Who is Lorraine Vivian Hansberry? Lorraine was born In Chicago on May 19, 1930 She based most of her novels on her life, she was 28 old ages old when she wrote her foremost play A Raisin in the Sun which won The Drama Critics Award for best drama of the twelvemonth and made Hansberry the first black, youngest individual, and 5th adult female to win that award. She was the youngest of four kids Carl, Jr. , Perry, and Mammie. Her parents were good educated successful black citizens who publically fought favoritism against black people. Her male parent, Carl Augustus Hansberry, Sr. , was from Gloucester, Mississippi, he moved to Chicago after go toing Alcorn College, and became known as the “ kitchenette male monarch ” after subdividing big places that were vacated by Whites who were traveling to the suburbs he so sold these little flats or kitchenettes to African American migrators from the South. Hansberry ‘s female parent, Nannie Perry, a school teacher and, subsequently, ward committeewoman, was from Tennessee. At the clip of Lorraine ‘s birth, she had become an influential society matron who hosted major cultural and literary figures such as Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, and Joe Louis. Lorraine and her siblings enjoyed privileges unknown to their classmates ; the parents filled their kids with racial pride and civic duty. They founded the Hansberry Foundation ; an organisation designed to inform African Americans of their civil rights, they besides encouraged their kids to dispute the segregation policies of local eating houses and shops. ( Cliffnotes, James, Rosetta ) .
When Hansberry was a kid she and her household lived in a black vicinity on Chicago ‘s Southside. During this clip segregation enforced the separation of Whites and inkinesss which was still legal and spreaded throughout the South, Northern States. This was including Hansberry ‘s ain Hometown Illinois. Carl and Nannie Hansberry challenged defensive existent estate understandings by traveling into an all-white vicinity. Hansberry ‘s household became one of the first to travel into an all white vicinity but, a rabble of Whites gathered in forepart of the house and threw a brick through the forepart window, narrowly losing eight-year-old Lorraine this forced the household to travel out. Her male parent won a narrow triumph over restrictive understandings from the Supreme Court, but the determination failed to put illustrations on their issue.
Hansberry still attended Betsy Ross Elementary and Englewood High School even though her household stayed in a all white vicinity it did n’t alter her right to acquire a instruction with all the other white childs because of her tegument colour she still had to go to a unintegrated public school for inkinesss.Lorraine Hansberry became interested in theatre in high school, and pursued this involvement in college.
Her household ‘s move into a restricted white vicinity in 1937 helped her conflict with unfairness ; this filled her with a sense of societal activism. Their battle would go the topic of her first major drama. Going from the household tradition of go toing black colleges, Hansberry enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a preponderantly white university, to analyze news media, but became every bit attracted to the ocular humanistic disciplines while she was at that place.
She besides attended the University of Wisconsin and the Art Institute of Chicago and studied in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 1948 to 1950. She became more politically active after traveling to New York City and composing for freedom magazine. While take parting in a presentation at New York University, she met Robert Barron Nemiroff, the boy of progressive Russian Judaic immigrants, and after a short confidant relationship, she married him on June 20, 1953. After holding earned his maestro ‘s degree four months before at New York University, he had begun composing a book on Theodore Dreiser, The immature twosome moved to Greenwich Village and Hansberry began to compose massively about the people and life styles that she observed around her. She was already an experient author and editor, holding published articles, essays, and poesy in Freedom, New Challenge Magazine and other political magazines. ( Shmoop, A raisin in the Sun ) .
After go forthing Freedom in 1953 to concentrate on her authorship, Hansberry worked assorted uneven occupations including tagger in the garment industry, typist, plan manager at Camp Unity ( an interracial summer cantonment ) , diversion leader for the physically handicapped, and teacher at the Marxist-oriented Jefferson School for Social Science. When her hubby co-wrote “ Cindy Oh Cindy ” ( 1956 ) , a lay that became an blink of an eye hit, the net incomes freed Hansberry to give her full energies to a drama about a struggling, propertyless black household, like the households who rented her male parent ‘s belongingss on Chicago ‘s South Side A Raisin In the Sun. A Raisin In the Sun reflects the defeats of a black household whose dreams of economic advancement have been let down in 1961, it was produced as a movie with most of the original dramatis personae and won a particular award at the Cannes Film Festival. During this period, Hansberry was much in demand as a public talker. She expressed her belief that art is societal and that black authors must turn to all issues of world. As the civil rights motion climaxed, she helped to form fund-raising activities in support of organisations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) , called for the abolishment of the House Un-american Activities Committee, and declared that President John E. Kennedy had endangered universe peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. ( Answers.com, A raisin in the Sun ) .
During the last four old ages of her life, Hansberry worked hard on several dramas. The Sign in Sidney Brustein ‘s Window was produced on Broadway in 1964, but critics were less unfastened to this drama that challenged the Greenwich Village intellectuals. During its short tally, Hansberry battled pancreatic malignant neoplastic disease, diagnosed in 1963. She died on 12 January 1965, the same dark that her drama closed. ( Grade Saver, Sherrod, Cheryl.Berkow, Jordan ) .
Lorraine Hansberry left behind several dramas some are listed below: ( Answers.com, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Nonfiction the Motion: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality, Simon & A ; Schuster, 1964.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lothringen Hansberry in Her Own Words, debut by James Baldwin, Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Plays A Raisin in the Sun, opened in New Haven and Philadelphia, moved to Chicago, so produced on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, March 11, 1959 ; published by New American Library, 1961.
Les Blancs, individual scene staged at Actors Studio Workshop, New York, 1963 ; two-act drama produced at Long acre Theater, New York City, 1970.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein ‘s Window produced on Broadway, 1964 ; published by Random House, 1965.
Lorraine Hansberry ‘s “ A Raisin in the Sun ” and “ The Sign in Sidney Brustein ‘s Window, ” New American Library, 1966.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black, adapted for the phase by Robert Nemiroff, foremost produced at the Cherry Lane Theater, January 2, 1969 ; moving edition published by Samuel French, 1971.
Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry, edited by Robert Nemiroff, debut by Julius Lester, Random House, 1972, reprinted, New American Library, 1983.
Lorraine Hansberry: The Collected Last Plays ( Les Blancs, The Drinking Gourd, What Use Are Flowers? ) , edited by Robert Nemiroff, New American Library, 1983.
Other ( Answers.com, A raisin in the Sun ) .
A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay, edited by Robert Nemiroff, Plume, 1992.
All the Dark and Beautiful Warriors, an unfinished novel.
Writer of approximately two twelve articles for Freedom, 1951-55, and over 25 essays for other publications, including the Village Voice, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Freedom ways, Mademoiselle, Ebony, Playbill, Show, Theatre Arts, Black Scholar, Monthly Review, and Annalss of Psychotherapy.
Books ( Answers.com, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Abramson, Doris E. , Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925-1959, Columbia University Press, 1969, pp. 165-266.
Black Literature Criticism, Gale, 1992.
Carter, Steven R. , Hansberry ‘s Play: Commitment amid Complexity, University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Cheney, Anne, Lorraine Hansberry, Twayne, 1984.
Davis, Arthur P. , From the Dark Tower: African-american Writers, 1900-1960, Howard University Press, pp. 203-07.
Hansberry, Lorraine, To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lothringen Hansberry in Her Own Words, debut by James Baldwin, Penguin Books, 1969.
Hansberry, Lorraine, A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay, edited by Robert Nemiroff, preface by Jewell Handy Gresham-Nemiroff, commentary by Spike Lee, Penguin Books USA, 1992.
Periodicals ( Answers.com, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Black American Literature Forum, spring 1983, pp. 8-13.
Commentary, June 1959, pp. 527-30.
Freedom ways ( particular issue ) , 19:4, 1979.
New Yorker, May 9, 1959.
New York Times, January 13, 1965 ; October 5, 1983, p. C24.
New York Times Review of Books, March 31, 1991, p. 25.
Theatre Journal, December 1986, pp. 441-52.
Time, January 22, 1965.
Village Voice, August 12, 1959, pp. 7-8.
Washington Post, November 17, 1986, p. D1.
Hansberry wrote that she ever felt the inclination to enter her experiences her sense of history and the confusing function of adult females in history are besides shown in her work. She was named “ most promising dramatist. ” Raisin in the Sun ran for 530 public presentations from 1959 to 1965 ; A Raisin in the Sun was a drama that Lorraine based on her life while populating n Chicago during segregation. ( Sparknotes, A raisin in the Sun ) . It talked about the life of a household called the Younger ‘s some other characters
Include:
Walter Lee YoungerA -A The cardinal character of the drama. Walter is a dreamer. He wants to be rich and devises programs to get wealth with his friends, peculiarly Willy Harris. When the drama opens, he wants to put his male parent ‘s insurance money in a new spirits shop venture. He spends the remainder of the drama infinitely preoccupied with detecting a speedy solution to his household ‘s variousA jobs.
