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The Black Ambition of A Raisin in the Sun

Revisiting lorraine hansberry’s most famous play in the wake of the open letter to white american theater.

Stephen Perry, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun (1961), directed by Daniel Petrie. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation .

by Koritha Mitchell | September 4, 2020

When the curtains open on Lorraine Hansberry’s most famous play, A Raisin in the Sun , we see Ruth Younger bustling about a claustrophobic Chicago kitchenette: waking her loved ones, cooking, fretting. As the Youngers compete with other tenants for the bathroom down the hall, Hansberry uses stage directions and dialogue to suggest that cramped quarters strain relationships. Recently widowed, Lena Younger lives here with her adult son, Walter Lee, who is Ruth’s husband; their son, Travis; and Lena’s 20-year-old daughter, Beneatha, who wants to become a doctor. Mama Lena has received a $10,000 insurance check because her husband “worked hisself to death,” which Walter Lee wants to invest in a liquor store.

The play debuted in 1959 and made Hansberry the first African American woman dramatist produced on Broadway, and its tensions unfold as the United States worked to convince people of color that they would never be at home. Facing segregation and housing discrimination, African Americans cultivated what I call homemade citizenship —a deep sense of success and belonging that does not rely on mainstream recognition or civic inclusion.

Suburban home ownership became a barometer of American success in the 1930s and 1940s, with mortgage loans newly subsidized by the Federal Housing Administration. But Black and Brown citizens were systematically excluded , so most African Americans could not pursue home ownership until the 1950s. Placing Black people’s struggle to attain this marker of American achievement on Broadway, Hansberry accomplished a feat parallel to that of the family she portrayed. Both the Youngers and their creator encountered hostility for daring to reach for what the country defined as success.

Revisiting Hansberry’s 1959 triumph proves poignant in the wake of the open letter to “White American Theater,” which is part of the racial reckoning prompted by the video-recorded police murder of George Floyd. Signed by more than 350 practitioners and creators of color, including Lin Manuel Miranda and Viola Davis, the letter exposes how the theater world resembles other arenas: Its institutions prioritize solidarity statements over self-reflection, structural transformation, and material redress. The letter also suggests that theater criticism facilitates exclusion and condescension: “We have watched you amplify our voices when we are heralded by the press, but refuse to defend our aesthetic when we are not, allowing our livelihoods to be destroyed by a monolithic and racist critical culture.”

Though Hansberry became “ a darling of the theater world ,” according to biographer Imani Perry, she experienced the racism of its critical culture. Because United States citizenship is built on the exclusion of African Americans, even when Black success does not prompt naked brutality, it inspires condescending reminders of difference, of outsider status. A Raisin in the Sun therefore places a spotlight on what historian Carol Anderson calls white rage : In portraying Black ambition, the play also showcases the white hostility that always accompanies it.

Over the course of the play, as the Youngers pursue a better life, Mama Lena spends part of her insurance payout to place a down payment on a house in the Chicago suburb of Clybourne Park. In response, her son Walter Lee disappears for three days. When he returns, his hopelessness convinces Lena that she has helped the United States strip her son of his manhood and kill his dreams. So she gives him the $6,500 left after the down payment, instructing him to put $3,000 in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical school education and the rest in a checking account under his name. “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be,” she says.

On moving day, Mama Lena is out when a representative of the suburban neighborhood association arrives. Karl Lindner, who is white, tells Walter Lee, “Our association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family.”

Insulted by this “ civil ” effort to keep his family out of the neighborhood, Walter Lee declines. However, he later realizes he has been swindled out of every penny entrusted to him, having given it to an acquaintance who promised to speed up the liquor license process and then skipped town. He invites Lindner back and rehearses a speech to accept the humiliating offer.

In the end, Walter Lee cannot stomach the routine he has practiced. “We have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick,” he tells Lindner.

“What do you think you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where you just aren’t wanted?” Lindner demands.

