Southside Chicago in the 1950s A Raisin in the Sun takes place during the 1950s, a time when many Black families left the South and moved to big cities like Chicago to find better jobs and more opportunities. Most importantly, they wanted to escape the racial discrimination that they faced in the South.
What is the most important symbol in a raisin in the sun?
The most overt symbol in the play, Mama’s plant represents both Mama’s care and her dream for her family. In her first appearance onstage, she moves directly toward the plant to take care of it.
Where does the majority of A Raisin in the Sun take place?
Chicago’s South Side
Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play, A Raisin in the Sun (1959), tells the story of the Youngers, three generations of an African American family living together in a small apartment on Chicago’s South Side.
What is the setting of A Raisin in the Sun in Scene 1?
Summary: Act I, Scene i. It is morning at the Youngers’ apartment. Their small dwelling on the South Side of Chicago has two bedrooms—one for Mama and Beneatha, and one for Ruth and Walter Lee. Travis sleeps on the couch in the living room.
What is the setting of a raisin in the sun New York?
The story tells of a Black family’s experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father, and deals with matters of housing discrimination, racism, and assimilation.
What are the three important symbols in A Raisin in the Sun?
Some of the symbols are Mama’s plant, Beneatha’s hair, music, the phrase “eat your eggs,” the $10,000 insurance payment, and money more generally.
What are the major themes in A Raisin in the Sun?
The major themes of A Raisin in the Sun include dreams, pride, money, race, and family. Each character in the play demonstrates at least one of the themes through their interactions with other characters.
Why is it called raisin in the sun?
The play’s title is taken from “Harlem,” a poem by Langston Hughes, which examines the question “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?” This penetrating psychological study of a working-class black family on the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s reflected Hansberry’s own
What is the conflict of the story A Raisin in the Sun?
Major conflict The Youngers, a working-class Black family, struggle against economic hardship and racial prejudice.
What does A Raisin in the Sun symbolize in the play?
In Southside Chicago the Younger family is struggling to have hope as they are always facing society.In the drama, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry the plant symbolizes the Younger’s dream as it evolves throughout the play. Meanwhile in southside Chicago dreams are either being crushed or pursued.
Who faints at the end of Act I scene?
Ruth prepares for her job as a cleaning woman as Mama reprimands Beneatha about her fresh talk. At the end of the scene, Mama discovers that Ruth has fainted and fallen to the floor.
Who revealed Walter’s pregnancy?
Mama
Mama sits down with Walter who is upset by—and ashamed of—his poverty, his job as a chauffeur, and his lack of upward mobility. Finally, Mama tells him that Ruth is pregnant and that she fears that Ruth is considering having an abortion.
What did Beneatha do to her hair?
Beneatha’s 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.
What is the setting in a story?
What Is Setting? Setting is the time and place an author chooses for a literary work. A setting can be a real time period and geographical location or a fictional world and unfamiliar time period.
What is the historical context of the play A Raisin in the Sun?
A Raisin in the Sun premiered on Broadway in 1959, and it is a play both about its own time and about the future. Hansberry wrote her landmark drama in the late 1950s, when the conservative postwar years were coming to a close and the radical 1960s were around the corner.
How did A Raisin in the Sun impact society?
A Raisin in the Sun opened the eyes of many to the discrimination, racism, and struggles that black families faced. Everyone including white people could relate to the play because everyone has their own idea of freedom, and the dreams they wish to achieve.
What is the irony in a raisin in the sun?
Everything Walter says when Bobo first makes his entrance is an example of dramatic irony. While Walter is asking Bobo to “tell him how things went in Springfield,” the audience immediately guesses the outcome. Even the other characters on stage become aware of the impending doom long before Walter does.
What does Georges white shoes symbolize in a raisin in the sun?
The white shoes are a symbol of Asagai’s being educated…. We intuit that Walter does not know many (or any) educated Black men. Walter conflates being educated with “being white” or “being gay”, or attempting to be better than one’s “correct” social station.
What does the 10 000 check symbolize in a raisin in the sun?
The life insurance check that Mama receives after the death of her husband represents hope, as each member of the family sees it as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make their dreams come true. However, the money doesn’t solve as many problems as they imagined.
What does the liquor store symbolize in A Raisin in the Sun?
In other words, the liquor store represents a chance at upward mobility. Walter’s desire to own his own business and achieve upward mobility is linked to his desire to rescue his masculine pride. Throughout the play Walter expresses his sense of being emasculated and unable to live up to his father’s legacy.
How is money a theme in A Raisin in the Sun?
Mama sees the insurance payment as a way to fulfill her dream of owning a house, which symbolizes her deep-seated yearning for “freedom” from racial persecution. Similarly, Beneatha dreams of the money as a way to fund her medical schooling, which embodies her desire to overcome racism and sexism.