Major Themes In A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry
You have to work hard to accomplish your goals and that may cause you to make bad decisions but it will be worth it in the end. The example essays in Kibin’s library were written by real students for real classes. To protect the anonymity of contributors, we’ve removed their names and personal information from the essays. When citing an essay from our library, you can use “Kibin” as the author. If you fit this description, you can use our free essay samples to generate ideas, get inspired and figure out a title or outline for your paper. A melodrama is a film which appeals to the emotions of its audience, on a higher level than the simple “drama” genre.
Facing segregation and housing discrimination, African Americans cultivated what I call homemade citizenship—a deep sense of success and belonging that does not rely on mainstream recognition or civic inclusion. Walter’s obsession in investing in a liquor store completely took over causing him to detach from his job, loves ones, and his reality so that he could give complete attention to his dream. What he doesn’t realize is how devastating this could be to his life and whoever is involved. Walter’s selfishness leads him to sacrifice Beneatha’s dreams of becoming a doctor, because he feels that her dreams aren’t important.
You therefore don’t have a point of view like you would have with a short story or novel. The family is in crisis mainly due to the circumstances in which they must live. The eldest son, Walter (a 35-year-old man with his wife and young son), wants to invest in a liquor store. When her mother decides to use some of the money as a down payment for a house in the White Quarter, her conflict with Walter escalates and causes her great suffering. Trying to sort out the situation between her and her son, the mother gives Walter Lee the rest of the money.
Themes And Analysis
They are limited to their poorly maintained apartment in part because they have low-paying jobs but also because absentee landlords often do not maintain their property. Travis chases a rat, while Beneatha and Mama attempt to eradicate cockroaches, both activities which would not occur in wealthier neighborhoods. Wise enough to know that the family will survive only through wise management, Lena Younger uses her insurance money to buy a house.
The Younger’s are an impoverished African American family that struggles to make ends meet. Walt Disney once said “If you can dream it you can achieve it.” Dreams have a great importance in A Raisin in the Sun, with the play’s name coming from a 1951 Langston Hughes poem titled Harlem. Money and acquisitiveness have always had the ability to turn people into someone they are not. Greed can tear apart families and friendships when a person neglects others for their own benefit.
Generational Disparity In Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun
In this phone call with Lou Ann, Taylor realizes that since she and Lou Ann have already been through some tough times together and supported each other then, they will definitely continue to encourage each other in the future. As for Bennie, she cannot be pushed by her family to make decisions, such as dating George Murchison just because he has a lot of money. Therefore, when Mama supports the decision to dump George, it means a lot to Beneatha, BENEATHA Mama, George is a fool– honest. BENEATHA For understanding me this time The reader can infer that the Youngers will let Beneatha go to Africa, if she chooses to do so, with a blessing.
- Beneatha thinks Walter’s idea is a waste of money, and she thinks Walter doesn’t have the drive or skills to be successful and is happy mama said no to the liquor store.
- Choose one or more of the minor characters inA Raisin in the Sunand write an essay in which you analyze the roles that they play in the development of the thematic content ofA Raisin in the Sun.
- So much that she probably decided to write a play with the theme of a family moving into an environment where they were not wanted when she wrote “A Raisin in the Sun”.
- It was mentioned a lot how family values are passed on through generations.
- Frank Rich, writing in The New York Times in 1983, stated that A Raisin in the Sun “changed American theater forever”.
She was self-centered at the beginning of the playmaking the family sacrifices their desires to accommodate her expensive hobbies, which keep changing from time to time. Her love interests George Murchison, and Joseph Asagai influences her life choices. George was a wealthy black man who tries to ignore the accomplishments of black people and fit into this white-dominated society and a narcissist who shows off in front of Beneatha by talking about intellectual concepts. A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, is the story of a lower-class African American family living on the Southside of Chicago during the 1950s. The family seeks to move into a home in a White middle-class neighborhood.
Mama, deceased Mr. Youngers widow wishes to buy a house and fulfill the dream she once saw with her husband. Beneatha, Mama’s daughter, hopes to find her identity through looking towards true African heritage. He wants to replenish his marriage and provide his son with all the opportunities he never had growing up. The ownership of consumer goods was believed to bring joy into a family’s life. This stereotypical view governs the dream of one of the main characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play. The title of the play is based on “Harlem” by Langston Hughes, a poem that raises a question about a dream that is deferred.
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