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Raisin In The Sun Racism

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Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” perfectly captures the problems of an African-American family during the 1950s. Most of the conflicts portrayed by the characters are still very relevant to this day and the over looming issues of racism and stereotypes are still existent to society today also. These problems don’t just affect one group or race of people nowadays; they affect almost everybody in our society no matter what race or gender you are. In the play, personal conflicts such as Beneatha’s internal struggle to genuinely be herself can be seen in the present society. Racial profiling is also portrayed effectively in this play, and can also be seen in our present society. Through these, the characters seem to be very relatable …show more content…

Lindner constantly refers to Walter and his family as “you people,” (Hansberry 1207) which implies a superiority of Lindner over Walter. Racism today isn’t as blatant as Lindner’s, but it still exists in various ways. Social media is rampant with stories of racism and riots, and even the news is often flooded with racial strife or prejudice towards one or multiple races. In the play, Hansberry makes great efforts to effectively showcase the over looming racism that existed during the 1950s, and with this, we can see the similarities and differences of our society and Walter’s. Even though the affected parties have drastically changed, we can still see that these issues are still prevalent in our society. Lindner’s personality is just one of the many ways prejudice and racism can exist through, and Hansberry effectively shows just how hard it was back …show more content…

Hansberry effectively portrays the difficulties of her time in such a way that they still are very relatable and relevant to us today. From Beneatha’s struggles to find an identity she can fit, to Walter’s deferred and redone dreams, Hansberry portrays relatable conflicts and situations with great accuracy, even to this day. It’s hard to believe that this play was written during the 1950s when it is still relevant to our society almost 60 years ago. Every character in this play has something to offer that we can relate to, and that also makes this play much more interesting; every character’s personality and dreams can be easily represented by anyone in today’s society, and that truly is

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In some plays the experience of an important character changes him or her; this can be said about Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. A perfect example of a changed character from this play is Walter Lee Younger. Through the trials and tribulations that him and his family are made to face he becomes a better man.

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Long ago, racism was very common in the United States. In Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt, Turner Buckminster, and Lizzie Bright have to endure a racist town against Negros. Turner and Lizzie are both hated by the town, nevertheless, Turner's and Lizzie's understanding of racism is completely different. Turner and Lizzie are both hated by the town for certain reasons. For example, when Mr. Stonecrop asked if Turner to sell Mrs. Cobb's house and Turner refused, Mr. Stonecrop says,"You'll regret living in a town where no one wants you."

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Oliver Fredrick Ms. Coen Advanced English 9 May 8th 2023 The Analysis Walter Lee and Prometheus How far are people willing to fall to achieve their dreams? This question of life is vital to understand people. The fullest expression of what people will do to grasp their goals is best shown in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry. Loraine Hansberry is an American author from Chicago who was well known for how immersive she would write dialogue and families, giving both a full range of emotions.

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1500 Words | 6 Pages

This shows the family such as Mama and Ruth that they can’t trust Walter with anything now because he lost all of the portion of the money. He is looked down upon for not becoming the “Man” of the house and taking full responsibility when he is supposed to. Another traditional gender role that I see Hansberry challenging is Beneatha in the middle of the book. Beneatha explains how she has started taking guitar lessons Mama and Ruth laugh out loud making fun of her and asking why she wants to play the guitar. All of sudden she gets upset when Mama and Ruth don’t take it seriously “How come you done taken it in your mind to learn to play the guitar?”

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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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658 Words | 3 Pages

In the play version of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Act one scene two introduces the viewer to Karl Lindner. He is the chairman of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He makes a proposition to the Youngers, to make them move out of their white community. Many of the residents don’t feel safe around colored people (Act 2 Scene 2). Furthermore, throughout this scene in the book, the readers can acknowledge Mr. Lindner trying to get his point across to the Youngers.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

Hardships of the Youngers In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter ,and Beneatha are faced with hardships associated with their dreams being destroyed by discriminatory housing,racial inequality and lack of support from her family towards her education. In the play all the characters have some kind of dream. Mama wants to get a house for the family, Walter wants to have money to provide for his family and plans to do that with a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to become a doctor. Beneatha is going to school and at the same time she’s trying to discover herself,but her family is not supportive of this.

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1487 Words | 6 Pages

Walter further shows his false pride when he flaunts his newfound sense of power when Mr.Lindner, one of the Younger’s soon-to-be neighbors, offers him an unjust deal. Now that Walter has control over the family 's money, he considers himself the head of the family and decision maker; this plays an important role towards how Walter treats others now that he holds himself to a higher standard. This theme applies to Walter when the chairman of the “welcoming committee” (115) named Mr.Lindner pays a visit to the family a couple weeks before they 're supposed to move into their new home in Clybourne Park. During this visit, Mr.Lindner makes the offer of the Clybourne Park community “buy[ing] the house from [them] at a financial gain to [the] family” (118). Mr.Lindner’s offer represents the racial oppression and how the white community looks down upon and doesn’t want African american people dirtying their communities.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

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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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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568 Words | 3 Pages

When Walter rejects Mr. Linsner’s bribe, he regains his self-esteem by establishing himself as an equal with Mr. Linsner. Walter gives up his misguided impression that his status as a man comes from material wealth and gains his family’s respect by choosing dignity for the Youngers. Thus, the author Hansberry informs that reader that despite her society’s racist and sexist tendencies, choosing between right and wrong is ultimately what defines

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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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671 Words | 3 Pages

The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

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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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