The play ends with the Youngers moving out of the tenement, heading for the suburbs, despite every indication that their fellow Americans will not welcome them. Mama Lena is the last to exit the apartment, and her pensive farewell serves as a prelude to a future of offstage malevolence.

Hansberry’s drama highlights the mundane cruelty of denying people of color desirable homes. While the federal government encouraged “all” Americans to pursue home ownership, FHA redlining enacted bloodless violence by making whiteness a qualification for access to the American Dream. At the same time, the labor movement’s “family wage” campaign empowered white heads of household while excluding non-white people, given that (like most American institutions) unions discriminated based on race, as cultural historian Chandan Reddy has shown.

Employment and housing discrimination prevented most citizens of color from organizing their households according to the nuclear family ideal, a male breadwinner and his financially dependent wife and children. The few whose households fit this mold achieved a level of success that would not go unchecked. White Americans attacked families of color who dared to move into “their” neighborhoods. Thus, declarations about the nation’s preferred domestic configuration amounted to discursive violence—telling everyone to aspire to an ideal while affirming only white examples of it—that encouraged physical violence.

The Youngers understand that they invite injury by clinging to a suburban definition of success. As they reach for what white Americans will attack them for securing, they do not pursue white acceptance, but instead, claim what they believe to be rightfully theirs. Aligning with the tradition traced by legal historian Martha S. Jones, Walter Lee declares his family to be birthright citizens , telling Lindner, “This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation of my family in this country.”

Interpretations of Raisin have been shaped by the presumption that it is a protest play, that it resists segregation. This lens obscures what most drives the action: a pursuit of success. If one focuses on accomplishment as African Americans do, it becomes clear that pursuing achievement in the face of white opposition requires the Youngers to define and re-define the parameters of success. They are not pursuing integration as a form of protest or resistance, but rather, to accomplish goals and claim resources. The play reveals that what has been framed as “integration” is really about getting white people to stop hoarding everything desirable. Further, “civil rights” are human rights—pursued not for “equality” with white people but as an assertion of clarity about one’s due.

While pursuing success, most members of the Younger family prioritize patriarchy, so the play showcases a reality that protest-obsessed audiences miss: the damage done in Black households when prevailing ideas about gender are not questioned. The Youngers subscribe to the rhetoric of the 1950s Black church that often vilified single women’s goals. Christianity’s message of affirmation routinely failed to reach single black women—represented in Raisin by Beneatha—even in their own homes. Beneatha personifies all that must remain “beneath,” as Mama Lena pursues a particular vision of success. Beneatha’s future is sacrificed because, although Walter Lee shows little capacity for leadership, he is male and therefore his mother is determined to make a leader of him. Beneatha is not only teased for her pan-African sensibilities and denigrated for valuing career over marriage, but also, in an iconic scene, she is slapped by her mother in the name of God.

This complexity has been overlooked because theater criticism kept Hansberry preoccupied with defending Lena’s humanity. White critics’ casual vilification of Mama Lena as an emasculating matriarch revealed a lack of empathy for the pressures she faced, and led Hansberry to defend Mama Lena as fiercely as Mama Lena had defended Walter Lee.

However, if one focuses on how African Americans would encounter the work’s theme of Black achievement, the terms of the debate change. In the Younger household, success is defined in patriarchal terms, devaluing half the community. Scholars and readers rarely notice this, however, because most insist upon seeing Mama Lena as the embodiment of resistance to racism. Even the insightful biographer Perry argues, regarding Lena, that “in Lorraine’s literary world, mother wisdom is trustworthy though subtle, and paternal inheritances are thorny and overpowering.” If Lena’s behavior is examined not as a reaction to white hostility but for its impact on Black people, however, it becomes clear that when family members do not live up to patriarchal ideals, she not only withholds affirmation; she is violent. Besides slapping Beneatha, she “starts to beat [Walter Lee] senselessly in the face” for losing the insurance money. The Younger household is not a safe haven, especially for women who question (divinely ordained) male leadership.

