Transcript A Raisin in the Sun

A Play by
Lorraine Hansberry
The Title
 Originally Crystal Stair
 Came from a line from Langston Hughes’s poem (1951)
“ A Dream Deferred”
 Post WWII – 1950’s whites fled the cities for suburbs
 Blacks left in deteriorating suburbs unwelcome in
suburbs
 Poem represents struggle characters in play face to
realize dreams
“A Dream Deferred”
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?
A Raisin in the Sun
 Almost didn’t make it to Broadway
 Opened March 1959
 First and longest-running play written by an
African-American woman
 Struggle of contemporary African-American
family (Younger family)
The Great Migration
 Families migrated north as “immigrants”
 Went to large industrial cities
 Looking for better economic and social opportunities
 Started during WWI
 By 1930 about a million African-American families had
moved north
 Discovered racism and segregation existed in North,
too
The Great Migration (cont.)
 Cities like New York and Chicago had few
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opportunities
Many African-American were untrained and
uneducated
Found jobs similar to the South
Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization, moved North, too
Cities developed large ghettos that were filthy and
crowded
 Harlem in New York
 South Side of Chicago
The Lure to Africa
 Many African Americans had/have strong connection
to homeland
 Hansberry felt strong ties to Africa
 In the play we see this with Beneatha and her African
boyfriend Joseph Asagai
Hansberry’s Life
1930-1965
 Born in Chicago, Illinois
 Father owned real-estate business
 Challenged segregated housing in Chicago
 Moved family into all-white neighborhood
 Uncle professor at Howard University in DC
 Went to U of Wisconsin, dropped out, and moved to
New York City to write
 Diagnosed with cancer and died at 35
 Ex-husband (secretly divorced) edit unfinished works
after death
Theme of a literary work is . . .
An insight about life or human nature
that the reader gains from the work.
Socratic Dialogue statements represent
themes from this play.
Characterization
 Refers to the techniques that a writer
uses to develop characters.
 In plays, the writer provides some of
this information in stage direction,
dramatic exposition, and dialogue.
Characters
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Lena Younger (Mama)
Walter Lee Younger
Ruth Younger
Beneatha Younger
Travis Younger
Mr. Lindner
Joseph Asagai
Bobo
Willy
Furniture Mover
Symbols
 Mama’s plant
 Kitchen window
 Fifty cents, one dollar
 New House and garden
 “Eat your eggs”
 Beneatha’s Hair
“I say all of this to say that one cannot live
with sighted eyes and feeling heart and
not know and react to the miseries which
afflict this world.
I have given you this account so that you
know that what I write is not based on
the assumption of idyllic possibilities or
innocent assessments of the true nature
of life – but, rather, my own personal
view . . .”
-- Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry