A Raisin in the Sun - hhs
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A Raisin in the Sun
A play by Lorraine Hansberry
About the Author
Lorraine Hansberry
Born: May 19, 1930 in
Chicago, Illinois
First black, female playwright
Heavily involved in civil
rights
Granddaughter of a freed
slave
About the Author
Lorraine Hansberry
Not a typical upbringing
Parents were well educated and successful citizens
Outspoken civil rights advocates
Dropped out of the University of Wisconsin after 2 years
Moved to NYC to become a writer
Became associate editor of Freedom, a progressive black
magazine
Worked with W.E.B. DuBois
Met Langston Hughes—an inspirational poet
About the Author
Lorraine Hansberry
1953: Married song writer Robert
Nemiroff; divorced in 1964
1959: “A Raisin in the Sun”
opened on Broadway
1964: “The Sign in Sidney
Brustein’s Window”—the only
completed work produced in her
lifetime
1965: Died on January 12 in New
York City of pancreatic cancer
Inspiration for “A Raisin in the Sun”
1926-1948: Restrictive covenants (or
legal contracts) were used nationwide
to ban people of color from
purchasing homes in white
communities.
1938: Lorraine Hansberry’s family
moved to an all white neighborhood
in Chicago.
Led to a civil rights case
Inspiration for “A Raisin in the Sun”
1940: 80% of property in Chicago
carried restrictive covenants;
forbidding black families to live in
certain Chicago communities.
1940: U.S. Supreme Court case
Hansberry v. Lee
Restrictive covenants were ruled illegal
in their neighborhood
1968: Racially restrictive covenants
became illegal through the Fair
Housing Act.
Residential patterns created by racially
restrictive covenants still exist today.
Inspiration for “A Raisin in the Sun”
HARLEM
by Langston Hughes
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 explode?
What happens when
dreams are ignored, or
postponed?
Hughes was addressing
the situation of blacks in
America, who had been
denied the American
dreams of education,
career and purchasing
power
A Raisin in the Sun
Type of work: Play
Setting (Time): Between 1945-1959
Setting (Place): South Side Chicago
Tone: Realistic
Conflict: A working class family struggles
against economic hardship and racial
prejudice.
A Raisin in the Sun
Themes
The importance of dreams
The importance of family
The need to fight racial
discrimination
Issues Addressed
Poverty
Race relations
Gender relations
This was the first play
to portray black
characters, themes,
and conflicts in a
natural and realistic
manner.
A Raisin in the Sun
Black vernacular is used throughout the play.
The dialect of English often spoken by African Americans in urban
and southern regions of the United States.
Characterized by:
Diction (word choice)
Pronunciation (how a word is said)
Use of the word “be”
Tendency to delete the –s ending of verbs
Use of the word “done” to stress the completion of an act
A Raisin in the Sun
Questions we will explore…
How do dreams motivate people?
Is it dangerous to place too much emphasis on materialistic
things?
How important is family happiness?
A Raisin in the Sun
on Broadway
1959
2014
A Raisin in the Sun
on Film
1961
2008