Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Words: 603
Pages: 3
Open Document
Lorraine Hansberry’s popular play, “A Raisin in the Sun” is a story of a family that faces hardship, yet never backs down from their dreams. Though, you would not assume that is what the play was about, according to the title, but there is a different unseen meaning behind the title. Hansberry choose to name her play “A Raisin in the Sun” for a simple reason. First, the story’s theme is achieving a dream, so what better way to correlate the theme of the story, with a poem from a famous poet, Langston Hughes. The poem’s title is, “Harlem” but is often referred to as, “Dream Deferred.” In this poem, Hughes asks “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?” (Shmoop Editorial Team). As you can see, Hughes is asking
Show More

Related Documents: Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Book Notes: “A Raisin in the Sun” “A Raisin in the Sun” was written by Lorraine Hansberry. Lorraine was born on May 19, 1930 into a family with four children, her being the youngest. The Hansberry’s had always struggled with discrimination. In 1938, the family moved to a white neighborhood, where they were violently attacked by their neighbors. The Hansberry’s refused to move out of their house until a court ordered them to do so. Their case made it to the Supreme Court as Hansberry vs. Lee. The…

Words 854 - Pages 4

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Marshall's describes the racial aspects in the play "A Raisin in the Sun" in her work, "Race in a Raisin in the Sun". People are separate but not equal because of the housing, education, and other types of discrimination. Also she explores the effect of "blackness" which is the difference between black Americans and black Africans. She is relating this to Asagai, a black African and George, a black American. Both men tear Beneatha apart while trying to search for her identity as black American…

Words 645 - Pages 3

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

throughout the play A Raisin in The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. Symbolism is the use of an thing, character or situation to represent an idea or quality. One item used as a symbol in the play is Mama's plant. Another object used as a symbol in the play is Beneatha's hair. Hansberry uses symbolism throughout the play to impart the message through the themes of the value of having a dream and the importance of fighting discrimination. One symbol in A Raisin in the Sun is Mama's plant. She…

Words 412 - Pages 2

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

for a stage performance. This final project highlights the author, Lorraine Hansberry, the creator of A Raisin in the Sun. She writes a family drama that places the audience inside the home of the Younger’s an African-American family living on the south side of Chicago in the…

Words 881 - Pages 4

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

moreso of how far does it consume there being and there way of life. This takes center space in the amazingly play of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun. Hansberry was the first black female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin In The Sun highlights the lives of Black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago Hansberry's family had struggled against segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually provoking the Supreme Court…

Words 1435 - Pages 6

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin in the Sun is one of the best works of Lorraine Hansberry. Hansberry talks about the vital issues such as poverty, gender, and racial discrimination through a black family, the Youngers. Hansberry’s play focuses primarily on the dreams of the main characters Mama, Walter, Ruth and Beneatha. The title 'A Raisin in the Sun' has been taken from the poem "Montage of a Dream Deferred" written by Langston Hughes in which he talks about the consequences when dreams are put off for later. The…

Words 1356 - Pages 6

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

There are may lessons and ideas that one can learn from life, and several of those can also be found in books. Lorraine Hansberry portrays a variety of themes throughout her play A Raisin in the Sun. She uses several characters and relationships portray these themes. One such relationship is the extreme change of heart between Walter and Ruth. These two have been married for around 10 years by the time the play opens and their relationship is beginning to lose its youthful infatuation. The reader…

Words 961 - Pages 4

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Walter Lee Younger is a major character in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in The Sun. People learn from his actions and try to prevent themselves from making the same mistake. He kept on trying his hardest to get a portion of the insurance money mama received, and tried to invest it on a liquor store. Walter’s lack of an education and common sense causes him to make a serious mistake, which not only affects him, but his family as well. However, Walter was still portrayed as a round character, because…

Words 1032 - Pages 5

Discrimination In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

“Think you can exploit us from what our dad worked his whole life for us to have!” In Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin In the Sun a reader will learn racial discrimination can be overcome with a family working together. Mama sees her whole family falling apart and wanting each other dead cause her to buy a house with the insurance money from her husband's death. There are two important conflicts in the story that end up turning into amazing thing. Walter and Ruth hated each other at the start…

Words 434 - Pages 2

Theme Of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a realistic fictional drama in which the play’s title and characters represent the play’s theme. The play focused on Black America’s struggles to reach the American Dream of life liberty and pursuit of happiness during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The idea of everyone having the chance to achieve a better life should exist for all. Hansberry created her title using a line from Langston Hughes’ poem, “ A Dream Deferred”. The original poem was written in 1951…

Words 1707 - Pages 7