Perry, Hansberry’s most nuanced chronicler, notes the playwright’s frustration with white critics’ failure to engage the work itself. A crucial question therefore arises: “How does one navigate racial perceptions that overlay everything … such that they effectively become part of the production no matter what the artist does? For Lorraine the answer was to become a critic.”

Hansberry could not ignore what the recent open letter to white American theater calls a “monolithic and racist critical culture,” so she wrote cultural criticism herself. Nevertheless, the complexity of her creative work proves undeniable, if examined with Black audience members in mind. Because African Americans pursue success despite the odds against them, the art they produce while doing so offers insight into how they remain invested in accomplishment despite the white rage it attracts.

Debating what constitutes achievement is part of the labor of cultivating homemade citizenship, but it is complicated work. As performance theorist Soyica Colbert suggests , Raisin ’s tense scenes expose “the conditions that enable Mama to create a house” as well as those “that establish Beneatha’s homelessness.” Beneatha is outnumbered, yet Hansberry’s play honors her struggle. With her last words, Beneatha stands firm: “I wouldn’t marry [the man everyone approves of] if he was Adam and I was Eve!” In preserving Beneatha’s bold perspective, Hansberry’s work encourages African Americans to question whether their definitions of success account for the entire community.

This message remains relevant, as Black and Brown women succeed against the odds, only to become targets for abuse . When hostility does not come in the form of attack, it manifests as erasure: Black women’s leadership is often relegated to the margins , even as their ideas set the course that many others later advocate. Meanwhile, Black and Brown women continue to be ridiculed whenever they prioritize their own goals rather than simply serve everyone else. These tensions are as deep now as they were in Hansberry’s time, and we should heed her call to address them both within communities of color and on the national stage.

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A Raisin in the Sun

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

Dreams possess great importance in A Raisin in the Sun , with the play’s name coming from a 1951 Langston Hughes poem titled Montage of a Dream Deferred . In the poem, part of which serves as the play’s epigraph (a quotation at the beginning of a book that elaborates on its major themes) the poet asks, “What happens to a dream deferred?” pondering whether it shrivels up “like a raisin in the sun” or…

Dignity and Pride

A central virtue in the Younger household, dignity exerts a unifying force throughout the play. Mama expresses pride in her family’s background and tries to instill in her children a sense of respect for their ancestors, who were Southern slaves and sharecroppers. Although some characters, such as Mrs. Johnson , criticize the family as “one proud-acting bunch of colored folks,” the family holds fast to its ancestral dignity, an inheritance it considers to be greater…

Race, Discrimination, and Assimilation

In 1959 much of the United States, including Chicago, remained de facto segregated, meaning that racial segregation persisted in education, employment, and housing even though the Supreme Court had overturned segregation that was established by law as unconstitutional. Set in de facto segregated Chicago, Hansberry’s play draws on stories from the author’s own life, such as her family’s experience with housing discrimination in 1930s Chicago. After moving to a house in an all-white neighborhood, Hansberry’s…

Gender and Feminism

A Raisin in the Sun anticipates the massive changes in gender relations – principally, the rise of feminism and the Sexual Revolution – that would transform American life in the 1960s. Hansberry explores controversial issues like abortion (which was illegal in 1959), the value of marriage, and morphing gender roles for women and men. Each of the Youngers takes a different attitude towards shifting gender roles, and the characters’ perspectives shed light on their identities…

Money provides a constant source of conflict and preoccupation in the Younger household. Within moments of the play’s opening, Walter Lee asks Ruth , “Check coming today?” in reference to the insurance payment that his mother, Lena , is due to receive as a result of her husband’s death. The members of the Younger family view money in different ways, with Mama, Beneatha , and Ruth imagining money as a means to an end and…

104 A Raisin in the Sun Essay Topics & Examples

Below, see A Raisin in the Sun essay topics collected by our team . Use these original titles to examine the themes of poverty and the American dream.

