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Lorraine V. Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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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. Her father was a real estate broker and her mother was a school teacher. In 1938, Hansberry’s family moved to a white neighborhood, her and her family soon ended up getting attacked by their white neighbors. The case made it to the Supreme Court as “Hansberry v. …show more content…

While in school, Hansberry changed her major from painting to writing, after a couple of years she decided to drop out and move to New York . She attended the New School for Social Research. During a protest against racial discrimination at New York University, she met Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish writer. They both got married on June 20, 1956 in Chicago. Hansberry later began a play she called “The Crystal Stair”, from Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” she later retitled it as “A Raisin in the Sun”. Hansberry was an atheist and she believed that gaining civil rights in the United States and obtaining independence in colonial Africa were two sides of the same coin that presented similar challenges for Africans on both …show more content…

This Literary Movement is characterized by: World War 1.
Particularly in her work titled “A raisin in the Sun”, we can see a representation of the type of literature written during the Modernist (1960’s) era. “A raisin in the Sun" deals with
• Self-consciousness and irony concerning literary and social convention, admitted artifice in

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A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play which contains many different obstacles that the characters face. One character, Beneatha, faces an obstacle that is out of her control. This obstacle is gender inequality. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, gender inequality is experienced by Beneatha and reflects the struggles women faced in the 1950s. One of the issues that Beneatha faces in the play is her relationships with two men in her life, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai.

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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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Historical Analysis: A Raisin in the Sun is a play about the author’s life. The segregation life and the event of moving into a white neighborhood are events from the life of Lorraine Hansberry, the author. The events that occurred in the play along with real life events relate to the Civil Rights Movement and feminist topics. Lorraine Hansberry moved into an all white neighborhood just like the Younger family moved into Clybourne Park. The author did not modify the major events of her own life but rather added a series of complications and details to fit the play such as the event of Walter losing the investment money.

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Lorraine Hansberry was an extraordinary woman, born May 19, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. According to Lorraine Hansberry Biography, “Hansberry was the first African American playwright, as well as the youngest American to win a New York Critics award.” As time went on, her family moved into a white neighborhood and was cruelly harmed, her life was not easy growing up. Even though they had a hard time in their neighborhood they refused to leave until a court order made them. This later ended up in the Supreme Court as Hansberry V. Lee, making restrictive covenants illegal.

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Specifically, Hansberry addresses the issue of generational differences between Benny and Mama. Mama’s style of life was tremendously different from Benny in many ways, as she has an old school mentality. For example Mama believes that the world revolves around God as He decides everyones faith. Mama’s remarks describe her beliefs the best as she says to

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Lorraine Hansberry, author of the play A Raisin In The Sun, was the first ever African American woman to ever have a play published and later have it performed on Broadway. Hansberry was born on May 30th 1930 in Chicago Illinois into a middle class family where she lived with her grandmother who was a freed slave, her father, mother and the 3 of her siblings. Her father was a very successful real estate broker and her mother was a teacher. Once Lorraine was 8 years old, her family moved into a white neighbourhood. Her family did not move due to the racism in the neighbourhood, and therefore took his situation to court.

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“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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The men constantly feel that women are inhibiting their progress to become great, but the women have truly done all they could for their families. This is played out when Ruth helplessly asks, “What else can I give you, Walter Lee Younger?” (Hansberry 87). Elizabeth Hadley Freydberg’s literary criticism points out the use of the word “else” to show that Ruth “has given Walter all that she knows how to give- love, a son, and now another child, and he is still unhappy and unfulfilled.” Freydberg reasons that Hansberry “introduces the issue of the necessity of the black woman supporting her man against all adversities” (Freydberg).

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Regarding the Genre, the play is mainly about the life of Black family in the south side of Chicago, that is why the Genre of family ( family drama) dominates the play, the family comes from an ordinary African-American working-class. Hansberry through the play describes the daily live of the African-American in Chicago. How they live, how their houses look,and how they are treated. It regarded as a family drama, because all the action took place within the house of the family.

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Her age and gender are the culture identity characteristics that give her this view. These are what made it a funny and cute read. A Raisin in the Sun was developed about what it was to be in a poor black neighborhood in Chicago. The cultural identities of the characters were ethnicity, gender, and religion. This was a direct tie to the author’s cultural identity as well (Hansberry).

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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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Hansberry’s drama draws on her own experiences growing up in segregated Chicago, for example, redlining was often used in Chicago to discriminate against [colored people] who were moving into new neighborhoods. “Redlining is the practice of denying key services (like home loans and insurance) or increasing their costs for residents in a defined geographical area... It was almost exclusively a tool to force blacks (and other minorities) into particular geographic areas. ”(Jamelle Bouie, How We Built the Ghettos, page 1). This ties to Hansberry’s play, a Raisin in the Sun, by the Younger family lived in a very cramped and poor area.

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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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1499 Words | 6 Pages

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun presents the rise of feminism in America in the 1960s. 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 feministic ideology in the play. A Raisin in the Sun is feminist because, with the feminist notions displayed in the play, women can fulfil their individual dreams that are not in sync with traditional conventions of that time.

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