Premium Essay

A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis

Submitted By
Words 559
Pages 3
Every person has at least some sort of a dream. Some dreams can be easily accomplished, while others require a lot of work. There are realistic dreams along with unrealistic ones. But what exactly makes a dream doable? What makes it viable? In To Kill A Mockingbird, A Raisin in the Sun, and the visual text, American Denial, the viability of a dream can be synthesized in order in order to show how the doability of one’s dreams can impact them.

In the first text, Harper Lee, the author of To Kill A Mockingbird, incorporates these viable dreams in order to create a meaningful story. We are able to see this concept through some characters. One character is young and full of life, his name is Dill. Dill has many dream that many could say are unrealistic. “I think I’ll be a clown when I get grown.” (Lee 289) During this scene, Jem and Dill are discussing their future jobs. When Dill says he will be a clown, Jem is …show more content…
A family living in Chicago is compacted into a small living space. Ruth, the wife of the main character, Walter, gets pregnant. She has to come up with this situation, because if they kept the kid, there wouldn’t be space. Just like anyone else would, the characters. Just like any other story, the family has many dreams. The Lee’s were dreaming of moving into a place with much more space in order to fit most of their needs. If Ruth keeps the kid, they will have less living space then they already have. “When the world gets ugly enough - a woman will do anything for her family. The part that’s already living.” (Hansberry 75) Ruth has to look at the doability of her dreams and see how it could be impacted. Mama, or Lena Young, has some dreams that are very doable. She dreams that her family stays safe, has a home and is a loving family. She also has those not so doable dreams. Such as, the dream of buying a new

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis

...There’s only one thing in the world that can make someone really happy or really sad in one moment, Money. Money plays a role in everyone’s life, similar to how liquids are measured in liters and distance is measured in meters, success is measured in money, and the book, “A Raisin in the Sun” is no exception to that. In “A Raisin in the Sun”, a black family residing in Chicago makes the decision to put all of the family money in the hands of the son, Walter, who struggles to responsibly use it. Perhaps the most notable moment was when he spent it on a deal to open a liquor store, which his mother told him not to make. He lost his entire investment before a deal even occurred. Money is the most important word in this book because it brings up...

Words: 795 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis

...In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” By Lorraine Hansberry, Walter Lee is on a journey to stop self-doubting & break economic barriers to be able to have the life that he and his family deserved. Walters’s jealousy and resentment causes him to not have an easy path to success. Though in the end he turns out to be the hero everyone knew he could be. There are steps in every hero’s journey to become or achieve whatever they desire. In Walters’s case things do not pass as easily as it does for other people. In the play all Walter talks about wanting is successful and being able to give his family everything they deserve. It does not come easy though with all the pressure he puts on himself and his family on him as well. Walter Lee is an ordinary man who lives a simple life just like everyone else. He stops with living for the normal, and decides to make an extraordinary life decision. The reality for Walter not being able to live privileged and comfortable haunts him and puts such a weight on his shoulders....

Words: 612 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

A Raisin In The Sun Literary Analysis

...A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry in the play, A Raisin in the Sun, presents the audience with an opportunity to witness the struggle African Americans endured during the 1950’s concerning issues of poverty and racial identity. The story revolves around the Younger’s, an African American family of five, who are living in poverty in an exceptionally small apartment provided by the matriarch of the family. Within this diminutive apartment there is an ongoing conflict of needs and dreams of those living within its walls. Lena Younger, the mother of Beneatha and Walter, seeks only to provide for her family, whereas Walter, Lena’ son, who is married to Ruth and has a son of his own, Travis, seeks to gain control over his life and that of his family with the dream of...

Words: 530 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Mama's Dream And The American Dream

...The analysis of Mama’s dreams showed that her way of achieving happiness is through her family for which she wants to provide security for by buying a new house, which they can call their own. However, although the American Dream suggests that everybody should be considered equal, racism and segregation are still a problem during the time the play is set. Mama’s dream is compromised by housing discrimination which together with the job discrimination black people such as Walter face were “interrelated consequences of education and economic discrimination against African Americans in Chicago”[ Harald Bloom and Blake Hobby, The American Dream (New York: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2009) 177.]. Mama bought a house in a white neighborhood in Clybourne...

