...Dr. King’s speech and the play A Raisin in the Sun have many similarities including dreams, segregation, and racial prejudice against African-Americans. Firstly, the concept of having dreams is very evident in Dr. King’s speech. He talks extensively about the future of his family (especially his children) and of the nation as a whole, expressing his opinion of how it should be. As Dr. King talks about the dreams that he has, he says: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but but by the content of their character.” (King) He is talking about how he dreams for his children to live in a time where people will not create opinions based on what people...
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...The theme of race and racism can be seen in Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" through internal racism, segregation and discrimination. In "A Raisin in the Sun", racism is shown internally because of how the different classes of colored people viewed one another. There is a clear line of division between the two as it relates to unity. The higher classes are stereotyped and compared to other races specifically whites. The rich colored people were perceived as being snobbish because of their financial wealth. They stay in nice neighborhoods, drive nice cars and have decent job. As opposed to the poor colored people who live in the bad parts of town and have to work for hours on end to provide for their families. Beneatha states "The Murchinsons...
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...A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is the first broadway play written by a black woman. The play is about the dreams of Younger family, a black family who lives in south side of Chicago and the obstacles of making their dreams come true during the Segregation era. The title of Hansberry's play comes from a line of a Langston Hughes poem "Harlem". In his poem, Hughes asks the audience what will happen if we defer or lost our dream. “ Will it dry? Will it rot? Will it fester? Will it sag? Or will it explode?” With her play A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry tries to answer Hughes' questions in his poem. After reading Langston Hughes' biography, we know that Langston Hughes works very hard to reach his success. He grabs every opportunity...
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...Kelly Haddix Eng Comp 2 Jason Elznic 04/25/2012 My essay will show how Marxism is portrayed within the two short stories, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and A Raisin in the Sun. The purpose of this essay is to explain the Marxism role within these two short stories. I will use an academic approach to accomplish this objective. The role of Marxism is portrayed within these two stories, and I will show how Marxism is portrayed and defined by comparing these two short stories. The similarities between the two stories are that both Walter and McMurphy are fighting against a society that is bent on repressing them. Walter with the white community, and McMurphy with the hospital staff at the mental institution, namely Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched represents the controlling party in the mental institution where as the white realtor Mr. Lindner represents the controlling party of the white housing community. According to Dictionary.com the definition of Marxism states that “society is basically the struggle between the social classes.” Randle McMurphy McMurphy showed signs of Marxism’s conflict theory, focusing on the struggles between the classes (nurses and patients).McMurphy violated the norms of society when he was charged with statutory rape and sanctions were imposed, sending him to prison. McMurphy creates a society amongst the patients at the mental institution, which largely affects the structure of the institution. His relationship with the other patients...
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...A raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry shows the struggle of a colored families in trying to live the lives of the white people. A raisin in the sun was released in March 11, 1959 were there was extreme segregation going on between black and white communities. Black people were charged more even though their income was generally less. White communities were also much more educated giving black communities a disadvantage. In 1968 the fair housing act was released but white people were still finding loopholes around this. Similar to a raisin in the sun if a black person began to live in a white neighborhood it would cause a outbreak. Often during this time period there was lots of verbal and physical abuse brought onto to the black people. The scene in a raisin in the sun in which mama tells the family how she had spent the money is crucial because the play had revolved around the money, the money will also be crucial to the advancement of the play and the difficulties that the Younger family will encounter. The scene in which moma reveals of her spending of the money (pg.89-96) is important to the play because the whole play was...
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...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...
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...Questions on A Raisin in the Sun Answer any 8 questions, but make sure to answer #8 1. What does Mama’s plant represent, and how does the symbol evolve over the course of the play? Examine the end of the play. Why is Mama returning for her plant the last action we see on stage ?Mamas plant represents her faith in her dreams. That regardless of their living arrangements and life’s struggles, but never to give up on anything. She took care of it every day it was a representation of her dreams to always live in a bigger and better house with a yard. It showed how strong she was throughout everything life gave her. That’s why she took the new plant to the new house to show that never giving up and keeping your faith her strength in believing in dreams that they come true. Struggle but to maintain your dignity. Dreams do come true. 2. How does the description of the Younger’s’ apartment contribute to the mood of the play? The apartment sets the mood because it sets the surroundings and the environment . It is a small apt with one window it gives the feeling of being cramped and trapped. It lets you know there in the ghetto and are poverty stricken. 3. How does the idea of assimilation become important? The family shows in the hope to succeed regardless of any obstacles. The struggles with their identity as with being African Americans. Beneatha with her academics to be a doctor to heal, and as well as her conflicts with Everyone. ...
