southern America, in which there are class differences and racial distinctions. At that time, white people are usually a landrond and blacks are the slaves. And in this story, Sarty’s family who is categorized as white family is a poor family. They are classified neither as a landlord nor slave, so it is hard for them to adapt in that situation.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun she uses characterization on Beneatha to suggest that the media or society is hard on black women. In the play it demonstrates how a black woman's dream is diminished, her looks as more important, to always being criticized. In Act I, it indicates that Beneatha wants to be a doctor and go to medical school. It is her dream to do so, but whenever it is brought up, it is either dismissed, compared to other people, or deemed not important.
War stories can be very challenging stories to write, and most war stories are just replicas of other war stories in which it is all action, it is what we already know about war. A true war story should touch upon the soldiers and the lives and battles within themselves, not just the fighting out in the field. O’Brien defines what a real war story is and how it should be written in the story “How to Tell a War Story.” O’Brien believes that a true war story lies within the reality of the situation. In other words, O’Brien believes that war stories should be about the truth of it, the hardships and daily battles with their partners and with their psychological challenges.
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.
Judge, hate and be angry at someone that you don’t even know just because they have a different skin color! Racism, the topic that even though in this time period, almost everyone agreed that it’s bad, that one should not judge a person based on his or her skin color, race and how he or she dresses, still exist. But, why? How come even though one is taught that racism is unjust, how come one still does it? Is it because one race is better than the other?
The characters throughout the play shows that they felt they couldn't do something a white person could do just because they are black and get treated differently. But if something is unfair and you stand up for what you want, then you will get what you want. Race plays a big part in this play because if the Youngers weren't black, they most likely wouldn't have experienced the things they went through just because of the color of their skin. The story would be different because of something small like that. Following your dreams is important no matter what your race is because if it unfair or something that you want then you should stand up for it like what the Youngers did.
Lorraine V. Hansberry Author Lorraine Hansberry, who is considered one of the Great American authors, wrote during the Modernist period. She wrote “A Raisin in the Sun” in 1959. In this work, we can see evidence of the characteristics, themes and style identified with the Modernist movement which was extant in American letters between 1850’s and after WWII. Lorraine Hansberry wrote during this time period of American literature, and such, remains one of the most identifiable and iconic writers of her time. Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois.
