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Summary: "A Raisin in the Sun" as an American Dream
Review: "A Raisin in the Sun" is a required read to anyone who wants to learn more about the true meaning of the American dream. It not only relates to African Americans, but it also can be related to by other minorities, the lower class society, and basically anyone who seeks the pursuit of happiness in America.
The play is about a hard-working lower class African American family who is trying to get out of their crumy little apartment. Lena Younger (Mama) is getting a ten thousand dollar check from an insurance company for her husband's death. She wants to use this money to buy a house for the family to live in and pay for her daughter's (Beneatha) college tuition, but Mama's son, Walter, has other plans with her money. Walter wants to open a liquer store with a couple of his no-good friends. The family's anticiapation of using Mama's money ends up tearing them apart. Everyone wants spend the money differently. The Younger family has to hit rock bottom before they notice the mistakes they have made and agree on a common goal.
I especially liked the character, Mama. She is the strong willed head of the household. While reading this play I often thought about the old saying, "mama knows best." Mama is the character who brings the family together and gives the play its life. Reading Mama's character was worth reading the play alone. I actually learned a great deal about life from reading this play and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading it.
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Summary: Very moving.
Review: "A Raisin in the Sun" reads more like a novel than a play. With a multitude of dialogue, and lenient stage direction, you'll finish reading this play in no time at all. The characters are strong, liable, and intriguing. I'm not sure I'd want to see it performed, but it is poignant to read. I recommend.
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Summary: A Raisin in the Sun
Review: A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry ,is by far one of the best books have read yet. The setting is in the mid-1900's in the Southside of Chicago. The main focus of this book occurs around a poor black family in a poor black community, the Younger's. Hansberry does a great job of using dialect to make the scenes quite realistic and uses quite a bit of symbolism, irony, motifs, and situations that involve making decisions where you become stuck between a rock and a hard place. The book starts off with Walter Younger's obsession with his mother's insurance check so he can become a true entrepeneur and invest in his own liquor store. Since religion played a vital role in Mama's reaction to this sinful act it really damaged Walter's hopes and dreams. Later in the book Mama finally decides to give Walter the money and leaves him with the responsibility of taking care of the family, this is where the rising action begins. Then the climax hits when Walter finds out that the money he gave to his partner is gone. This leaves Walter and the rest of the family in a sudden feeling of disillusionment. Then as things cool down Walter and the rest of the family decide to go ahead and move into the all white neighborhood. The rest of the story is jam packed with racial, religious, economic, and even feministical motifs that aid in the release of all the true tensions in the novel, between characters, which Hansberry purposely relates to the reality of the way society really is. Her purpose for writing this book was to show the way society worked and to make it apparent how hard life was for a poor black family. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It had alot of realistic elements , enough to make the reader stay interested and more. The plot is dramatic and ends ironically. I gave this book 4 stars because it had all the elements of a good book it just did not have the ending I was expecting. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a easy reading book that contains alot of real life situations and the struggle of a poor black family just trying to "move on up", just like the Jefferson's just without all the funny jokes.
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Summary: Pretty good
Review: But not great. The character's are interesting, with their fight to move into a nicer neighborhood. This play didn't really resonate with me that much, though.
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Summary: Review of "A Raisin in the Sun"
Review: Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" is a social realism drama depicting the inter-family and social struggles of an African American family living in Chicago during the early Civil Rights movement. It follows the life of Walter Younger, his family, and his mother who is forced to make a decision about what to do with the $10,000 she inherited from her late husband--a decision that will dramatically effect the lives of the entire family.
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Summary: good story
Review: I really enjoyed reading this story. It was filled with much meaning, and the emotional drama held my attention easily.
The story, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, is centered on the Younger's, a poor African-American family living in a small apartment on Chicago's Southside sometime after World War II. The dynamic characters of the family, their relationships, and their conflicting ideas of what should be the fate of a ten-thousand dollar insurance check, combine to make a very rich, realistic, and unforgettable story.
From the first scene, the tension in the family is obvious. All of the adult characters want to use the money to help achieve their dreams. Walter, Lena's son, wants to use the check to open a liquor store which he believes will help him become a man of higher class. Beneatha, Lena's daughter, wants to use it to become a doctor which will help her overcome many of the racial and sexual stereotypes she experiences as a young black woman. Lena and Ruth, Walter's wife, want to use the check to buy a house so they can be free from their wretched apartment and so that Travis, Walter and Lena's son, can grow up in a rich environment. The eventual fate of the money, their dreams, and their relationship with one another at the end of the story is surprising and it gives the story a realistic value that makes it worth reading.
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Summary: Great Play Provides Frustratingly Realistic Characters
Review: Lorraine Hansberry's play "A Raisin in the Sun" provides an in-depth view of a family struggling to achieve their dreams. It shows how a person's dreams can oftentimes be the only glue that holds a family together. The Younger family lives in a world of poverty in post World War II Chicago. Their cockroach infested home and inability to provide basic funds for the child's education really pull you into their world.