Words: 397 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Lit 210 Uop Tutorial/Tutorialrank

...A LIT 210 CheckPoint 1: Literary Canon Response LIT 210 CheckPoint 2: Writing About Literature Response LIT 210 Assignment: Literary Definitions Activity LIT 210 CheckPoint: Final Paper Rough Draft 1 of 2 LIT 210 CheckPoint: Final Paper Rough Draft 2 of 2 LIT 210 Week 2 CheckPoint: Young Goodman Brown Matrix LIT 210 Week 2 DQs LIT 210 Week 3 CheckPoint: Analytical Essay LIT 210 Week 4 DQs LIT 210 Week 3 Assignment: Comparative Character Matrix and Newspaper Ads- Appendix D LIT 210 CheckPoint: Newspaper Ads for Dramatic Characters LIT 210 Week 5 Assignment: Oedipus Rex and A Raisin in the Sun Essay LIT 210 Week 5 CheckPoint: Comparative Drama Matrix LIT 210 Week 7 Assignment: Comparative Poetry Matrix- Appendix h LIT 210 Week 6-Checkpoint - Word Order Activity LIT 210 Week 6 DQs LIT 210 Final Paper Outline LIT 210 Week 8 Checkpoint Analyzing the Essay LIT 210 Week 8 DQs LIT 210 Capstone Checkpoint LIT 210 Final Project Comparative Literature Paper ............................................................................................................................................................... LIT 210 Assignment Literary Definitions Activity (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Tutorial Purchased: 4 Times, Rating: A+ Resources: Appendix B and the glossary on pages 1204-1215 in Literature: The Human Experience • Date Due: Day 7 [post to the Individual forum] • Complete the Literary Definitions Activity in Appendix...

Words: 1272 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Las Vegas

...Creative+Writing, Critical, Deductive, Definition, Descriptive, Description, Dialog, Division, Exploratory, Expository, Informative, Interview, Inquiry, Journalistic, Narration, Observation. Personal Narrative, Place, Profile, Process, Proposal English Literature and Literary Analysis - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A & P, Antigone, Apocalypse Now, Araby, The Awakening, Barn Burning, Beowulf, Beloved, Bible, Birthmark, Blade Runner, The Bluest Eye, Candide, Canterbury Tales, Catcher in the Rye, Cathedral, Chrysanthemums, A Clockwork Orange, The Color Purple, Comparing Literary Works, Crime and Punishment, Death of a Salesman, Death in Venice, Desiree's Baby, A Doll's House, Dr. Faustus, Epic of Gilgamesh, Everyday Use, A Farewell to Arms, Frankenstein, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, Glass Menagerie, Gulliver's Travels, The Handmaid's Tale, Heart of Darkness, The Iliad, Invisible Man, Jane Eyre, The Joy Luck Club, The Lottery, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Metamorphosis, My Antonia, My Papa's Waltz, Neuromancer, The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, On the Road, Oresteia, Paradise Lost, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Pride and Prejudice, A Raisin in the Sun, A Rose for Emily, The Scarlet Letter, Siddhartha, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Slaughterhouse-Five, Song of Solomon, The...

Words: 503 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Philosophy

...survey of African American literature, introducing students to genres, trends, and major periods of African American literature, ranging from the 17th-, 18th- and 19th- century autobiographies and narratives to 20tth –century works. Authors include: Jupiter Hammon, Briton Hammon, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling Brown, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Haki Madhubuti, Ton Cade Bambara, and August Wilson. COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of this course, you will: o be able to distinguish amongst genres of literature; o be familiar with various works by and about African American writers in various literary genres; o be familiar with the Black Aesthetic, as well as other literary theories; o gain...