Beneatha Younger ( “ Bennie ” ) A -A Mama ‘s girl and Walter ‘s sister. Beneatha is an rational. Twenty old ages old, she attends college and is better educated than the remainder of the Younger household. Some of her personal beliefs and positions have distanced her from conservative Mama. She dreams of being a physician and battles to find her individuality as a knowing black adult female.
Lena Younger ( “ Mama ” ) A -A Walter and Beneatha ‘s female parent. The caput of the household, Mama is spiritual, moral, and lovingness. She wants to utilize her hubby ‘s insurance money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to carry through her dream for her household to travel up in theA universe.
Ruth YoungerA -A Walter ‘s married woman and Travis ‘s female parent. Ruth takes attention of the Younger ‘s ‘ little flat. Her matrimony to Walter has jobs, but she hopes to rekindle their love. She is about 30, but her fatigue makes her seem older. Constantly contending poorness and domestic problems, she continues to be an emotionally strong adult female. Her about unenthusiastic irony helps her to last.
Travis YoungerA -A Walter and Ruth ‘s sheltered immature boy. Travis earns some money by transporting food market bags and likes to play outside with other vicinity kids, but he has no sleeping room and slumbers on the living-room couch.
Joseph AsagaiA -A A Nigerian pupil in love with Beneatha. Asagai, as he is frequently called, is really proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to larn about her African heritage from him. He finally proposes matrimony to Beneatha and hopes she will return to Nigeria with him.
George MurchisonA -A A wealthy, Afro-american adult male who courts Beneatha. The Younger ‘s approve of George, but Beneatha dislikes his willingness to subject to white civilization and bury his African heritage. He challenges the ideas and feelings of other black people through his haughtiness and genius for rational competition.
Mr. Karl LindnerA -A The lone white character in the drama. Mr. Lindner arrives at the Younger ‘s ‘ flat from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. He offers the Younger ‘s a trade to reconsider traveling into his ( all-white ) vicinity.
BoboA -A One of Walter ‘s spouses in the spirits shop program. Bobo appears to be as mentally slow as his name indicates.
Willy HarrisA -A A friend of Walter and coordinator of the spirits shop program. Willy ne’er appears onstage, which helps maintain the focal point of the narrative on the kineticss of the Younger household.
Mrs. JohnsonA -A The Younger ‘s ‘ neighbour. Mrs. Johnson takes advantage of the Younger ‘s ‘ cordial reception and warns themA about traveling into an all whiteA vicinity.
A Raisin In the Sun portrays a few hebdomads in the life of the Youngers, an Afro-american household life on the South Side of Chicago in the fiftiess. When the drama opens, the Youngers are about to have an insurance cheque for $ 10,000. This money comes from the asleep Mr. Younger ‘s life insurance policy. Each of the grownup members of the household has an thought as to what he or she would wish to make with this money. The caput of the household, Mama, wants to purchase a house to carry through a dream she shared with her hubby. Mama ‘s boy, Walter Lee, would instead utilize the money to put in a spirits shop with his friends. He believes that the investing will work out the household ‘s fiscal jobs everlastingly. Walter ‘s married woman, Ruth, agrees with Mama, nevertheless, and hopes that she and Walter can supply more infinite and chance for their boy, Travis. Finally, Beneatha, Walter ‘s sister and Mama ‘s girl, wants to utilize the money for her medical school tuition. She besides wishes that her household members were non so interested in fall ining the white universe. Beneatha alternatively tries to happen her individuality by looking back to the yesteryear and to Africa.
As the drama progresses, the Youngers clash over their competing dreams. Ruth discovers that she is pregnant but frights that if she has the kid, she will set more fiscal force per unit area on her household members. When Walter says nil to Ruth ‘s admittance that she is sing abortion, Mama puts a down payment on a house for the whole household. She believes that a bigger, house will profit them all. The Youngers ‘ future neighbours find out that they are traveling to an all white vicinity, and they send Mr. Lindner, from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, to offer the Youngers money in return for remaining off. The Youngers refuse the trade, even after Walter loses the remainder of the money to his friend Willy Harris, who persuades Walter to put in the spirits shop and so runs off with his hard currency.
In the interim, Beneatha rejects George Murchison, who she believes to be shallow and blind to the jobs of race. She receives a matrimony proposal from her Nigerian fellow, Joseph Asagai, who wants Beneatha to acquire a medical grade and move to Africa with him. The Youngers finally travel out of the flat, carry throughing the household ‘s long-held dream. Their hereafter seems unsure and somewhat unsafe, but they are determined to populate a better life. They believe that they can win if they stick together as a household and decide to postpone their dreams no longer.
