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Friday, April 5, 2019

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry | Analysis

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry epitomePlaywrights of ColorA Raisin in the SunTo be young, gifted and black (Lorraine Hansberry) is a phrase which is unremarkably plug intod with Lorraine Hansberry, which comes from the collection of autobiographical pieces which were put together by her ex-husband in her honor when she died. Throughout the years, individuals from all(prenominal) walks of livelihood have come to America with dreams of a better life, in many different areas much(prenominal) as social, educational, and economical opportunities as well as political and religious freedoms. With these wishes and dreams, the phrase life, liberty and the interest of happiness (Mitchell), which to many Ameri croups embodies the Ameri muckle dream, can become a reality or just a harsh reminder of what the American dream stands for because for some it comes true exclusively for many, they are never open to r separately their dream. She wrote the tactical manoeuvre A Raisi n in the Sun to show people that supporting friends and family members is of the essence(p) by the hard and trying epoch. If you are able to work hard and truly believe in yourself, dreams can come true in bingle form or a nonher. The American dream to distri thatively individual, no exit age, execute or gender has a different meaning. A Raisin in the Sun is all-important(prenominal) because it crosses over the continued debate of racial and gender egresss which arose during the time this foregather was written, and even during the enter solar day and age.Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in 1930. Through her earlier years, Hansberrys parents sent her to public school sooner than private schools in a protest against the segregation laws. In 1938, the Hansberry family was one of the first African American families to move into an all white neighborhood. After moving in, the neighbors threatened them with violence and legal action, but the Hansberrys would not put u p with any of it and Hansberrys father would afterwardswards bring his case all the way to the dictatorial Court. When she finally went to college, she finish up studying at multiple schools including, the University of Chicago at the Art add of Chicago at the New School of Social Research in New York in Guadalajara, Mexico and at the University of Wisconsin(Encyclodpedia of World Biography on Lorraine Vivian Hansberry). While attending college, she saw a school performance of a tactical manoeuvre by the be givenwright Sean OCasey and decided to become a writer. In 1950, she ended up drop out of college and moved to New York. While in New York, she decided to take classes in piece of writing at the New School for Social Research and ended up working as an associate editor of Paul Robesons newspaper/magazine Freedom. During this full stop of her life, she met many leading African-American intellectuals, activists and famous writers, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as one famou s writer, Langston Hughes. In 1953 Hansberry ended up marrying Robert Nemiroff, who was white, also a graduate school-age child in Jewish literature, a songwriter, and took part in participating in the political events of the time at the protesting discrimination at New York University. Nemiroff gained his colossal success with his hit song, Cindy, Oh Cindy, and after Nemiroffs success, and Hansberrys many part time jobs, she was able to settle down and devote herself entirely to writing. While writing, it eventually took its form in a play, which came from a poem by Langston Hughes, called Harlem. The success of the play, A Raisin in the Sun, ended up winning the acquaint for best play of the year, which made Lorraine Hansberry the first African American and the youngest American to win the New York childs play Critics Circle Award. She used her new fame to help bring attention to the American accomplished rights movement as well as African struggles for independence from colo nialism(A Raisin in the Sun). After many years, Hansberry had marital problems with Nemiroff and they decided to disjoin in 1964. Hansberry was exactly able to live long enough to see one other play, similarly A Raisin in the Sun, be produced. On January 12, 1965, Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer at the young age of thirty-four. She ended up beingness one of the first playwrights to portray real African American characters and their struggles in day to day activities of African American life. This was shown in her play by the inspiration of her own familys struggles against the legal battles in segregated housing laws during her childhood.The working title of A Raisin in the Sun was originally The Crystal whole tone after a line in an earlier poem by Langston Hughes, who was another African American playwright, poet, novelist, and short story writer. Hansberry ended up changing the title of her play again, after another one of Langston Hughes later poems, which askedWhat hap pens 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 good load.Or does it explode (Hughes)?Produced and finished in 1957, the play A Raisin in the Sun, was the first drama by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. It took two years after it was finished, on action 1959, for the play to be revealed on Broadway at the Ethyl Barrymore Theater. From there, the Broadway production moved to the Belasco theatre and ran for 530 performances, where it started earning many awards. This play is unique in many aspects and covers many important issues. The play was unique because it was the first play to be produced on Broadway, written and directed by an African American and the first to have an all-black cast. The play gained bulky success even though the producer, Phil Rose, had never produced a play, and large investors were initially not i nterested in it. In all the places the play was shown, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, the audiences absolutely loved it and shortly thereafter it became a huge success. With its huge success and fame, it ended up having a long run in theater and was later turned into a movie and after that, was later turned into a Broadway musical.The play, A Raisin in the Sun, is important in many different aspects of usual life. With Lorraine Hansberry growing up how she did, in the neighborhood and time, she knew all around disappointment, false hope and despair. Hansberrys ancestors also knew about the hard times with exploitations, despair, frustrations and their dreams turning into dreadful nightmares as they came mating to hopefully find a better life. Hansberry records the history of her ancestors nightmares in a Raisin in the Sun, by characterization a classic story of the younger family, struggling to realize their dreams by escaping ghetto life. Hansberrys screenplay shows the stor y of the Younger family, but it actually reveals the plight of all families and individuals who have at one point experienced or those who are living right now, in despair, have lost hope in their life and have failed dreams and goals. Her long dedication to this play, gives it its power for all people who read it and for those who end up dealing with it in everyday life. This play is an excellent