🏆 Best A Raisin in the Sun Essay Topics & Examples

📌 simple & easy essay topics for a raisin in the sun, 🔖 most interesting a raisin in the sun essay prompt, ❓ a raisin in the sun essay questions.

• Walter Lee Younger: Character Analysis Essay This promise is immature; Walter knows very well that getting the money to invest in his business remains a point of contention, yet he promises Willy that he would take the money.
• Play Review: “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry The family is living in a shabby South Chicago apartment and each of the family’s members is on the pursuit of his/her dream.
• Comparing A Raisin in the Sun by L. Hansberry and Fences by A. Wilson As the story opens, each person in the family is thinking of what to do with the money they are about to get from an insurance firm as compensation of Mr.
• Racial Discrimination in “A Raisin in the Sun” Racial discrimination is the main theme of the book, strongly reflecting the situation that prevailed during the 1950s in the United States, a time when the story’s Younger family lived in Chicago’s South Side ghetto.
• Literature Comparison: A Raisin in the Sun and A Dream Deferred Despite the seeming difference in genre, stylistic choices, characters and settings, the novel Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Langston Hughes’ poem A Dream Deferred have a lot in common; in fact, one […]
• Beneatha’s Dream Analysis From “A Raisin in the Sun” However, as levelheaded as she is, she still has a dream of her own. Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor defines the character’s main decisions, making her more vulnerable and relatable.
• “Raisin in the Sun” and “Harlem” Hansberry and Hughes introduce the same idea of a dream compared to a raisin dried up in the sun, but explain it in different ways in order to show how the interpretation of a thought […]
• Realism in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry “A Raisin in the Sun” is a play in three acts whose action unfolds sometime between the end of World War II and the 1950s.
• Compare and Contrast Lena Younger and Walter Lee Younger She seems more concerned about the status of living conditions and the ability to enjoy the freedom as opposed to being in possession of money.
• Generations in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry For instance, in Lorraine Hansberry’s play Raisin in the Sun, the concept is shown via the manifestation of generational parity and its influence on the Youngers family’s characters.
• “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorrain Hansberry Review That little plant is the symbol of hope for a family determined to escape the squalor and violence of the ghetto.
• A Raisin in the Sun: The Play by Lorraine Hansberry Climax in the play is realized when Walter is made to understand by Bobo that Willy, the man entrusted with the money to start a liquor business has run away with the money, this thus […]
• “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” and “A Raisin in the Sun” In this regard, the decisions of Hamlet, Claudius, Walter, and Lena illustrate the character’s commitment to family despite differences of opinion and disagreements.
• Race Barriers to Dreams. “A Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry Focusing on the life of a Black American family, the author discusses the problems of race-based prejudice, segregation, historical memory, and the role of generational gaps in racial minorities’ attitudes to injustice.
• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Drama In the play A Raising in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, each member of the Younger family has his/her own idea on how to spend $10,000 that the family received from the insurance cover of […]
• Deferred Dreams in Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” In the play A Raisin in the Sun, the playwriter uses art to fictionalize encounters of a delayed dream by a family; it is a supposition of the poem by Hughes.
• The Play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry As a result, the educated and intelligent Beneatha chooses the sincere Asagai, with whom she is not shy about leaving her hair curled and dancing to African music. Thus, Beneatha is a strong heroine who […]
• Walter Lee Younger in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry The story that best exemplifies the traits of the character at the beginning of the play is the opportunity to sell the house.
• Hero or Zero: Analysis of Walter in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry When his mother gets insurance for ten thousand dollars after his father’s death, he decides to take a risk and invest a part of the money in a liquor store.
• Appearance in “Othello” and “A Raisin in the Sun” The paper under analysis is based on the comparison of Othello by Shakespeare and A Raising in the Sun by Hansberry through the manifesting of the theme of the racial segregation and the nature of […]
• Hanisberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” The characters in A Raising in the Sun are real in the sense that the reader can have a feel of a mother’s love for her family and for her children to succeed in life.
• My Life and “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry Racial segregation is a core factor which intended many famous American writers, playwrights, social figures in the first half of the twentieth century to show the real state of things in the “democratic and free” […]
• Racial Segregation in Two Books “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansbury and “The Child by Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe In this paper, we will discuss the elements of ‘racism’ portrayed in the two books, “A Raisin in the Sun”, written by Lorraine Hansbury, and “The Child by Tiger”, by Thomas Wolfe.
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry: Play Analysis It does well to portray the social features of strong segregation and racial discrimination that prevailed during the 1950s in the United States, a time when the story’s younger family lived in Chicago’s South Side […]
• “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry: Major Full-Length Play Lena expresses misgivings about Walter’s plan to invest in the liquor business, and he, in turn, accuses his mother of destroying his dream of becoming a successful businessman and providing for his family. Hansberry wants […]
• A Raisin in the Sun by Jane G. A. Racial discrimination is the main theme of the book, strongly reflecting the situation that prevailed during the 1950s in the United States, a time when the story’s Younger family lived in Chicago’s South Side ghetto.
• “A Raisin in the Sun” Play by Lorraine Hansberry This paper is discussing the character of the relationship between mama and her son Walter together with the problems which are brought up in the interaction of these two characters in the play.
• The Novel “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry Taking a closer look at the way the Youngers family lives, one can see the writer’s concern for the Black American society and the relationships within the Afro-Americans as well as the relations between the […]
• Feminism and Roles in “A Raisin in the Sun” Play These are such questions as: “What does Beneatha’s conduct reveal about her intentions?”, “How does the character treat female’s role in society?”, “How does Beneatha regard poor people?”, “How does the heroine explain her choice […]