During Act 1 Scene 1 of the drama which is entitled Friday Morning it is forenoon at the Youngers ‘ flat. Their little place on the South Side of Chicago has two sleeping rooms one for Mama and Beneatha, and one for Ruth and Walter Lee. Travis sleeps on the sofa in the life room. The lone window is in their little kitchen, and they portion a bathroom in the hall with their neighbours. Ruth is the first 1 in the house to wake up so she starts to cook breakfast and this awakes Walter and Travis while Travis is acquiring ready Walter and Ruth talk in the kitchen they do non look happy as they engage in some little wit they keep adverting a cheque Walter scans the front page of the newspaper and reads that another bomb was set off, and Ruth responds with choler. Travis asks them for money he is supposed to convey 50 cents to school and Ruth says that they do non hold it. His changeless shrewish rapidly irritates her. Walter, nevertheless, gives Travis an full dollar while gazing at Ruth. Travis so leaves for school, and Walter Tells Ruth that he wants to utilize the cheque to put in a spirits shop with a few of his friends. Walter and Ruth continue to reason about their unhappy lives. ( Bookrags, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Act 1 Scene 2 The Following Morning The following twenty-four hours, Saturday, the Youngers are cleaning their flat and waiting for the insurance cheque to get. Walter receives a phone call from his friend Willy Harris, who is organizing the possible spirits shop investing. It appears that their program is traveling swimmingly. The insurance cheque is all Walter demands to prosecute his spirits shop. He promises to convey the money to Willy when he receives it. Meanwhile, Beneatha is spraying the flat with insect powder in an effort to acquire rid of cockroaches. Beneatha and Travis start contending, and Beneatha threatens him with the spray gun. The phone rings, and Beneatha replies. She invites the individual on the phone over to the still-dirty flat, without refering Mama. After hanging up, Beneatha explains to Mama that the adult male she has spoken to on the phone is Joseph Asagai, an African rational whom Beneatha has met at school. She and Mama discuss Beneatha ‘s concerns about her household ‘s ignorance about Africa and African people. Ruth returns from seeing a physician, who has told her that she is two months pregnant. She reveals this information to Mama and Beneatha. Walter returns place and wants to speak about his spirits shop programs. Ruth wants to discourse her gestation with him and becomes upset when he will non listen. ( Cummings survey guide, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Act 2 Scene 1 Later that same twenty-four hours Later on the same Saturday, Beneatha comes out from her room dressed in the Nigerian apparels that Asagai has brought her. She dances around the flat, claiming to be executing a tribal dance while shouting “ OCOMOGOSIAY ” and singing. Mama comes place and announces that she has put a down payment on a house with some of the insurance money. Ruth is happy to hear this intelligence because she excessively dreams of traveling out of their current flat and into a more broad place. Meanwhile, Walter is perceptibly disquieted because he wants to set all the money into the spirits shop. They all become disquieted when they hear that the house is in Clybourne Park, an wholly white vicinity. Mama asks for their apprehension it was the lone house that they could afford. She feels she needs to purchase the house to keep the household together. Ruth regains her pleasance and rejoices, but Walter feels betrayed, his dream swept under the tabular array. Walter makes Mama experience guilty, stating that she has crushed his dream. He goes rapidly to his sleeping room, and Mama remains sitting and worrying. ( enotes, Marie Rose Naiper Kowski ) .