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...American Idol of Literature The final judging in the American Idol of Literature competition took place in my mind between the three best written pieces of work in “Making Literature Matter”. The three pieces were “A Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, and even though it is not a story or play, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. Although the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” was the best written thing in the text book, I don’t believe it could legitimately win in an “American Idol” type of competition because it wasn’t actually a story. He wrote that letter better than anything I have seen written to this day minus all of the Harry Potter books as I am very partial to them. He was in the heart of where the country needed to reform the most and no one was willing to help him make it happen. He had sincere guts and the faith required to help make the human rights movement work. All he was doing was answering the question “what are you doing here?” and he did it very successfully and effectively over thirteen pages. My favorite quote of his letter to the congressmen was; As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. (Jr.) It was right after he...
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...A Raisin in the Sun By: Daniel Alejandro Mendivil Ahuatzin 4th hour Racism is a major issue that has affected the United States since its discovery. Racism is the hatred by a person of one race pointed at a person of another race. The United States has grown up to improve as a whole but this process is a long way away from completion. Some citizens still believe that African-Americans are inferior to Caucasians and that they should be slaves. In the 1950s, whites and blacks were segregated to a point that they could not go to the same schools or even use the same bathrooms. Chief Justice Earl Warren abolished the segregation of schools in May of 1954. The desegregation of schools has helped people of all races grow up together in a non-hostile environment where they can develop relationships with people of other races. Throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry criticizes the racial and discriminatory climate of America in the 1950s and early 60s. It becomes obvious to the reader that the racial tension Hansberry experienced growing up reflected on the way her literature is written. Moss and Wilson state that, “Lorraine Hansberry’s South Side childhood, particularly her father’s battle to move into a white neighborhood, provided the background for the events in the play” (314). Hansberry experienced many of the situations she placed the Younger family at first hand. Hansberry’s father, Carl Hansberry, was put in a similar circumstance when he moved...
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...An Introduction to Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Greek and Roman plays, and even Indeed ancient Indian plays (a common Indo-European Tradition), usually had a pivotal character that “held the play together”. Also there would be a Chorus that would come into play when the tragedy would begin unfolding. The Greco-Roman variants were almost always tragedies. Be it Homer’s Iliad or Odessey. The hero after long travails always seemed to return to nothing and would come to grief. Achilles, Priam, Agamemnon, Oedipus, all came to grief. In the Greco-Roman tradition, it seems to be a common practice by the Bards and playwrights, to depict their heroes as strong and upright men who fell prey to either their fates or to the whims and fancies of jealous gods (the plight Medusa & Cassandra). It appears the Greeks and the Romans looked to tragic plays as a sort of vent for their pent up emotions. Not surprisingly, the Indian answers to Homer’s works are also tragedies in keeping with the ancient Indo-European custom. Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are tragedies on an epic scale, where great wars are fought over matters of honor and virtue, and great armies decimated and cities sacked, and where great heroes come to naught. Sophocles takes us back to the times when Kings made their decisions based on oracles, and made propitiatory sacrifices. Sometimes even of their near and dear ones, as the sacrifice of a child, made by the Greeks at the outset of the Trojan war, for favorable winds...
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...When Lorraine Hansberry wrote her famous play A Raisin In The Sun back in 1959 which is a period of time after the second world war, she addressed many topics and problems that the Americans and especially African American people were facing in their lives. One of the major concept that she brought to her play is the concept of home and what it meant and symbolized to African Americans back in those times. The play gave the readers an idea of how the concept of home was essential to African Americans. When the movie came out, it complement the idea by providing visual images to the audience which helped them better understand. To them, home wasn’t just a place that they can live in, it represented equality that they achieved by overcome racial...
