Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Drama, and Struggle

1
Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Drama, and
Struggle
2
Hansberry

• May 19, 1930 January 12, 1965
• African American playwright
• Also an author of political speeches, letters,
  and essays

3
Early Life

• Youngest of four children of Carl Augustus
  Hansberry (a prominent real estate broker) and
  Nannie Louise Perry
• She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the
  Woodlawn neighborhood.

4
Controversial Move

• The family then moved into an all-white
  neighborhood, where they faced racial
• discrimination
• Segregation in
• Chicago was
• not forced
• but racial
• tensions naturally
• divided the city

5
Supreme Court case of Hansberry versus Lee

• Hansberry's father engaged in a legal battle
  against a racially restrictive covenant that
  attempted to prohibit African-American families
  from buying homes in the area.
• Though victors in the Supreme Court, Hansberry's
  family was subjected to what Hansberry would
  later describe as a "hellishly hostile white
  neighborhood."
• This experience later inspired her to write her
  most famous work, A Raisin in the Sun.

6
Later Hansberry

• Finding college to be uninspiring, Hansberry left
  in 1950 to pursue her career as a writer in New
  York City.
• She worked on the staff of a Black newspaper
  called Freedom. It was at this time she wrote A
  Raisin in the Sun.

7
Basics of the Play

• The story is based upon her family's own
  experiences growing up in Chicago's Woodlawn
  neighborhood.
• A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by
  a black woman to be produced on Broadway, as well
  as the first play with a black director (Lloyd
  Richards) on Broadway

8
Importance of the Play

• A Raisin in the Sun can be considered a turning
  point in American art and drama because it
  addresses so many issues important during the
  1950s in the United States
• Hansberry creates in the Younger family one of
  the first honest depictions of a black family on
  an American stage

9
Importance of Play, cont.

• She uses black vernacular throughout the play
• Broaches
• important issues
• and conflicts,
• such as poverty,
• discrimination,
• and the
• construction of
• African-American
• racial identity

10
Subjects to Look For

• Dreams
• Money
• Family
• Womens Rights
• Racial Tensions and Discrimination
• Assimilation
• Cultural Heritage
• Self-Identity and Self-Expression

11
Symbols

• Definition Some reoccurring image that stands
  for an idea beyond itself
• Be out on the lookout for symbols throughout the
  play!

12
Big Questions

• To what extent do our dreams define who were are?
  When is it OK or right to defer our dreams?
• How and where did racism occur after slavery and
  segregation? Where does it exist today?
• What about sexism?
• What does one need in order to find
  self-identity? To know thyself?

13
Unit Literary Objectives

• To trace two themes throughout the play, from a)
  introduction to b) development to c) ending
  statement
• To recognize how Hansberry successfully uses the
  vernacular in a powerful and poetic manner