Abstract This paper illustrates the role of social, family and individual influence in the three plays by focusing on how influence changed the lives of the protagonists of Aristophanes? "Lysistrata", Sophocles? "Oedipus Rex" and Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun". The paper examines how the influence on an individual or society may have radical effects. The paper comments separately on each play and then describes the common theme and ideas throughout the three plays. The writer looks at the influence of society on the individual and the influence of the individual on society.
From the Paper "Every individual is at some point of his life influenced either by someone or by society. This influence totally changes him for the better or for the worse. The impact totally transforms the individual to such an extent that he is a completely different person. The inspiration is so great and effective that there is a revolutionary change in the individual and he becomes a new individual altogether. However, the change could be for the better or for the worse. The influence could be negative in which case the person will be completely destroyed emotionally or physically and the impact could be so devastating that this destruction could even be self inflicted. On the other hand, a positive influence could make a better individual in character or in strength and enable him to achieve the impossible."
Tags: individual, society, revolutionary, change, impact, aristophranes, lysistrata, sophocles, oedipus, rex, hansberrys, a, raisin, in, the, sun
Abstract This paper reviews the play 'A Raisin in the Sun', by Lorraine Hansberry. According to the paper, 'A Raisin in the Sun' is about the dreams that people have. More specifically, it is about the dreams of people who do not have the opportunity to pursue those dreams. The paper reports how the main theme of the play is deciding what to do with a large sum of money that is won by one of the characters.
From the Paper "He then describes the life his son will have. This description is partly about material possessions like their house with a gardener and a black Chrysler. However, Walter also describes how his son will be able to go to any school that he wants to and that his son will be able to be anything that he wants to be. As Walter says, "Just tell me, what it is you want to be--and you'll be it" (Hansberry 94). This shows that Walter's dream is linked to his desire for his son to be proud of him and for his son to have opportunities in life. Mama's dream is not to change as much as the others. Instead, she just wants her family to live in a safe neighborhood and have a home they can be proud of. The interesting thing about all of these dreams is that they are all worthwhile. All three of the characters have valuable uses for the money and want to use it to better their own futures. "
Abstract This paper discusses how Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun" is considered by critics to be one of the strongest portrayals of the African-American nuclear family. It looks at how the implicit theme of "A Raisin in the Sun" is the impact of the family upon the actions of individual units, especially in relation to African-American families. It also examines how the social premise and moral conflicts of the play focuses on the pursuit of the Younger family to better their current situation. It analyzes the family through several different topics, including the impact of family experiences upon individual action, the impact of social influences upon the entire family, the impact of social and political factors upon the family, and finally, the gender roles that come in conflict within the nuclear family model.
From the Paper "Common family experiences have a dramatic impact on the actions of each individual unit, and it unites the family in their pursuits. The Younger family is considered lower middle class; three generations occupy the nuclear model, with grandmother Lena at its head, Walter, Ruth and Beneatha as the second generation, and Travis as the youngest. The hardships endured by the family unit as a whole in their pursuit of survival binds them together. Lena and her husband worked tirelessly to raise their kids. Walter works extremely hard as a chauffeur in order to support his family, while Ruth has the full responsibility of handling the house and monitoring the family. It is the result of their persistent hardship that drives them to all yearn for change and greater social mobility (NPR, npg). "
Abstract This paper discusses the plot and themes of Lorraine Hansberry's play, "A Raisin in the Sun." It discusses the metaphorical significance of the title of the play and how it relates to the plot and characters that are portrayed in the work. The paper specifically focuses on the theme of respect, both giving and receiving, as the key to understanding Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."
From the Paper "What we must seek out and learn to understand about the Youngers is that every action they take and every stage of their development is predicated upon their level of respect for themselves and each other. In the beginning, respect is hard to come by, and what there is is falsely laid. But after the loss of the money, the family is forced to take real stock of themselves and what they realize is that their perception of being in a hopeless situation, of having their best potentials in life disappear, is actually totally incorrect. Mama knows this, and in the act of buying their way out of the Black neighborhoods, she is liberating them from their lack of self-respect, they are proving their ability to be independent."
This paper reviews and analyzes Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun" while focusing on the symbolism of light and its significance on both the plot and the characters.
Abstract This paper details the plot and main characters in Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" which focuses on an African-American family residing in Chicago. The writer analyzes the significance of light in Hansberry's work which makes its first appearance in the opening of the play when the sun shines in on the Younger's cramped apartment. The writer contends and explains the manner in which the light provides emotional nourishment to the protagonists as well as heartache and despair. This paper also looks at the symbolism of Mama's plant which although she knows will never fully grow and reach its ultimate potential she continues to care and nurture it, much in the same manner as she cares for her own family.
From the Paper "The plant does not simply symbolize Ruth and Walter's inability to fully grow and flourish as a couple and a mother and a father in the apartment. It also has more personal symbolism. It symbolizes the dream of Mama to own her own home, a place of her own rather than the rented territory of others, with a cramped and small bathroom for five (and perhaps six, given Ruth's impending pregnancy) other people, all dreaming and yearning to break free. The plant is a more specific and powerful symbol, too, because it is a green and living thing. It underlines Mama's desire to have a garden and a yard. Clearly, Mama could make many things grow. If she made a plant grow in a terrible apartment, with little help, just as she and her husband helped her children Beneatha and Walter flourish with little help from society, think of what Mama could do with her own yard, full of sunshine and space."
Tags: literature, american, imagery, plants, light, african, american
Abstract This paper looks at the way "Raisin in the Sun" develops, so that the focus is shifted throughout the play. The three acts are explored as follows: The first act's function in the play is to introduce the character's internal and external conflicts and make the reader guess what kind of solvency will come from the new money, act two's purpose is to give the audience a false sense of security which ultimately leads to the climax of the play and in act three, all of the issues in act one resurface.
From the Paper "The first act of Hansberry's play is used to introduce the problems that the family is facing while showing that there is an end to these problems in sight. The money problems that the Younger family faces are shown through various ways in the beginning of act one. The first act's function in the play is to introduce the character's internal and external conflicts and make the reader guess what kind of solvency will come from the new money. The very beginning of the play familiarizes the audience with the Younger family's lack of resources. Several families share one bathroom on the floor of the apartments that they live on and Travis is made to sleep in the living room, because of the shortage of bedrooms in the apartment. By showing that the characters face these money problems, the audience is able to appreciate the situation that the family is in."
Abstract This paper looks at the play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry, first staged in 1959, and Robert Nemiroff's comments on whether the play is still timely three decades later. Nemiroff concludes that it is, and since the play deals with upward mobility against the forces of racism, this writer agrees that the play contains a timeless quality.
From the Paper "A Raisin in the Sun, the play written by the late Lorraine Hansberry, was first performed on Broadway in 1959. It was a remarkable play, the first one to present Black families without stereotype, and mapping out the multiple problems facing Black families of the day. Those issues included not only overt racism but the stereotypes held by the employers they worked for, clashes between older generations who remembered the overt racism experienced in the South, and younger generations who wanted to move into middle class life complete with home ownership and jobs that did not cast them in the role of servants. One young person in the family is in college and intends to attend medical school."
Abstract This paper examines the play "A Raisin in the Sun", by African- American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. The paper describes the playwright's life and provides a synopsis of the plays events. The paper states that the moral of this play is as long as people try to do their best for their families, they can lift each other up.
From the Paper "Lorraine Hansberry's " A Raisin in the Sun" was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway in 1959. Moreover, Hansberry was the youngest and the first black writer to receive the New York Drama Critics Award. She was deeply committed to equality and human rights, and her play approaches important issues and concerns regarding the African-American racial identity and discrimination, and poverty."
