Life In The 1950s And The Play A Raisin In The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry

Thesis Statement

Hansberry presented an honest portrayal of family life in the 1950s by illustrating racism, segregation, and women's oppression through her characters in “A Raisin in the Sun”.

Introduction

This analytical essay is about 'A Raisin in the Sun' play from Literature. The '50s were a kind of turning point in the United States due to the start of civil rights movement. The racial tensions of the time definitely ignite conflict of the play. A critical and popular success of A Raisin in the Sun ran for nearly two years and earned for Hansberry the added achievement of becoming the youngest playwright and the first black playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, no small honor in a season that included plays by Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams (Abcarian & Marvin, p.102).

The play takes place in Chicago's South Side sometime between World War II and 1959, and is staged completely within a small, dilapidated apartment over the course of a couple of weeks. The play focuses on the Younger family: Lena, a widow, his son, Walter, an ambitious driver, Beneatha, a student who wants to be a doctor, Walter's wife Ruth and his son Travis. When the play opens, the family expects a insurance check for $ 10,000, and each family member has a different map for the money. Walter dreams of investing money in a liquor store. Lena wants to buy a house for the family. After Walter haunts his mother and tells her he wants to be the man of the house, Lena gives $ 6.500. However, on the day when the family is set to move into their new home, Walter discovers that was scammed for $ 6,500 (Abcarian & Marvin, p.200).

Discussion and Analysis

The black arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the creation of such outstanding dramatic groups as Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theater. African American theatrical performances continued to receive mainstream critical acclaim. The first African American woman to write a Broadway show, Lorraine Hansberry created A Raisin in the Sun (1961), which won praise for the performances of its cast, including Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Louis Gossett, Jr. August Wilson wrote interconnected plays exploring African American identity in the twentieth century and accurately depicting the vernacular and brutal reality of inner city life.

The play shows that the younger family lives in a small apartment on the South Side of Chicago and struggle to pay the bills in a racist society. When Lena receives a check for $10,000, she has the difficult task of deciding how to spend the money. The dreams of all family members come to light when they imagine what that money could do for them. Finally, Lena decides to buy a house for the family in a white neighborhood, and asks his son to be responsible for the amount left hoping that he save money to help pay for Beneatha medical ...