• “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry Literature Analysis The book, A Raisin in the Sun, clearly Lorraine Hansberry’s masterpiece, presents a 1950s life of a family- the Youngers; the family is caught up with individualism as they make decisions regarding money acquired from […]
• ‘The Glass Menagerie’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ Drama Analysis The two plays ‘The Glass Menagerie’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ brings out the features of American society. On the other hand, the play ‘The Glass Menagerie’ portrays the American men who ran away […]
• “The Day It Happened” by Rosario Morales and “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry The two characters’ attitude towards their background is also different as Ramon is proud of being Hispanic and he speaks Spanish with his wife when he pleads her to stay, “Si te vas me mato.
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry The check is on life insurance and is to be given to Lena due to the death of her husband. Wilter asks for the insurance money in order for him to work with it and […]
• Thematic Analysis of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” Mama, the head of the family plans to buy a house and fulfill her lifetime dream which she shared with her late husband. Walter’s understanding of this American dream marks the center of the conflict […]
• The Constant Struggle of the African American Family in a White Man’s World in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Parent-Child Conflict in Lorraine Hansberry’s Play “A Raisin in the Sun”
• An Analysis of Hidden Tensions in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• Materialism and Manhood in Lorraine Hansberry’s Play “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Effects of Racial Segregation in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• Resolving Conflicts in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
• “A Raisin in the Sun” and African-American Stereotypes
• An Analysis of Family Values and Morals in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• “A Raisin in the Sun”: African-American Personal and Collective Identity
• The Idea of Black Feminism in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Circumscribed and Tragic Hero: Lena’s Role in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Male and Female Relationships in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Important Life Lessons in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Pursuit of Happiness in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Suffering of African-Americans in “The Colored Museum” and “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Ordinary View of the Mid-Twentieth Century African-American Male in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Concepts of Love and Wealth in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• An Analysis of Shattered Dreams in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• A Young Family’s Predicaments in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Money and Its Effects on People’s Lives in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• Fighting Charges of Assimilation in Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Struggles of the Racial Minority Groups in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• Negative Effects of the American Dream in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Ways in Which the Setting of “A Raisin in the Sun” Has a Profound Effect Upon Two of the Characters
• Characters Representing Major Ideas and Themes in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Changing Roles of Women in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• An Analysis of the Themes in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• Walter’s Women and His Successes in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Use of Imagery in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Depiction of Manhood in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Motherhood in “The Glass Menagerie” and “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Problems That the Older Generation Has in Dealing With the Younger Generation in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• The Effects of Dreams and Desires in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• How Family Affects Oneself in “The Bean Trees” and “A Raisin in the Sun”
• “Of Mice and Men” and “A Raisin in the Sun”: The American Dream
• Prejudice and Racism: Home Ownership in “A Raisin in the Sun” and in America
• Literary Values in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Story of a Black Family Struggling to Survive in Chicago in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• Difficulities in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
• A Point of No Return After Which the Life of a Person Can Never Be the Same in “A Raisin in the Sun”
• In What Ways Is Hansberry Challenging Stereotypes of African Americans in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Is the Conflict in the Story “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• How Is the Theme of Assimilation Treated in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Is Walter Unhappy in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does Eat Your Eggs Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Is the Play Called “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• How Is Beneatha Different From Other Younger Family Members in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Is the Main Theme of “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does Africa Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does the New House Signify to Each of the Youngers in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• How Is Money a Symbol in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• How Does Walter Change From the Beginning of “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does Big Walter Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Who Steals the Money in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does the Liquor Store Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does “A Raisin in the Sun” Say About Identity?
• What Does the Green Hat Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Do You Think Mama Changes Her Mind and Gives Walter the Insurance Money in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Is the Significance of Mama’s Plant in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Are Main Symbols in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Did Walter Open a Liquor Store in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does the Insurance Money Represent to Mama in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does the Music Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does the Apartment Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Is Mama’s Little Plant So Important to Her in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Does Ruth Symbolize in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Why Did Mama Give Walter the Money in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Is the Importance of Having Mama Return to the Empty Apartment to Grab Her Plant in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• What Are the Greatest Strains on Walter and Ruth’s Marriage in “A Raisin in the Sun”?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Racism in a Raisin in the Sun