Tags: africian, american, play, playwrite, new, york, drama, critics, award, balck, women, racial, identity, a, discrimination, poverty
This paper describes Lorraine Hannsberry's "Raisin in the Sun" and a poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes included in the book (and quoted in full in the paper).
Abstract This paper discusses that both Hansberry's book "A Raisin in the Sun" and the included poem ?Harlem,? by Hughes are written by African-American writers. The author states that both focus on the question of what happens to ?a dream deferred.? The paper states that Hansberry, through the characters within her drama, answers this question in the same manner as does Hughes.
From the Paper "Hughes? poem, which asks if a deferred dream will ?...fester like a sore-- / and then run?? can easily be applied to Walter's dream of having a better life, which festers inside him. In the first act of the Hansberry's drama, Ruth points out to Walter that his thoughts are always focused on one thing: his dream. Her speech to her husband is an indication that his dream is festering and not going away."
Abstract This paper examines Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun" about Walter the resentful patriarch of the family who acts out certain attitudes affecting the black community in his time. It looks at how Hansberry clearly writes from her own experience, the family she writes about exists in a specific time period--the 1950s--and a specific milieu--the south side of Chicago. It shows how The Younger family is on the verge of escaping from the ghetto, with each family member having his or her own dream and how this dream begins with the desire to achieve the American dream. It discusses how by the end of the play the seamy reality of that dream has been exposed and the family has shifted to a celebration of its own value system rather than aspiring to emulate white society.
From the Paper "The kind of experience the Youngers have leads them to a spiritual and familial regeneration, and they transcend their ghetto not by moving to the suburbs but by understanding themselves and their place in black society. The prevailing racism has left the Youngers with a feeling of inferiority they try to overcome. The anger that such treatment creates is subdued in this family. The one vital element in the Younger family that sets them apart from much of the black experience today is the fact that they are, in the end, a family. The breakdown of the family in the ghetto is much discussed today. The Youngers have stayed together, something difficult even in the 1950s and something which shows them as atypical. Hansberry is not painting a false picture, and she is promoting the idea that family can help solve some of the problems faced in a racist society."
Abstract This analyzes two plays as expressions of the black experience in America, while focusing on the characters and symbolism in these plays. The plays are Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson". The literary work by August Wilson reflects the painful past and anticipated future of the African American race whereas Hansberry's play shows how an African-American family is united in love and pride as they struggle to overcome poverty and harsh living conditions in the midst of the 20th century.
Abstract This paper compares the dreams of the characters of Walter and Mama in Lorraine Hansberry's play "Raisin in the Sun" and the conflict that emerges between these two dreams.
Abstract This three-page undergraduate paper is on the story "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansbury. It includes the basic topic of the story and the comparison between the characters.
Abstract This paper examines how Lorraine Hansberry's play, "A Raisin in the Sun", is a dramatic tour de force and was one of the more important developments in American dramatic literature in the second half of the 20th century. It looks at how her moving play focuses on the domestic life of the Younger family as they decide what to do with a check that they have received after the death of Walter Lee's father. It shows how, from the very beginning of the play, Hansberry creates a tone that sets the stage for the later dramatic action and how the play is, ultimately, a meditation on how the human spirit is able to rebound after our dreams have been destroyed. It analyzes how Hansberry reveals the specific dreams of each character in the play and how, in each case, their dreams are disappointed in some strange and sad fashion.
From the Paper "All of the Youngers do have important, although different dreams. Beneatha dreams of going to medical school, Mama dreams of moving into a new house, and Walter Lee wants to open a liquor store. The problem is that the amount of money that the family has is finite and can only serve to fulfill some, and not all, of the Younger's dreams. Walter Lee's dream has a particular significance in relation to his manly pride, and the failure of that dream is terrible. However, ?By the end of the play, they learn that the dream of a house is the most important dream because it unites the family,? and it is through this common dream that the Youngers realize their true strength ("Themes, Motifs, and Symbols")."
