a raisin in the sun essay pdf

A Raisin in The Sun

Introduction to a raisin in the sun, summary of a raisin in the sun, major themes in a raisin in the sun  , major characters of a raisin in the sun, writing style of a raisin in the sun, analysis of the literary devices in a raisin in the sun, related posts:, post navigation.

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A Raisin in the Sun

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A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine hansberry, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

A Raisin in the Sun examines the effects of racial prejudice on the fulfillment of an African-American family’s dreams. The play centers on the Youngers, a working-class family that lives in Chicago’s South Side during the mid-twentieth century. Shortly before the play begins, the head of the Younger family, Big Walter , dies, leaving the family to inherit a $10,000 life insurance payment . The family eagerly awaits the arrival of the insurance check, which has the potential to make the family’s long deferred dreams into reality. However, the members of the Younger family have conflicting ideas—conflicting dreams—regarding the best use for the money, which causes tension.

At the beginning of the play Mama , Big Walter’s widow, expresses uncertainty regarding the best use for the money. Mama tells her daughter-in-law, Ruth , that she and her late husband shared the dream of owning a house, but that poverty and racism prevented them from fulfilling this dream during Big Walter’s lifetime. Mama’s daughter, Beneatha , aspires to attend medical school and become a doctor, a considerable challenge for an African-American woman at that time. Beneatha’s older brother, Walter Lee , belittles his sister’s dream, instead suggesting that she simply get married. Walter wants to use the insurance payment as an investment in a liquor store, an idea that Mama and his wife Ruth both dislike. Ruth, worried about her troubled marriage and the family’s cramped living situation, shares Mama’s hope for a house, although she is willing to support her husband’s dream because, as she tells Mama, “He needs this chance.” Walter finds his job as a white man’s chauffeur demeaning and he sees the liquor store investment as the only path towards a better future.

On the same day that the check arrives, Ruth finds out that she is pregnant, which makes her question whether the family can afford to raise another child. Knowing that Ruth is considering an abortion, Mama begs Walter to convince his wife to keep the baby. Walter is unable to say anything and leaves the apartment. As Mama watches her family “falling apart,” she makes the decision to place a down payment on a home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, hoping that her choice to “do something bigger” will bring the family together.

Mama’s decision to purchase a house only sends Walter deeper into despair as he sees the opportunity to fulfill his dream disappear. On the other hand, the new house fills Ruth with joy and hope for her family, helping her to imagine the possibility of a happy future for her unborn child. Several weeks later, Walter continues to grow more despondent and skips work three days in a row. As Mama realizes that “I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you,” she decides to transfer control of the household and the rest of the insurance money to Walter, asking only that he set aside a portion for Beneatha’s schooling. Mama’s decision reinvigorates Walter.

A week later, the family is happily preparing for its move when Karl Lindner arrives and tells them of Clybourne Park’s offer to buy their new home as a way to dissuade the family from moving to the neighborhood. The family confidently refuses the offer. Moments later, Walter’s friend Bobo enters and tells Walter that Willy Harris has disappeared with the liquor store investment. Without heeding Mama’s advice, Walter had invested the entirety of the insurance money in the liquor store, and the loss leaves the family on the brink of financial ruin.

An hour later, the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai visits Beneatha and finds her distraught over the lost money. Asagai asks Beneatha to marry him and “come home” to Africa with him, a sudden proposal that Beneatha says she will need to consider. Soon after, Walter informs the family that he will accept Lindner’s offer, which greatly disappoints them. However, as Walter and his son, Travis , face Lindner, Walter reclaims his dignity and refuses Lindner’s offer. Excited but well aware of the dangers that await them, the Youngers leave their apartment and head to their new home.

Raisin in the Sun, A

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A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sun essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.

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A Raisin in the Sun Essays

The aspirations of women in a raisin in the sun emilie browne, a raisin in the sun.

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun challenges the stereotype of 1950's America as a country full of doting, content housewives. The women in this play, Mama, Ruth and Beneatha, represent three generations of black women who, despite their...

