A Raisin In the Sun

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A Raisin In the Sun
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Social Background

• Published in 1959, four years after Rosa Parks
  was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to
  a white person on a bus, sparking the Civil
  Rights Movement, Hansberrys play illustrates
  black Americas struggle to gain equal access to
  opportunity and expression of cultural identity.

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Sentiments in A Raisin will be echoed by MLK in
later speeches, marches, and rallies
Martin Luther King, Jr.Civil-Rights
Leader 1929-1968 I have a dream a dream deeply
rooted in the American dream. I have a dream
that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed We hold these
truths to be self-evident that all men are
created equal.                                   
                                     
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Contd dreams represented in the play and later
echoed by King

• I have a dream that my four children will one day
  live in a nation where they will not be judged by
  the color of their skin but by the content of
  their character.
• I have a dreamwhere little black boys and black
  girls will be able to join hands with little
  white boys and white girls and walk together as
  sisters and brothers.

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In 1956, King leads a boycott of the bus laws.
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In 1954, the Supreme Court found in favor of the
plaintiffs in the Brown v. The Board of Education
case. However, the segregation of schools didnt
begin to take effect until 1957. Moreover, the
cases decision did not abolish segregation in
other public areas, such as restaurants and
restrooms.
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Integration and Segregation in the United States
Chronology

• 1861-65 Civil War years.
• 1866 Ku Klux Klan established in Tennessee.
• 1870 Passage of Fifteenth Amendment to U.S.
  Constitution prohibiting racial discrimination in
  voting.
• 1882 Chinese Exclusionary Act banning Chinese
  immigration to the United States for ten years.
• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision
  permitting "separate but equal public racial
  facilities.
• 1907 Supreme Court declares that railroads have
  the right to segregate passengers.
• 1909 National Association for the Advancement of
  Colored People (NAACP) founded.
• 1911 National Urban League founded.
• 1919 Race riots in Chicago.
• 1924 Immigration Act establishing quotas based on
  national origin.

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Integration and Segregation in the United States

• 1927 Urban League organizes boycott of stores
  refusing to hire blacks
• 1943 Race riots in Detroit.
• 1946 Supreme Court declares that segregation on
  buses is unconstitutional.
• 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes first African
  American to play major league baseball.
• 1948 President Truman issues executive order
  integrating armed forces.
• 1949 Supreme Court rules that local "covenants"
  enforcing segregated neighborhoods are
  unconstitutional. National Housing Act addressing
  substandard housing.
• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court
  ruling that "separate but equal doctrine
  regarding school segregation is unconstitutional.
• 1955 Bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.
• 1957 School desegregation crisis in Little Rock,
  Arkansas.
• 1960 "Sit-ins" begin at Woolworth's in
  Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1961 "Freedom Riders" attempt to force
  integration in Alabama.
• 1962 African American student James Meridith is
  denied admission to the University of
  Mississippi, resulting in contempt charges
  against the governor of Mississippi.

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• 1963 George Wallace's "school house stand"
  attempting to block integration of theUniversity
  of Alabama.
• Martin Luther King Jr. arrested in Birmingham,
  Alabama, while leading civil rights
  demonstrations.
• March on Washington, D.C., demonstrating for
  civil rights.
• 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace
  Prize.
• Race riots in Harlem.
• 1965 Malcolm X assassinated.
• Martin Luther King Jr. leads march from Selma to
  Montgomery, Alabama.
• Race riots in Watts, Los Angeles.
• Immigration law abolishes quota system. Voting
  Rights Bill passed.
• 1967 Black Power conference held in Newark, New
  Jersey.
• Race riots in Cleveland, Newark, and Detroit.
• 1968 Civil Rights Act of 1968 guaranteeing fair
  treatment in housing.
• Martin Luther King Jr. assasinated.

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• World of the 1950s
• Population 151,684,000 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce,
  Bureau of the Census)
• Unemployed 3,288,000
• Life expectancy Women 71.1, men 65.6
• Car Sales 6,665,800
• Average Salary 2,992
• Labor Force male/female 5/2
• Cost of a loaf of bread 0.14
• Bomb shelter plans, like the government pamphlet
  You Can Survive, become widely available

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Hansberrys Background
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1930-1965

• A Raisinis the 1st play by a black woman to be
  produced on Broadway
• Other Works
• WHAT USE ARE FLOWERS?
• THE MOVEMENT DOCUMENTARY OF A STRUGGLE FOR
  EQUALITY,
• THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN' WINDOWTO BE YOUNG,
  GIFTED, AND BLACK
• LES BLANCS THE COLLECTED LAST PLAYS The
  Drinking Gourd / What Use Are Flowers?

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A Note on the Title

• Lorraine Hansberry took the title of A Raisin in
  the Sun from a line in Langston Hughess famous
  1951 poem Harlem.
• Harlem captures the tension between the need
  for black expression and the impossibility of
  that expression because of American societys
  oppression of its black population.
• In the poem, Hughes asks whether a dream
  deferreda dream put on holdwithers up like a
  raisin in the sun.

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More on the title

• His lines confront the racist and dehumanizing
  attitude prevalent in American society before the
  civil rights movement of the 1960s.
• Hansberrys reference to Hughess poem in her
  plays title highlights the importance of dreams
  in A Raisin in the Sun and the struggle that her
  characters face to realize their individual
  dreams, a struggle tied to the more fundamental
  black dream of equality in America.