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...This research paper attempts to elucidate how each character in the play A Raisin in the Sun written in 1959 by Lorraine Hansberry wants to achieve a dream which represents certain characteristics in common with the American Dream. Furthermore, this paper seeks to reveal to what extent aspects of the American Dreams, such as the ideal of justice or equality between the races, have been fulfilled by analyzing how these aspects are presented in the play. The Younger family is living in Chicago and is facing financial problems as well as social problems such as discrimination. As Mama’s husband died the family receives 10.000$ insurance money, which gives each family member the opportunity to fulfill their dream. Mama herself wants to buy a new house for the family, her daughter pursues the dream of becoming a doctor and her son Walter wants to open a liquor store. However, the fact that Walter’s wife Ruth is pregnant complicates the situation. Mama eventually decides to buy a new house in a white neighborhood and entrusts Walter with the rest of the money, but he loses all the money through a fraud, although he should have left some money to fund Beneatha’s education. Eventually, at the end of the drama, Mr. Lindner offers money to buy the Youngers out of their new house, but Walter stands up against him and declines the offer....
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...Olympic Athlete Gail Devers once said “keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe”. The quote relates well to Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a play about an African American family in who lived in Chicago in the late 1950s. From the beginning of the play the three main characters wanted the American dream. According to dictionary.com the American dream is the “ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American.” But in the unjust situation of the Younger family the American dream was maybe another dream left in the heads of promising African American. But in the play Raisin in the sun, Hansberry makes an exception with her characters Mrs. Younger, Walter Lee, and Beneatha have memorable dreams. These dreams reveal a great deal about the nature of the characters’, which unjust societal expectations and discrimination cannot destroy. Travelling down the timeline of American history, the problem of discrimination is inevitable. In the 1950s discrimination took a turn for the worse when racial segregation was born. Hansberry use each characters...
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...A Raisin in the Sun Latika Vick, Sharlyn Harvey, Suzette Alarcon, & Candace White BSHS/422 November 26, 2011 Tim Nolan A Raisin in the Sun A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry based on a colored family between WWII and the 1960’s. The family matriarch is Lena Younger, mother to Walter Lee Younger and Beneatha Younger. They reside in a Chicago Southside apartment along with Walter’s wife Ruth and son Travis. Living in a two-bedroom apartment which they share a bathroom with their neighbor is one of many obstacles the Younger family encounters. Their home is reaching capacity and they learn Ruth is pregnant. This one of many reasons the Younger family desires to move into a home in Clybourne Park. This writing will address some of the challenges the Younger family endured as a poor colored family living in Chicago and ways to address their problems. Walter Lee is the main character who battles with alcoholism, depression, discrimination, and the loss of his father. This writing will also concentrate on the Younger’s culture, beliefs, values, and religion. Cultural Issues and Problems Culture is a set of shared values, goals, practices, behaviors, and beliefs shared by a particular social, ethnic, or age groups. Lena Younger has raised her family to believe and have faith in GOD, love, and provide for family, value education, and work hard. Although she valued these things she still tried to instill values in her children. In...
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...was a prolific writer and his themes were driven by the racial oppression that he witnessed all around him and that he experienced first hand as well. Hughes was a prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a time in America when African Americans experienced a flowering of intellectual and cultural activities in the African American communities in Harlem, New York. Alain Locke referred to this era as the New Negro Movement. During this time, Langston Hughes and other African writers’ words were full of protest and great expressions of the social injustices that were bestowed upon African Americans. Langston Hughes often wrote about the second class citizenship status that African Americans experienced, and the ills of segregation were key themes in his writings. His writings not only voiced protest, but the theme of rejection was present in his writings. He wrote about his personal rejection from everywhere when searching for work. In addition, like other New Negro Movement writers, Hughes spoke out against and provided vivid descriptions of how African American were viewed and treated as inhuman and inferior. Hughes also included ways that he thought the discrimination and oppression should change. Hughes was considered a literary giant whose works included poetry, novels, essays, and short stories among others....
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