Viewing the World from Different Angles: Generation Gaps in Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun Kathryn Larrivee

The African-American experience of growing up in America changed dramatically throughout the course of the twentieth century, thus leading to differing views between the older and younger generations. In Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the...

Women, Black and Proud Michael 'Shotgun' Spratling

"We're people, we're just like the birds and the bees, We'd rather die on our feet, Than be livin' on our knees" ("James Brown Lyrics"). These lyrics for James Brown's classic soul hit "Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)" could have easily been...

The Struggle of Finding a Home in African-American Literature Peggie Ruth Hale College

The “American Dream” connotes a vision of a house with a white picket fence, a place of warmth and family, a secure place to lay one's head at night, a place to just be. Much of African-American literature since the 1900's demonstrates that the...

A Dream Deferred: An Analysis of "A Raisin in the Sun" Blondene Leys College

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over -- Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load. Or does it...

Opposite Takes on the “American Dream” in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman Kevin Andrew Fagan College

Money is one way to achieve one of the “American Dreams.” The “American Dream” is different for everyone and that dream for most people depends on how they were raised. There are many plays that critique the “American Dream” but only two will be...

Development of the Family Melodrama Genre: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and A Raisin in the Sun Anonymous College

A melodrama is a film which appeals to the emotions of its audience, on a higher level than the simple “drama” genre. The characters of a melodrama are often stereotyped and exaggerated to indicate something about the culture of the times, making...

Family's Effect on Identity: The Bean Trees and A Raisin in the Sun Sarah L Klotz 10th Grade

What describes family is not the people who are blood related or someone who has an obligation. Family is loving someone unconditionally and mutually; family is those who greet the worst self of someone without judgement and still stick around...

Petrie's Film Adaptation: Placing A Raisin in the Sun in a New Light Anonymous 12th Grade

The American Dream varies for individuals, but for most it includes providing a stable home for their children and ensuring future generations will have more opportunities to become successful. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine...

The Dissonance Among Family, Pride, and Money Amogh Garudadwajan 10th Grade

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. This is depicted perfectly in Lorraine Hansberry’s...

Marxist Literary Analysis of A Raisin in the Sun Anonymous 11th Grade

“Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life – now it’s money” (Hansberry, 74). The quote from Mama portrays the Youngers, a typical African American family living in Chicago in 1959, in their struggle to break free from the endless...

The Ideal Man and the Flawed Pursuit of Perfection Andrew Cowan College

Both Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun and Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved are works that deal predominately with race, but feature vastly different subject matter. Beloved features a group of people haunted by the memory of...

The Circumscribed and Tragic Hero: Lena’s role in A Raisin in the Sun Katie Livingston College

In his book Twelve Million Black Voices Richard Wright asserts that:In the Black Belts of the northern cities, our women are the most circumscribed and tragic objects to be found in our lives […] Surrounding our black women are many almost...

The Issue of Universality in Critical Responses to A Raisin in The Sun Oscar Williams College

“One of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific” (Hansberry, To Be Young 128).

Ben Keppel notes that during the 1960s and 1970s, A Raisin in the Sun ...

Love and Wealth: A Comparison of So Long a Letter and A Raisin in the Sun Anonymous College

What exactly makes love and wealth so appealing to humans? Love is a desirable feeling, which people feel they cannot live without. People need love in their life to feel whole, when they are with or care for a special someone. Wealth refers to...

Deceased and Significant: How "A Raisin in the Sun" Portrays the Father and His Impact Anonymous 10th Grade

Lorraine Hansberry’s play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, first debuted in the year 1959 on Broadway, depicts the life of the Youngers, a fictional African-American family, in the 1950’s, who live in Chicago, USA. Hansberry delineates the deceased father -...

