A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes.
THEMES
The
Value and Purpose of Dreams
A
Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle
to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The title of
the play references a conjecture that Langston Hughes famously posed in a poem
he wrote about dreams that were forgotten or put off. He wonders whether those
dreams shrivel up “like a raisin in the sun.” Every member of the Younger
family has a separate, individual dream Beneatha wants to become a doctor, for
example, and Walter wants to have money so that he can afford things for his
family. The Youngers struggle to attain these dreams throughout the play, and
much of their happiness and depression is directly related to their attainment
of, or failure to attain, these dreams. By the end of the play, they learn that
the dream of a house is the most important dream because it unites the family.
The
Need to Fight Racial Discrimination
The
character of Mr. Lindner makes the theme of racial discrimination prominent in
the plot as an issue that the Youngers cannot avoid. The governing body of the
Youngers’ new neighborhood, the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, sends
Mr. Lindner to persuade them not to move into the all-white Clybourne Park
neighborhood. Mr. Lindner and the people he represents can only see the color
of the Younger family’s skin, and his offer to bribe the -Youngers to keep them
from moving threatens to tear apart the Younger family and the values for which
it stands. Ultimately, the Youngers respond to this discrimination with defiance
and strength. The play powerfully demonstrates that the way to deal with
discrimination is to stand up to it and reassert one’s dignity in the face of
it rather than allow it to pass unchecked.
The
Importance of Family
The
Youngers struggle socially and economically throughout the play but unite in
the end to realize their dream of buying a house. Mama strongly believes in the
importance of family, and she tries to teach this value to her family as she
struggles to keep them together and functioning. Walter and Beneatha learn this
lesson about family at the end of the play, when Walter must deal with the loss
of the stolen insurance money and Beneatha denies Walter as a brother. Even
facing such trauma, they come together to reject Mr. Lindner’s racist overtures.
They are still strong individuals, but they are now individuals who function as
part of a family. When they begin to put the family and the family’s wishes
before their own, they merge their individual dreams with the family’s
overarching dream.
SUMMARY
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.
Although a portion of a $10,000 insurance check has been used as a down payment
on the house, the remainder of the money has been given to the son of the
family. In an effort to quadruple the money, the son invests the money and ends
up losing all of it. Despite the fact that the family has lost the remainder of
the insurance money and was told that they would not be welcome in the White
neighborhood by one of the neighbors, the family decides to move forward with
their plans to move into the neighborhood.
CHARACTERS
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CHARACTERIZATION
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Walter
Lee Younger
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The protagonist of the play. Walter
is a dreamer.
He wants to be rich and devises
plans to acquire wealth with his friends, particularly Willy Harris. When the
play opens, he wants to invest his father’s insurance money in a new liquor
store venture. He spends the rest of the play endlessly preoccupied with
discovering a quick solution to his family’s various problems.
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Mama’s daughter and Walter’s
sister.
Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty
years old, she attends college and is better educated than the rest of the
Younger family. Some of her personal beliefs and views have distanced her
from conservative Mama. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine
her identity as a well-educated black woman.
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Walter and Beneatha’s mother.
The matriarch of the family, Mama
is religious, moral, and maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance
money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to fulfil her dream for
her family to move up in the world.
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Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother.
Ruth takes care of the Youngers’
small apartment. Her marriage to Walter has problems, but she hopes to
rekindle their love. She is about thirty, but her weariness makes her seem
older. Constantly fighting poverty and domestic troubles, she continues to be
an emotionally strong woman. Her almost pessimistic pragmatism helps her to
survive.
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Walter and Ruth’s sheltered young son.
Travis earns some money by carrying
grocery bags and likes to play outside with other neighbourhood children, but
he has no bedroom and sleeps on the living-room sofa.
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A Nigerian student in love with
Beneatha.
Asagai, as he is often called, is
very proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to learn about her
African heritage from him. He eventually proposes marriage to Beneatha and
hopes she will return to Nigeria with him.
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A wealthy, African-American man who
courts Beneatha
The Youngers approve of George, but
Beneatha dislikes his willingness to submit to white culture and forget his
African heritage. He challenges the thoughts and feelings of other black
people through his arrogance and flair for intellectual competition.
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The only white character in the
play.
Mr. Lindner arrives at the
Youngers’ apartment from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He
offers the Youngers a deal to reconsider moving into his (all-white)
neighborhood.
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A friend of Walter and coordinator
of the liquor store plan.
Willy never appears onstage, which
helps keep the focus of the story on the dynamics of the Younger family.
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Mrs.
Johnson
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The Youngers’ neighbor.
Mrs. Johnson takes advantage of the
Youngers’ hospitality and warns them about moving into a predominately white neighborhood.
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REFERENCES
A
Dream Deferred (by Langston Hughes)". Cswnet.com. 1996-06-25. Archived
from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
Brennan,
Claire (February 7, 2016). "A Raisin in the Sun review – still challenging
its characters and audience". The Guardian. Review of a revival in
Sheffield, England.
Corley,
Cheryl, "'A Raisin in the Sun', Present at the Creation", National
Public Radio, March 11, 2002.
Internet
Broadway Database. "A Raisin in the Sun | Ethel Barrymore Theatre
(3/11/1959 – 10/17/1959)". IBDB. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
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