This is another assurance that nature often controls the physical and social world. Dissecting texts like these allow the reader to think beyond the physical natural things discussed or mentioned in a story, like animals or dirt. Symbolically, the Afro serves as a way to say natural is beautiful. Rather than force her hair to conform to the current society’s styles, which dictate so many girls, Beneatha chooses a style that assists her to easily reveal and represent her identity and culture.

Walter feels he has to cover up the truth of their situation from his son, because it makes him feel like less of a man to admit that he is not supporting his only family, a role that society has placed on the husband and father. This is exhibited when Walter gives Travis not only the fifty cents he requested but an extra fifty cents to ” buy somefruit. The character of Walter Lee Younger that Hansberry created encounters countless difficulties in the road to gaining his manhood. The audience sees this in the first scene as the day starts and the family jumps into action. Almost immediately, the reader is presented with one of the conflicts in Walter achieving his manhood – his relationship with his wife, Ruth. Employment and housing discrimination prevented most citizens of color from organizing their households according to hunger of memory discussion questions the nuclear family ideal, a male breadwinner and his financially dependent wife and children.

Three generations of women reside in the Younger household, each possessing a different political perspective of herself as a woman. Mama , in her early sixties, speaks “matter-of-factly” about her husband’s prior womanizing. A Raisin in the Sun Compare and Contrast Essay This paper will discuss the differences between the book and the movie formats of A Raisin in the Sun. Yet amidst all the differences, a common theme rang though in both the book and the movie. A Raisin In The Sun Lorraine Hansberry wrote the play “A Raisin In The Sun”, it was produced on March 11, 1959 in Ethel Barrymore Theatre located in New York. “A Raisin In The Sun” was the first drama by a produced African American women on Broadway.

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Iyonna Herbert is a percussionist from Camden, New Jersey who has been playing drums since the age of eight years old. In 2021 she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Music with an emphasis in Commercial Music from Snow College, located in Utah. Here, Iyonna served as the Assistant to the Director of Jazz, Phillip Kuehn; a bassist who has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Rodney Jones, Christie Dashiell and Anthony Hamilton. Iyonna was able to perform parts of Bobby Watson’s BBQ Suite with Bobby Watson himself, who served as the Musical Director for The Jazz Messengers. She is mentored by legendary jazz drummer Carl Allen who has worked with Freddie Hubbard, George Coleman, and Christian McBride to name a few.

a raisin in the sun theme essay

Her dream is much different from Walter’s selfish dream because money, power, and success was the main motivator for his, but her dream was selfless and only seen as a way to help more people and to do more good in the world. The dream that Walter is pursuing interferes with his sister’s dream, which causes her to become bitter when her dreams are crushed after he loses the money. In the beginning of act three, scene one, Beneatha tells Asagai how her brother had lost the money and her dreams of becoming a doctor, the cure, used to matter to her but now she has stopped caring. When he tells his son of this “transaction”, he treats it as a solution to everything and a way out of poverty for his family. He completely ignores the steps or risks involved in this transaction, and he believes that all it takes is an investment to be successful. When he tell’s his son “In fact, here’s another fifty cents” he’s not handing over more money because he feels that his son needs it, but he’s doing it to make an example out of it and to show his wife and son who the bread winner is.

Themes And Meanings

Reading this play carefully, a person can see that while the characters and setting — and dialogue — are related to African-Americans, this play has a universal tone to it. The problems facing this family and the way children interact with their parents are not unique to black folks. Certainly the issued presented in the play relate to African-Americans and to their culture in the 1950s, but the interaction and the conflicts and tension are not unique to one culture. In the Journal of Black Studies scholar Richard A. Duprey points out that A Raisin in the Sun is “…full of human insights that transcend any racial ‘concerns'” . The development of the character of his sister is in direct defiance of his personality.

  • While questions of race are certainly prominent in the play, an equally significant, if less prominent, issue involves gender.
  • 9 years ago, Ife Basim (Topping-Mann) started a Women’s History Month Celebration because she felt that the accomplishments of many local women go unnoticed.
  • For example, when Walter loses the money for his sister’s schooling, Mama asks God to “Look down here .
  • During the 1950s, television had become popular and spread throughout the United States.
  • In 1961, a film version of A Raisin in the Sun was released featuring its original Broadway cast of Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr. and John Fiedler.

The database is updated daily, so anyone can easily find a relevant essay example. This analytical essay on Thematic Analysis of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. He understands the financial constraints of the family yet he manages to give a dollar to his son every time he requests for fifty cents . 2021 © StudyDriver.com – Big database of free essay examples for students at all levels. Lena says she thinks Walter Lee has got a fine life, with “a job, a nice wife, a fine boy,” but Walter Lee laments the fact that his job is driving a man around all day and opening doors for him.

Related Documents: A Raisin In The Sun Essay

It’s a dream of every modern woman, who doesn’t want just to stay at home, do housework and baby sit the children; they want to study high, to work outside so that they can support out their selves and be independence. Since the 1930’s, the idea that a family, a home, opportunity, money and security being available to everyone in the US has been the “American Dream.” Unfortunately, in reality this dream isn’t really available to everyone, not then and not now. By disregarding her sister’s uninterest in George, Ruth believes that wealth presides over Beneatha’s dignity and love. This theme also presents itself in Act II with the appearance of Mr. Lindner. With the newly arrived check, the Younger family became ecstatic with the knowledge that their lives would change for the better. By leaving their dingy apartment, the Younger family would be able to escape poverty and create a new life.