• A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry

• Literature Notes
• Essay Questions
• Play Summary
• About A Raisin in the Sun
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Act I — Scene 1
• Act I — Scene 2
• Act II — Scene 1
• Act II — Scene 2
• Act II — Scene 3
• Character Analysis
• Ruth Younger
• Travis Younger
• Mama (Lena Younger)
• Walter Lee Younger ("Brother")
• Beneatha Younger
• Joseph Asagai
• George Murchison
• Karl Lindner
• Mrs. Johnson (Mrs. Wilhelmina Othella Johnson)
• The Two Moving Men
• Character Map
• Lorraine Hansberry Biography
• Critical Essays
• Applying Literary Terms to A Raisin In The Sun
• Thematic Structure of A Raisin In The Sun
• Language and Style of A Raisin In The Sun
• Three Versions of A Raisin In The Sun
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Study Help Essay Questions

1.  In literature, as in life, a character may search for a better way of life. Show how  two  characters from  A Raisin in the Sun  are searching for a better way of life. Explain what each character is hoping to gain through this search and discuss the ways in which each character attempts to bring about a change in his or her life.

2. Discuss the ways in which the setting of Raisin has a profound effect upon two of the characters.

3. If people can be divided into three groups — those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened — apply each of these to the three characters in Raisin who respectively prove that this is so.

4. Often, pressure from other people or from outside forces might compel a person to take an action that he or she might not have taken ordinarily. Discuss a character from Raisin who was pressured into taking an action that he or she might not have taken on his or her own.

5. Show how Raisin deals with the generation gap — the problems that the older generation has in dealing with the younger generation and vice versa.

6. Discuss the ways in which two characters in Raisin have made adjustments to negative aspects of their environment. These adjustments might be to the character's physical surroundings, to other people, or to the customs and traditions of the society in which they live.

7. Sometimes something as seemingly trivial as a meeting or a conversation between two people can have a lasting effect upon the life of one or even of both of them. Discuss how either a seemingly unimportant meeting or a casual conversation brings about a significant change in the life of one of the characters in Raisin .

8. Sometimes in one work of literature, we might find two characters who contrast markedly from one another. Discuss two characters from Raisin who are the opposite of each other in their views, beliefs, and philosophy of life.

9. In literature, as in life, a character might feel trapped. Discuss a character from Raisin who feels trapped and give examples of the ways in which this character chooses to deal with those feelings.

10. Discuss a character from Raisin who changes significantly, telling specifically of the forces that bring about this change. How does this character relate to the other characters before the change and how does this character relate to the other characters after the change?

11. Most people define loneliness as being alone, but a person might experience loneliness even when surrounded by other people. A person can be lonely if his/her ideas, feelings, or circumstances are different from those around them. Discuss a character from Raisin who experiences loneliness because of the differences in his/her ideas, feelings, or circumstances.

12. Often, in life, a situation may reach a "point of no return" — the point after which the life of a person can never be the same. Describe such a turning point for a character in Raisin .

13. Add another ending to the already existing ending of Raisin. Describe what you think happens next — after the Youngers have left their Southside Chicago apartment and have moved into their new house. You might write a composition or you may wish to continue in Hansberry's genre, using the dialogue of the characters to show your plot.

14. Noting Lorraine Hansberry's unique writing style, compare Walter Lee's imitation of a subservient, stereotypical begging "darky," (the heartbreaking speech he plans to deliver to Lindner in order to regain the lost money) with the speech that Walter Lee actually gives when Lindner arrives. How are they different in language? What is Hansberry's point in having Walter Lee practice one speech and then say something completely different?

15. After reading a full-length biography of Langston Hughes, show how he might have had a profound effect on Lorraine Hansberry's writing of A Raisin in the Sun .

16. After reading a full-length biography of Lorraine Hansberry, discuss the ways in which events of her own life are interwoven into her play A Raisin in the Sun .

17. Research the following events of 1955 and tell how each might have contributed to Lorraine Hansberry's political philosophy: the arrest of Rosa Parks; Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; and the murder of Emmett Till.

18. In order to be more aware of the historical events surrounding the opening of Raisin on Broadway, summarize the headlines of The New York Times for March 11, 1959 (the date Raisin opened on Broadway); also summarize a full-length article from Life magazine for that week; and summarize an article from Ebony magazine for that month.

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Archives & manuscripts, lorraine hansberry papers 1947-1988 d.