To the credit of Hansberry, I found myself very frustrated at times in this novel. It seems as if every time the family grows close to escaping their situation, unfortunate events cause their dream to be "deferred" as the opening poem of the novel suggests. Every time I would begin to root for one of the characters who seem to be making strides toward improvement, they fall very short of their goal. I found the character of Walter to be the most troubling because of his inability to devise and execute a plan to provide for his family. Though I certainly do not find Walter to be a treasured literary character, he did allow me to better relate to the struggles and pressures of men who are unable to provide for their family. Walter, however, does undergo a somewhat dramatic transformation which really served to redeem him in my eyes. Raisin's imperfect cast really makes this novel a gem because of the humanity of the characters.
This book is an easy read and can be well-understood by any high school student or above. I would strongly recommend this book for people who enjoy books on civil rights struggles, but more importantly to those who treasure books about the strong bond of a family's dreams.
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Summary: A Great Book
Review: Recently, in my eighth grade English class, we read To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. During our study of the 1930's in Alabama we were assigned to read another book by an African American author. I chose A Raisin the Sun because my mom recommended it. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun written in 1959 is an intriguing, must read play. This play shows the strength of an African-American family's values and ability to stick together. They face many hard things that shock the reader and the audience including an accidental pregnancy. They battle against harsh prejudice and a system that attempts to keep them from having good opportunities to improve their life. Hansberry does a good job of intertwining family hardships with the individuality of each character. She develops each character personally and carries on his or her traits through out the entire book. The attitude she takes towards the great struggles of a Chicago family, Walter, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha and Travis Younger is convincing because of her tone and description. She shows that life for an African American person at this time is difficult and full of obstacles more challenging than the ones that white people faced. Although A Raisin in the Sun takes place 29 years after To Kill a Mockingbird, African American people are still treated with no respect and are limited in their rights. Both stories constantly demolish African-American families' dreams. Hansberry illustrates through her tone that the family life is rough and the Youngers' are eager for a big change. This action in the plot causes excitement and suspense. As a reader I constantly want the Younger family to over come their challenges and do well in the future. In the same way, In To Kill A Mockingbird I was always hoping that Tom Robinson would be freed. Although there are similarities in the way black people are treated in both books, Lorraine Hansberry as a black author develops her black characters more thoroughly than Harper Lee. Lorraine Hansberry leaves her white characters to roles that are minor. I like this play because it is realistic and shows how strong a family bond is no matter what comes between them. She really showed how the Youngers' were struggling financially but still managed to succeeded all of the obstacles in their way.
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Summary: Civil Rights and Wrongs: An American Drama
Review: Some might call the Youngers black; I call them black and blue. All the rage of the minority experience in America has found its way into one household, and the characters of this drama burst on stage with the sheer weight of it. The American Dream has been placed within the hearts of a people who have not the resources to make that Dream a reality -- so what do they do?
What else? They fight about it.
Hearts are bared; hearts are broken; hearts are emptied. And the playgoer is left there to pick up the pieces. After hearing the moving story of Walter Younger, should he give up his dream? After watching the despair of Lena Younger, should he give up his history? After watching the transformation of an American family on stage, should he sing for the exuberance of life or smash tables for its injustices?
And yet, fifty years later, "A Raisin in the Sun" has wilted -- if only imperceptively. Segregation, time has proven, cuts both ways. The problems of injustice in America have not let up one bit, even as our problems of racism have steadily improved. Hansberry was not shortsighted, but this marvelous play of the 1950s does not apply quite as brilliantly to the problems of a new millenium.
Nevertheless, this play should be required reading for any American who wants his rights to be respected, and occasionally has a wrong idea of how. (In other words, pretty much any one of us.)
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Summary: Pure Genius
Review: The play A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from a line from the classic poem by Langston Hughes that I is called "A Dream Deferred." Appropriately enough, the play focuses on the deferred dreams of the Younger family, an African American family living in Chicago sometime after World War II. The family consists of Mama, Walter Lee Younger, his wife Ruth, his son Travis, and his sister Berneath. The whole family lives together in a small apartment. It is long been Mama dream to move into a house and she could finally make this a reality with the aid of insurance money from her deceased husband's policy. Walter Lee, however, wants to use the money to open up a liquor store because he is tired of working as an unrespected chauffer. Berneath--a college student--dreams of becoming a doctor and believes that some of the money should go to her schooling. Thus, although each family member believes that the money will fullfill their dreams, it actually just causes more conflicts. The ultimate theme of the play is that money itself cannot make your dreams come true. Dreams must be worked on in order for them to come true. Eventhough some dreams may never be realized, they never truely "die." Instead, they allows remain in the back of your mind ever if they will never actually be realized.I found this play an enjoyable and quick read. To me, it was more appealing than plays of August Wilson, who wrote plays of a similar theme (Fences, The Piano Lesson). One good thing about the play is that although the Youngers are a black family, the theme of the play seems appealing to any audience since many families have had money problems and even more families have had dreams about life that they have struggled to fulfill.
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