choice for many different types of classes such as, literature, drama, history and film classes. The play allow for keep the attention of many different types of people based off of the plays action, dialogue, and cast of dynamic characters which enchant many different types of audiences from high school students through college students up to the adult readers. Young people carry many different frustrations with their lifestyle and rebel against parents which can bring little gratification at times. However, the childish who wants to truly believe that dreams do come true and are not made up, comes from the adolescent who is hide beneath the cynical surface, making the heart beat of the true idealist.Through Hansberrys careful craftsmanship, the universal themes of the enormousness of dreams and the frustration of dreams deferred, the strength of family, the importance of not selling out, the problems of conflicting expectations, the belief that love and trust go forth win over deceit and selfishness, and the dangers of prejudice and stereotyping are as powerful today as they were roughly four decades ago when she wrote the play (T from each oneerVision).Adolescents come from many different families, with different types of problems and family structures, so they need mental picture to the values which are shown within a traditional family, and this play delivers that without lecturing or preaching. Another land A Raisin in the Sun is important is because of its historical value. The play shows the challenges and conflicts by reflecting the provocative na tures through the racial attitudes through time, starting around the 1950s making its way to the present. Prejudice is seen in many forms, and the characters in Hansberrys play along with the screenplays visuals bring this theme to life like nothing ever could. This play represents life in the racial or heathenish community in many different and unique ways. The play is considered a turning place in American art because it addresses so many important issues and conflicts when this play was produced during the 1950s. The 1950s brought along the stereotypical age of the happy housewives and portrayed the African Americans as being soft with their inferior status. These stereotypes resulted in the social resentment that would eventually find public voice in the civil rights movement and importance in later movements such as the feminist movements of the 1960s. The play was also a revolutionary work for its time and can be shown by the way Hansberry created the African American Young er family, by portraying one of the first real and honest depictions of a black family on an American stage. Usually in a play, groups or individual African-Americans were always portrayed in the typical ethnic stereotypical roles and were displayed as small and comedic but this play overall portrays a united black family in a realistic light, which ends up being far from the comedic style which most people may conceive of of. Hansberry uses black dialect throughout the play and introduces important issues, questions and concerns which many other families during this time and even during the present day and time run into, such as poverty, discrimination, and the creation of African-American racial identity. This play looks at the racial tensions between the black and white communities in addition to exploring the tensions within the black community itself. This can be shown when the family tries to reach their goals despite the challenges of poverty and racism all around them, by p utting a down payment on a house in an all-white suburb neighborhood and shortly after this, the family is hit with racism in an unusual form from the white community. Throughout the play, Hansberry asks difficult and thought create questions about assimilation and figuring out ones true identity. One way this is shown, is through revealing Beneatha to a trend of celebrating African heritage, through the character of Asagai (her boyfriend and maybe future husband). Another important issue this play represents is how it addresses feminist questions about another important issue, marriage. The topic of marriage comes up for Beneatha in this play towards the end, which Hansberry portrays as not being necessary for all women and that every women should have ambitious career goals kind of of giving up on their dreams before they have a chance to fight for their own personalized dreams. Hansberry also approaches an abortion debate, which is touched on during a time when abortion was no t allowed and is still causation concern and a lot of controversial talk today. Having this play written during the time period and being produced when it was, was such a huge success for someone with her status as being young, black and a woman growing up in the 1950s. This showed how much she overcame as a woman, how much people were starting to accept change and how people started understanding important topics which needed to be addressed during this time. No matter the age, race or gender of a person, it shows just how important the idealism of a single persons, race and gender is in the pursuit of dreams and just how crucial dreams are in an individuals life. As the play focuses primarily on dreams and what happens to the dreams in driving and motivating the main characters actions, emotions and feelings throughout the play, it also reveals what happens to people out in the real world. Any negative dreams that happen in an individuals life, no matter the age, gender or race o f a person, seem to stem from the fact that people are placing stress and importance on objects rather than on family pride and happiness. Like the main point of this play says, if everyone attempts to support and encourage their family, and not only focusing on themselves and being selfless, they can lift each other up and support each other through the toughest of times. This can happen if you never give up hope on each other and never give up on your own dreams. This play focuses on major issues such as racism between white and black communities, abortion, marriage, assimilation and finding ones true identity but in the end the play boils down to a timeless point dreams are what make each person, white or black, push on in life in order to live each day like it was their last. A Raisin in the Sun is central, in the continued debate over racial and gender concerns, making this play a critical cultural document in an essential period of American history.MLA CitationA Raisin in the Sun. 2009. SparkNotes. 15 November 2009 .A Raisin in the Sun. 2000-2009. TeacherVision. 14 November 2009 .A Raisin in the Sun The Quest for the American aspiration. EDSITEment. 4 declination 2009 .Encyclodpedia of World Biography on Lorraine Vivian Hansberry. 2005-2006. BookRags. 14 November 2009 .Hughes, Langston. Harlem (A Dream Deferred). Lorraine Hansberry 15 November 2009 1040.Liukkonen, Petri. Lorraine Hansberry. 2008. 14 November 2009 .Lorraine Hansberry. 15 November 2009 1037.Mitchell, Diana. A Teachers Guide to Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun. A Teachers Guide to the Signet and addict Editions of the Screenplay Lorraine Hansberrys Raisin in the Sun. 2 December 2009 .Moon, Andrea and Cathy Hartenstein. A Raisin in the Sun Study Guide. The Cleveland Play House. 4 December 2009 .

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