This essay will explore the theme of racism in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun.” It will discuss how the play addresses racial discrimination and the African American struggle for equality in a segregated society. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to A Raisin In The Sun.

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Chicago’s South-side, like other towns, suffered tremendously from racism and discrimination during the Great Depression. Racism has swept across the nation and landed in the Youngers’, an African-American family in A Raisin in the Sun, household. Lorraine Hansberry, playwright of A Raisin in the Sun, is vividly portraying life in this low-level town where discrimination explodes into conflict. Since equality among races is not common, the Youngers battle hardship just for being black. Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun demonstrates how racism affects the everyday life of the Younger family.

One way Hansberry shows the harshness of racism is through the Youngers’ way of living. The Youngers’ way of living is depicted as lower-class estate when the play reads, ” The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being” (Hansberry 26). Being as they are a family of African Americans, the Youngers live in a social downfall due to their race (Hilliard 67). They are not respected as those of the white race and are not as applicable for jobs (Hilliard 67). To add, their lower way of living is shown when the play states, “Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished…” (Hansberry 23). Though they don’t have much, the family does the best they can with what they have to work with (Gordon 24). However, at this point, there isn’t too many things they can do to improve their home (Hansberry 12). To summarize, the way that the Younger family lives shows how disadvantaged they are from having the finer things in life.

The form of language used within the play shows the lack of respect people have towards them because of the color of their skin. This can be strongly inferred when Mama says,” Cause it sounds respectable to ’em. Something white people can get, too. They know ’bout the flu…” (Hansberry 43). Mama believes that Ruth’s boss will understand her absence from work if she tells them something that they are subjective to also (Matthews 556). This statement insinuates that white people believe that African Americans carry different diseases than them (Foertsch 408). Another good example of diction in the play is shown when Walter exclaims, “I’m going to feel fine, Mama. I’m going to look that son-of-a-bitch in the eyes and say” (He falters)”and say, ‘All right, Mr. Lindner”(He falters even more)”that’s your neighborhood out there! You got the right to keep it like you want! You got the right to have it like you want!’…’And you”you people just put the money in my hand and you won’t have to live next to this bunch of stinking niggers!” (Hansberry 144). The fact that John Lindner was sent my his neighborhood organization to prohibit the Youngers from making their new life was angering to Walter (Hansberry 145). He, along with everyone else in his family, knew the only reason they were being shunned was because of the color of their skin (Gordon 132). In short, language used by different characters throughout the play gives a very good look into how blacks are seen through the eyes of others.

Furthermore, the Youngers’ jobs represent discrimination. Hansberry states, “the Younger family”maintained by two female domestics and a chauffeur, son of a laborer dead of a lifetime of hard labor “was transformed into an acceptably ‘middle class’ family” (Hansberry 9). At the time, the only reasonable jobs opened up to blacks were jobs serving and cleaning for white people (Giles 97). They had the option of working the low grade jobs or letting their family starve (Giles 99). In Walter’s words, “You are in it” Don’t you get up and go work in somebody’s kitchen for the last three years to help put clothes on her back?” (Hansberry 37). In order for the family to maintain their “not-so-comfortable” way of life, it is essential for everyone to contribute(Gordon 120). Walter struggled to understand Beneatha’s argument due to the fact that she does not provide any finances for the house (Hansberry 38). In brief, every aspect of the characters lives, including their jobs, experienced discrimination.

Moreover, the struggle to accomplish the family’s dreams represents oppression of African Americans. Walter remarks, “Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ’bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each. Course, there’s a couple of hundred you got to pay so’s you don’t spend your life” (Hansberry 33). Walter aspires to run his own liquor store (Hansberry 31). Not only are finances a problem to have his dream, but he doesn’t have the support of his family (Foertsch 417). Another time when a dream is deferred is when Beneatha says, “Oh, I probably will … but first I’m going to be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that’s pretty funny. I couldn’t be bothered with that. I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that!” (Hansberry 50). Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor in a time period that does not advocate women to do much of anything, especially black women (Matthews 24). By having this dream, Beneatha is challenging the status quo by being both black and a woman (Hilliard 52). All in all, many challenges hold African Americans back from achieving the dream that they long for.

Finally, potential threats made on the Youngers’ lives show how much African Americans are not appreciated. When Johnson says, ” One thing ’bout Brother, he always know how to have a good time. And soooooo ambitious! I bet it was his idea y’all moving out to Clybourne Park. Lord”I bet this time next month y’all’s names will have been in the papers plenty”(Holding up her hands to mark off each word of the headline she can see in front of her) ‘NEGROES INVADE CLYBOURNE PARK” BOMBED!'” (Hansberry 101-102). Not only does this possibility frighten the Youngers, but it also makes them think of how much hatred is poured on the black race for no good reason (Giles 33). Also, the fact that their neighbor would say a thing like that allows them to see the slight jealousy that is held against them for trying to have a better life (Giles 40). Following this quote is “James Baldwin has written that ‘Americans suffer from an ignorance that is not only colossal, but sacred’. He is referring to that apparently endless capacity we have nurtured through long years to deceive ourselves where race is concerned…”Hansberry 8). Baldwin is agreeing that racism will forever be a problem within the systems of the world ( Baldwin 23). Though people believe that the situation is resolved, Baldwin believes that discrimination between races will always exist (Baldwin 44). Overall, threats made to or towards the characters in the story play a role in the discrimination factor of the story.

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Racism in A Raisin in the Sun. (2019, Apr 08). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/racism-in-a-raisin-in-the-sun/

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"Racism in A Raisin in the Sun," PapersOwl.com , 08-Apr-2019. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/racism-in-a-raisin-in-the-sun/. [Accessed: 28-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2019). Racism in A Raisin in the Sun . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/racism-in-a-raisin-in-the-sun/ [Accessed: 28-Apr-2024]

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