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The novel

• A Raisin in the Sun can be considered a turning
  point in American art because it addresses so
  many issues important during the 1950s in the
  United States.
• The stereotype of 1950s America as a land of
  happy housewives and blacks content with their
  inferior status resulted in an uprising of social
  resentment that would finally find public voice
  in the civil rights and feminist movements of the
  1960s.

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Character List

• Walter Lee Younger -  The protagonist of the
  play. He wants to be rich wants to invest his
  fathers insurance money in a new liquor store
  venture.
• Lena Younger (Mama) -religious, moral, and
  maternal. She wants to use her husbands
  insurance money as a down payment on a house with
  a backyard to fulfill her dream for her family to
  move up in the world.

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More characters

• Beneatha Younger (Bennie) -
• Beneatha is twenty years old, she attends
• college, and is better educated than the
• rest of the Younger family. She dreams
• of being a doctor and struggles to
• determine her identity as a well-educated
  black woman.
• Ruth Younger - 
• Walters wife and Traviss
  mother. Ruth
• takes care of the Youngers
  small
• apartment. She is about thirty,
  but her
• weariness makes her seem older.
  

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Characters cont.

• Travis Younger -  Walter and Ruths sheltered
  young son. Travis earns some money by carrying
  grocery bags and likes to play outside with other
  neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and
  sleeps on the living-room sofa.

Joseph Asagai -  A Nigerian student in love with
Beneatha. Asagai, as he is often called, is very
proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes
to learn about her African heritage from him.
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Even more characters

• George Murchison -  A wealthy, African-American
  man who dates Beneatha. The Youngers approve of
  George, but Beneatha dislikes his willingness to
  submit to white culture and forget his African
  heritage.
• Mr. Karl Lindner -  The only white character in
  the play. He offers the Youngers a deal to
  reconsider moving into his (all-white)
  neighborhood.
• Mrs. Johnson -  The Youngers neighbor warns
  them about moving into a predominately
  white neighborhood.

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Themes

• A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams,
  as the main characters struggle to deal with the
  oppressive circumstances that rule their lives.
• Every member of the Younger family has a
  separate, individual dreamBeneatha wants to
  become a doctor, for example, and Walter wants to
  have money so that he can afford things for his
  family.
• The Youngers struggle to attain these dreams
  throughout the play, and much of their happiness
  and depression is directly related to their
  attainment of, or failure to attain, these
  dreams.

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The Need to Fight Racial Discrimination

•  The character of Mr. Lindner makes the theme of
  racial discrimination prominent in the plot as an
  issue that the Youngers cannot avoid.
• Mr. Lindner and the people he represents can only
  see the color of the Younger familys skin,
• Ultimately, the Youngers respond to this
  discrimination with defiance and strength.  

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Restrictive Covenants

• In the 1948 Shelley v. Kraemer decision, the
  United States Supreme Court found the use of
  racially restrictive covenants illegal. They were
  clauses in deeds for real estate sales that were
  created to preserve the architectural or social
  homogeneity of a neighborhood. Restrictive
  covenants could limit anything from hanging
  laundry outside to the sale or rental of homes to
  nonwhites.

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Restrictive Covenants Continued

• In 1941, a half-mile-long
• concrete wall was erected to
• separate an African-
• American neighborhood
• in Detroit from the white
• section. In that city, by 1947
• over 80 percent of property outside of the
• inner city had racially restrictive stipulations.
  

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The Importance of Family

• The Youngers struggle socially and economically
  throughout the play but unite in the end to
  realize their dream of buying a house.
• Mama strongly believes in the importance of
  family, and she tries to teach this value to her
  family as she struggles to keep them together and
  functioning.
• Walter and Beneatha learn this lesson about
  family at the end of the play.

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Setting The Home

• The Younger apartment is the only setting
  throughout the play, emphasizing the centrality
  of the home.
• The home is a galvanizing force for the family,
  one that Mama sees as crucial to the familys
  unity.
• The play ends, fittingly, when Mama, lagging
  behind, finally leaves the apartment.

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Crowded Quarters

• The housing crunch in Northern cities, along
  with the segregation and discrimination facing
  African Americans attempting to find places to
  live, led to extremely crowded conditions, such
  as those pictured in this Chicago residence in
  1941.

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Symbols

• Eat Your Eggs
• Being quiet and eating ones eggs represents an
  acceptance of the adversity that Walter and the
  rest of the Youngers face in life. Walter
  believes that Ruth, who is making his eggs, keeps
  him from achieving his dream, and he argues that
  she should be more supportive of him. The eggs
  she makes every day symbolize her mechanical
  approach to supporting him. She provides him with
  nourishment, but always in the same, predictable
  way.

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Mamas Plant

• The most overt symbol in the play, Mamas plant
  represents both Mamas care and her dream for her
  family.
• The plant also symbolizes her dream to own a
  house and, more specifically, to have a garden
  and a yard

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Beneathas Hair

• When the play begins, Beneatha has straightened
  hair. Midway through the play, after Asagai
  visits her and questions her hairstyle, she cuts
  her Caucasian-seeming hair. Her new, radical afro
  represents her embracing of her heritage.
• This prefigures the 1960s cultural credo that
  black is beautiful.

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Journal

• Describe a dream or goal that you have. Discuss
  what obstacles might stand in your way? What are
  you willing to sacrifice in order to obtain this
  goal?