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The Lorraine Hansberry Papers document Lorraine Hansberry's life as an award-winning playwright and activist, and chronicles her activities during the Civil Rights Movement. Virtually all of Hansberry's writings, autobiographical materials, journals, diaries, personal and professional correspondence are included here, as well as related materials generated by her late husband, Robert Nemiroff, and his third wife, Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff, as the executors of Hansberry's state. Significant correspondents include Daisy Bates, Louis Burnham, Julian Mayfield, Robert Nemiroff, and William Worthy.

The Lorraine Hansberry Papers chronicle the life of the award-winning playwright, and documents her legacy which was largely amassed and constructed by her late former husband, Robert Nemiroff, and his third wife, Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff. The papers include virtually all of Hansberry's writings, autobiographical materials, journals, diaries, personal and professional correspondence, and related materials generated by Nemiroff and Gresham-Nemiroff, as the executors of the Lorraine Hansberry Estate. The papers are organized into four series, PERSONAL PAPERS, WRITINGS, PROFESSIONAL, and LEGACY.

The Lorraine Hansberry papers are arranged in six series:

Contains materials created primarily by Hansberry from 1950 until her death in 1964. Included are diaries, journals and autobiographical notes, information regarding education and employment, subject files, correspondence, and interviews. Information about her extended illness and get-well cards are also filed here.

Largest series, divided into two subseries, Play Scripts and Other Writings. The series contains the bulk of Hansberry's play scripts, articles, lectures and speeches, short stories, poems and other writings.

Series is divided into two subseries, Correspondence and Employment. The series is mainly comprised of correspondence Hansberry had with various organizations and individuals, and materials concerning her early employment history. Among the files are records that pertain to her career in journalism in the 1950s.

The final series, LEGACY, is divided into two subseries, Robert Nemiroff and Lorraine Hansberry Legacy and Projects. The first subseries, Robert Nemiroff files, is further subdivided into two sub-subseries, Nemiroff's Biographical Information, and Lorraine Hansberry Estate.

Additionally there are articles from the 1970s and 1980s where Nemiroff was quoted speaking about his late former wife. Also found here are a number of slightly different drafts for a musical, "Kicks and Co"., an interracial musical by Oscar Brown, Jr. It is not known what Nemiroff's role was regarding the play.

Originally an editor, music publisher and award-winning songwriter, Nemiroff produced Hansberry's second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. He also had his own play, Postmark Zero, his adaptation of the book, The Last Letters from Stalingrad, presented on Broadway in 1965, in London and on national television.

• Library - List of selected books from Hansberry's library

Custodial history

(A note on the arrangement. The Papers were arranged by archivist Matthew Lyons for the Lorraine Hansberry Estate prior to their transfer to the Center. In most instances, the Schomburg archival team has adhered to this initial arrangement).

Source of acquisition

The Estate of Lorraine Hansberry, 1998

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Processed by: Steven G. Fullwood, Janice Quinter, Nurah-Rosalie Jeter, and Diana Lachatanere, with assistance from Lisann Lewin and Artis Q. Wright, May 2006

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Raisin in The Sun — Themes in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”

Themes in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in The Sun"

• Categories: A Raisin in The Sun Racial Discrimination

About this sample

Words: 700 |

Published: Jun 6, 2024

Words: 700 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, the pursuit of dreams, racial discrimination, family dynamics, body paragraph 4: gender and social expectations.

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Related Essays on A Raisin in The Sun

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Random House, 1959.

Setting plays a crucial role in shaping the characters and themes of a literary work. A great example of this can be found in Lorraine Hansberry's classic play, A Raisin in the Sun. Set in the 1950s on the South Side of Chicago, [...]

The American Dream is a concept that has been deeply ingrained in the fabric of American society for centuries. It is the belief that anyone, regardless of their background or circumstances, can achieve success and prosperity [...]

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, the themes of dreams, racial discrimination, and family dynamics are prominently featured. This essay will examine how these themes are portrayed in the play and their [...]

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over -- Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy [...]

Success/Values: Walter Lee defines success as material and financial gain. Beneatha defines success as self-actualization, or learning about and nurturing oneself. But to their mother, Lena,success is less self-centered and lies [...]

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