ipl-logo

The Power Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

998 Words4 Pages

Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech went down in history as one of the greatest civil rights demonstrations in the United States. The speech illuminated America with his hopes and dreams for the future from the violent road the nation was heading. However, the significant power of King’s speech touching millions led to his assassination. King had the power to exert his hopes and dreams for change, but his words struck conflict when his goal was to unite the nation. This power for the good and for the bad is similar to the role of money. Ultimately, money is power. The King’s dream is full of freedom, while the “American Dream” is full of opportunity. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry entails optimism for the future, desire for dreams, and ego in decision-making in order to convey how money can affect the actions and …show more content…

When Ruth questions Mama about her feeble plant, Mama has a twinkle in her eye and replies, “Well, I always wanted a garden like I used to see sometimes at the back of the house down home. This plant is close to as I ever got to having one” (Hansberry 53). The plant illustrates her growing ambition for house ownership and investments. She still keeps the plant as it represents hope for the future and the comfort in her family that she is trying to save from poverty and deferred dreams. The money would grant Mama opportunities for her family in the future, so her outlook on life is optimistic. When Walter desperately attempts to save the family from exasperated times, Mama reassures him, “Son—I come from five generations of people who were slaves and sharecroppers—but ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody pay ‘em no money.” That was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to walk the earth. We ain’t never been that poor. We ain’t never been that—dead inside” (Hansberry

Show More
Related

An Analysis Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

809 Words | 4 Pages

First, Hansberry uses Mama to show the negative outcome when Mama 's dream of getting a house was cast aside. Mama 's dream was to move out of her tired old apartment of about 45 years into a better neighborhood. Hansberry uses the line “ Or does it explode?” (Hughes 11).

Read More

How Money Affects Characters In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

1168 Words | 5 Pages

These decisions result in him being at odds with the rest of his family, especially when money is the topic. Ultimately, Walter's desperation for wealth and the validation of being wealthy puts him in situations that greatly affect his family's lives, and end up causing conflicts between his family and himself. Despite being family, Walter's mom, Mama, has an entirely different view on money compared to her

Read More

Success In Walter Lee Younger's A Raisin In The Sun

815 Words | 4 Pages

Walter mentioned in a conversation about the check given with his mother that money was life saying, “No---it was always Mama. We just did not know about it.” His ideology was that money could bring the family properly and respect in the

Read More

Summary Of A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

335 Words | 2 Pages

This week in biology we learned that how to predict the phenotype by knowing the genotype. The genotype of both parents helps find the four possibilities of the possible genotypes of their children. We also learned of blood types that people have and how type O blood is the recessive blood type. We also learned that there are different modes of inheritance. There are four.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

344 Words | 2 Pages

In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, symbolism is often utilized to further the more abstract themes of the novel such as love and dreams through concrete ideas. One prevalent example of this throughout the play is Mama’s little plant. The plant represents Mama’s love for her children as she cares for the plant as she would a child. Despite the plant being described as “growing doggedly”, Mama shows extreme devotion to ensuring the plant’s survival.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

680 Words | 3 Pages

Lorraine Hansberry uses symbolism to help the readers understand tremendously. Lorraine uses window, light, and plant as symbols of mama’s (Lena Youngers) family, hope,and dreams. To start off, Mama is the most caring and sensitive character in A Raisin in The Sun.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

214 Words | 1 Pages

Due to light’s symbolism for the hope and emotions toward the future for the Youngers, it is more important of a word than money. Light’s portrayal of emotion is expressed through the play’s stage directions. When it was revealed that Walter had lost all of the insurance money, the stage directions said, “At curtain, there is a sullen light of gloom in the living room, gray light not unlike that which began the first scene of Act One” ( ). From this quote it can be inferred that there is a direct correspondence between the nature of the Youngers’ attitudes and the stage lighting. With this in mind, other passages from A Raisin in the Sun can also be considered.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

829 Words | 4 Pages

Hansberry states his issue by quoting, Mama. Son— how come you talk so much bout money? Walter. (with immense passion). Because it is life Mama! (I.II.849).

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

858 Words | 4 Pages

That's what she wanted to talk to you about… I think Ruth is thinking ‘bout getting rid of that child” (Hansberry 74-75). This shows how because Ruth’s dream is set aside, she is worn down, and has to accept the fact that she might not be able to provide for another baby. This connects to the line in Hughes’ poem “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load” (Hughes 9-10). Her dream being deferred crushes her into feeling like she can’t move.

Read More

Analyzing Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

295 Words | 2 Pages

I feel that people should be nicer to Walter since he is not a bad boy though when people are making him angry he starts acting like a bad boy. In Walter 's class, people were making fun of his speech problem. This led Walter to act like a bad boy. I feel that Walter should not get angry and instead try and make the teacher notice more when his classmates have been making fun of him. “I read quickly, and there was a chorus of laughter in response” 42.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

1980 Words | 8 Pages

An instance that supports the claim that the plant symbolizes Mama’s dreams is when Mr. Lindner comes to meet the family to offer them money to not move into his white neighborhood. When told by her daughter, Beneatha, Mama responds by being visibly concerned by this news and she tends to her plant and asks whether Lindner threatened the family (2.3.331). The way Mama carefully tends to and shows concern of her plant shows the correlation of concern to her dream for her and the family to have a better life. Later when Beneatha is told by Mama that she is packing the plant up safe for the move, she exclaims, “that raggedy-looking

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

870 Words | 4 Pages

In this essay I will discuss if Walter or Mama is the main character in the play Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, I will show this by relating my answer to James Thomas suggestion that the lead character is the most complex and therefore the most self-aware. This will be achieved by using quotes from the play and readings as evidence. In Drama, Character is defined as not a static object fixed forever in time but rather a dynamic (shifting) pattern of features that gradually develops over the course of the play (Stopford, 2016). According to James Thomas (1999:96-97) “the character’s awareness or lack of it is what connects them to the play and determines their influence in the overall scheme”.

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

358 Words | 2 Pages

The result of the civil rights movement had a great deal of negative effects on African Americans while bringing them together to try and strengthen their community towards making a change. There are still issues with racism to this day but it was not as bad as in 1954 during the Civil right s era. The Unite d States was not united and it was very chaotic at the time .

Read More

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

559 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

The Struggle In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

647 Words | 3 Pages

Everybody faces problems. It is an inevitable part of human existence, as conflicts are always present during people’s lives. The way that they respond to these problems, however, varies from person to person, and eventually shapes who that person becomes. Whether they go against their problems head-on or run from them, all human beings are eventually forced to face the conflicts of their lives. The way one responds to their problems directly changes who one will become in future, whether it be through what happened while they resolved the dilemma or what happened if they avoided facing the complication.

Read More

More about The Power Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Open Document