Words: 3509 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Poem

... | |Thursday, January 16th | |In class we’ll read the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Roethke (274), practice textual analysis, and work on an | | | |outline. | | | |Homework: Pg. 276, questions 14-16, and “making an argument” 4; | | | |Read the poem, “Those Winter Sundays” by Hayden (13) and answer | | | |questions 1-6. | | | | | |Tuesday, January 21st | |In class we’ll re-read the poem, “Those Winter Sundays” by Hayden, look at an earlier draft, practice textual | | | |analysis, and work on an outline. | | | |Homework: choose one line from either poem that connects...

Words: 1547 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

What Is Literature

...in which compositional excellence and advancement in the art of writing are higher priorities than are considerations of profit or commercial appeal. * Literature is literally "an acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts. The word literature as a common noun can refer to any form of writing, such as essays or poetry; Literature as a proper noun refers to a whole body of literary work, world-wide or relating to a specific culture... * lit·er·a·ture n. 1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture. 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value:"Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature. 5. Printed material: All the available collected literature on the subject. 6. Music: All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature. Good literature has something important to say about life. If we take the time to read and understand the literature, it should help us to learn more about life. It may be that we do not agree with what the writer says. Nevertheless,...

Words: 1319 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

It's Dannyboy

...of the Laureate Research Project. . Pacing: This map is one suggestion for pacing. Springboard pacing guides precede each unit in the “About the Unit” sections and offers pacing on a 45-minute class period length. Prentice Hall Literature – Use selections from Prentice Hall throughout the quarter to reinforce the standards being taught as well as the embedded assessments within the SpringBoard curriculum. QUARTER #1 SpringBoard Curriculum Pacing Guide August 23 – October 22 Standards and Benchmarks | Unit Pacing Guide | SpringBoard Unit/Activities | Assessments | SpringBoard Unit 1Literature * The students will analyze and compare significant works of literature and id relationships among major genres * Analyze the literary devices unique to the literature and how they support and enhance theme and main ideaReading * The student will use pre reading strategies and background knowledge of subject/content area to make and confirm complex predictions * Determine main idea and essential messageWriting * Pre write by generating ideas...

Words: 2782 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Literature

...Beso, Luiz Miguel B. BSE EN 2-1 Literature Students are asked to write literary analysis essays because this type of assignment encourages you to think about how and why a poem, short story, novel, or play was written. To successfully analyze literature, you’ll need to remember that authors make specific choices for particular reasons. Your essay should point out the author’s choices and attempt to explain their significance. Another way to look at a literary analysis is to consider a piece of literature from your own perspective. Rather than thinking about the author’s intentions, you can develop an argument based on any single term (or combination of terms) listed below. You’ll just need to use the original text to defend and explain your argument to the reader. Allegory - narrative form in which the characters are representative of some larger humanistic trait (i.e. greed, vanity, or bravery) and attempt to convey some larger lesson or meaning to life. Although allegory was originally and traditionally character based, modern allegories tend to parallel story and theme. William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily- the decline of the Old South Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- man’s struggle to contain his inner primal instincts District 9- South African Apartheid X Men- the evils of prejudice Harry Potter- the dangers of seeking “racial purity” Character - representation of a person, place, or thing performing traditionally human activities...

Words: 2273 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Romeo and Juliet

...motives are clear, and many of the themes are as current today as they were in Shakespeare’s time. Therefore, it can be read on a variety of levels, allowing all students to enjoy it. Less able readers can experience the swash-buckling action and investigate the themes of parent-child conflict, sexuality, friendship, and suicide. Because of the play’s accessibility to teenagers, able readers can view the play from a more literary perspective, examining the themes of hostility ad its effect on the innocent, the use of deception and its consequences, and the effects of faulty decision making. They can study how the characters function within the drama and how Shakespeare uses language to develop plot, characters, and themes. The most able students can develop skills involved in literary criticism by delving into the play’s comic and tragic elements and its classically tragic themes: the role of fate and fortune, the inevitable nature of tragedy, and the isolation of the tragic hero. This teacher’s guide will be divided into several parts: (1) a brief literary overview, including a synopsis and commentary on the play; (2) suggestions for teaching the play, including activities, discussion questions, and essay topics to be used before, during, and...

