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Social Issues In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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A Raisin is in the Sun is a complex and deeply nuanced literary production created by playwright Lorraine Hansberry in 1957. The play’s success was unprecedented given the time period it was first performed in; in 1959, there had not yet been an African American centered play that had been successful in the way A Raisin in the Sun was.
Time in the context of bringing to Broadway the first play by a black (young and unknown) woman to be directed, moreover, by another unknown black “first,” in a theatre where black audiences did not exist—and where, in the entire history of the American stag, there had never been a serious commercially successful black drama! (Nemiroff, 6)
This fame can be attributed to the way the play handles universal issues of family, gender, and poverty, but also uniquely ethnic inspired problems of cultural identity, beauty, and equality in America. It is in directly addressing widely relatable social issues that Hansberry’s writing inspires social progression and change. A Raisin in the Sun calls for social …show more content…

“Ghetto.” Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, Gale, Detroit, 1999. U.S. History In Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ1667500266/UHIC?u=pocono_moun_shs&sid=UHIC&xid=9c6cc7ab. Accessed 27 Feb. 2018.
Hansberry, Lorraine, and Robert Nemiroff. A Raisin in the Sun. Vintage Books, 1994
History.com Staff. “Great Migration.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration. Accessed 10 Mar. 2018.
Nemiroff, Robert. "Introduction." Preface. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage Books, 1987. 5-14. Print
“Racial Segregation in Post-Reconstruction America.” Historic U.S. Events, Gale, Detroit, 2017. U.S. History In Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2359030557/UHIC?u=pocono_moun_shs&sid=UHIC&xid=9989b820. Accessed 10 Mar. 2018.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "A Raisin in the Sun." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Mar.

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The play by Lorraine Hansberry , A Raisin In The Sun, utilizes the use of allusions in order to supply the reader with historical background. Allusions create emphasis in the play, this allows the reader to understand and appreciate the text. Within the small details of the play, the use of allusions deepen the contextual support of the text. While reading A Raisin In The Sun, various allusions appear throughout the play. These allusions reference the outside world, but also give emphasis on the importance of the piece of the text references.

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In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.

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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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“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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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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In a patriarchal society, women are encouraged to focus on their family and its well-being. Most often, women achieve this by caring for the children and the home. However, in the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry suggests that women do not have to focus on the family. Instead, they can prioritize their own well-being. Hansberry exhibits these ideas through two female characters, Ruth and Beneatha.

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The situation of the Younger family in Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is an interesting. An African-American family of five, in 1950s Chicago, is trapped in a too-small apartment, struggling to make ends meet. The father of the family, Walter Younger Senior, has recently passed away, having left behind a ten thousand dollar life insurance check. Each person in the family wants to use the money for something cause.

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