Act 2 Scene 2 Friday Night a few hebdomads subsequently On a Friday dark a few hebdomads subsequently, Beneatha and George return from a day of the month. The Youngers ‘ flat is full of traveling boxes. George wants to snog Beneatha, but she does non desire to snog. She wants to prosecute George in a conversation about the life of African-Americans. It seems that George wants to get married a “ nice, simple, sophisticated miss. ” Mama comes in as Beneatha kicks him out Mrs. Johnson the Youngers ‘ neighbour visits. Mama and Ruth offer her nutrient and drink, and she lief accepts. She has come to see to state them about a black household who has been bombed out of their place in a white vicinity. Walter ‘s foreman calls, stating Ruth that Walter has non been to work in three yearss. Walter explains that he has been rolling all twenty-four hours ( frequently manner into the state ) and imbibing all dark ( at a saloon with a wind couple that he loves ) . He says that he feels depressed, and useless as the adult male of the household ( Sparknotes, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Act 2 Scene 3 Saturday traveling twenty-four hours, one hebdomad subsequently On Saturday, a hebdomad subsequently, it is traveling twenty-four hours. Ruth shows Beneatha the drapes she has bought for the new house and tells her that the first thing she is traveling to make in their new house is take a long bath in their really ain bathroom. Ruth remarks on the changed temper around the family, observing that she and Walter even went out to the films and held custodies the old eventide. Walter comes in and dances with Ruth. Beneatha teases them about moving in a stereotyped manner but does non truly intend any injury. A middle-aged white adult male named Karl Lindner appears at the door. He is a representative from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, and he tells the Youngers that jobs arise when different sorts of people do non sit down and speak to each other. The Youngers agree, until he reveals that he and the vicinity alliance believe that the Youngers ‘ presence in Clybourne Park would destruct the community at that place. When Mama comes place, Walter, Ruth, and Beneatha tell her about Mr. Lindner ‘s visit. It shocks and worries her, but she supports their determination to decline the buyout offer. Then, as she is doing certain that her works is good packed for the trip, the remainder of the household surprises her with gifts of horticulture tools and a immense horticulture chapeau. Mama has ne’er received presents other than at Christmas, and she is touched by her household ‘s generousness. Merely as the whole household begins to observe, Bobo, one of Walter ‘s friends, arrives. After some stumbling, he announces that Willy Harris has run off with all of the money that Walter invested in the spirits shop trade. It turns out that Walter had invested non merely his $ 3,500 but besides the $ 3,000 intended for Beneatha ‘s instruction. Mama is angry and begins to crush Walter in the face. Beneatha breaks them up. Weakness overcomes Mama, and she thinks about the difficult labour her hubby endured in order to gain the money for them. She prays to a great extent for strength. ( 123 aid me, A raisin in the Sun ) .
Act 3 An hr subsequently One hr subsequently on traveling twenty-four hours, everyone is still unhappy. Walter sits entirely and thinks. Asagai comes to assist them pack and finds Beneatha oppugning her pick of going a physician. She no longer believes that she can assist people. Mama enters and announces that they are non traveling to travel. Ruth protests. Walter returns, holding called Mr. Lindner and invited him back to the flat he intends to take his offer of money in exchange for non traveling to Clybourne Park. Everyone objects to this program, reasoning that they have excessively much pride to accept non being able to populate someplace because of their race. Walter, really agitated, puts on an act, copying the stereotype of a black male retainer. When he eventually exits, Mama declares that he has died indoors. Beneatha decides that he is no longer her brother, but Mama reminds her to love him, particularly when he feels hopeless. ( Pink Monkey, Sauder, Dianne ) .
The movers and Mr. Lindner arrive. Mama tells Walter to cover with Mr. Lindner, who is puting out contracts for Walter to subscribe. Walter starts hesitatingly, but shortly we see that he has changed his head about taking Mr. Lindner ‘s money. His address physiques in power. He tells Mr. Lindner that the Youngers are proud and hardworking and intend to travel into their new house. Mr. Lindner entreaties to Mama, who defers to Walter ‘s statement. Ultimately, Mr. Lindner leaves with his documents unsigned. Everyone coatings packing up as the movers come to take the furniture. Mama tells Ruth that she thinks Walter has eventually become a adult male by standing up to Mr. Lindner. Ruth agrees and is perceptibly proud of her hubby. Mama, who is the last to go forth, looks for a minute at the empty flat. Then she leaves, conveying her works with her. ( Cliffnotes, James Rosetta ) .
While reading a raisin in the Sun I came to a decision that it is basically about dreams, as the chief characters struggle to cover with the depressive fortunes that rule their lives. The rubric of the drama refers to a line that Langston Hughes famously said in a verse form he wrote about dreams that were forgotten or put off. He wonders whether those dreams shrivel up “ like A raisin in the Sun. ” Every member of the Younger household has a separate, single dream Beneatha wants to go a physician, for illustration, and Walter wants to hold money so that he can afford things for his household. The Youngers struggle to achieve these dreams throughout the drama, and much of their felicity and depression is straight related to their accomplishment of, or failure to achieve, these dreams. As the drama progressed The Youngers finally move out of the flat, carry throughing the household ‘s long-held dream. Their hereafter seems unsure and somewhat unsafe, but they are determined to populate a better life. They believe that they can win if they stick together as a household. By the terminal of the drama, they learn that the dream of a house is the most of import dream because it unites the household, And so did I.