Words: 7462 - Pages: 30

Premium Essay

Figyrative Language Shaped by Imagination in K. Mansfield's Short Stories

...year student Paşcaneanu Mariana Group 404 Scientific adviser: Tataru Nina Senior Lecturer Chişinău 2012 Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER I: SHORT STORY AS A FORM OF FICTION 5 I.1.Common Characteristics of a Short Story as a Form of Fiction. Its Plot and Structure. 5 I.2. Figurative Language. Definition. Function. 9 I.3. Imagery – Language that Appeals to the Senses 11 I.3.1. Simile, Metaphor and Personification. 13 1.3.2. Symbol and Symbolism. 26 I.3.3 Allegory. 30 CHAPTER II: LANGUAGE SHAPED BY IMAGINATION IN K. MANSFIELD’S SHORT STORIES 36 II.1. Figurative Language, Symbolism and Theme in "Her First Ball": 37 II.2. Katherine Mansfield – Techniques and Effects in A Cup of Tea. 41 II.3. Literary Colloquial Style in “Miss Brill” by K. Mansfield. 49 II.3.1. Lexical features—Vague Words and Expressions 49 II.3.2 Syntactical and Morphological Features 52 II.3.3 Phonological Schemes of the Figures of Speech 55 II.4. Simplifying Figurative Language in K.Mansfield’s Short Stories 60 CONCLUSION 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 APPENDIX 70 INTRODUCTION Figurative Language is the use of words that go beyond their ordinary meaning. It requires you to use your imagination to figure out the author's meaning. For example, if someone tells you that it is raining cats and dogs, you know that there are not actually cats and dogs falling from the sky. You know it really means that it is raining very hard. Figurative...

Words: 23312 - Pages: 94

Premium Essay

Macbeth

...(Signet Classic Macbeth) Audiences today quickly become interested in the plot of a blindly ambitious general with a strong-willed wife who must try to cope with the guilt engendered by their murder of an innocent king in order to further their power. The elements of superstition, ghosts, and witchcraft, though more readily a part of everyday life for the Renaissance audience, remain intriguing to modern teenagers. The action-packed plot, elements of the occult, modern characterizations, and themes of import to today's world make Macbeth an excellent choice for teaching to high school students. This study guide offers ideas for presenting Macbeth to a high school class. The activities have been divided into sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. a brief literary overview, including a synopsis and commentary on the play; suggestions...

Words: 8499 - Pages: 34

Premium Essay

English Syntax

...Stylistic syntax 1. General considerations The object of stylistic analysis on syntactic level is sentence. Within the domain of syntax stylistics deals with the following crucial problems: 1) the stylistic potential of syntactic units of different structural design, semantic characteristics and communicative types; 2) the syntactic synonymy, i.e. the peculiarities of rendering of one and the same logical content by syntactic units with different structure, functional characteristics, expressive colouring and connotations; 3) description of syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices. Owing to its constructive nature, syntax is considered to have more perceptible stylistic power (when compared with morophological and lexical level) because it embraces the expressive potential of morphology and vocabulary. Syntax is the structural basis of any utterance and text: the process of nomination and metaphorization, logical and figurative, emotional, expressive and poetic colouring of the words, language imagery and symbolism, specific figures of speech, new coinages and at last the individual speaker’s creativity are actualized only on the level of syntax, and, having been melted into a completed unity, can fulfill its communicative purpose. Thus the importance of syntax for stylistic analysis is hard to overestimate. It is syntax that fixes the stylistic aspect of any text. Syntax, alongside with other stylistic elements (phonetic, morphological, lexical) that secure utterance...

Words: 6760 - Pages: 28