A Raisin in the SunA Raisin in the Sun

Background Information

““A Dream DeferredA Dream Deferred””

What happens to a dream deferred?What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry upDoes it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--Or fester like a sore--And then run?And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sagsMaybe it just sagslike a heavy load.like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?Or does it explode?

- Langston Hughes- Langston Hughes

A Note on the TitleA Note on the Title

• Lorraine Hansberry took the title of A Raisin in the Sun from a line in Langston Hughes’s famous 1951 poem “Harlem.”

• “Harlem” captures the tension between the need for black expression and the impossibility of that expression because of American society’s oppression of its black population.

• In the poem, Hughes asks whether a “dream deferred”—a dream put on hold—withers up “like a raisin in the sun.”

More on the titleMore on the title

• His lines confront the racist and dehumanizing attitude prevalent in American society before the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

• Hansberry’s reference to Hughes’s poem in her play’s title highlights the importance of dreams in A Raisin in the Sun and the struggle that her characters face to realize their individual dreams, a struggle tied to the more fundamental black dream of equality in America.

The Great MigrationThe Great Migration is a term used to describe the mass

migration of African Americans from the southern

United States to the industrial centers of the Northeast

and Midwest between the 1910s and 1960s.

Up South: African American Migration to Chicago

A Raisin in the Sun was written in the 1950’S. What do you know

about the 1950’S?

1950's Video

Lorraine HansberryLorraine Hansberry

• May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965

• African American playwright – Also an author of political

speeches, letters, and essays

– Daughter of a prominent real-estate broker and the niece of a Harvard University professor of African history

Early LifeEarly Life

• Youngest of four children of Carl Augustus Hansberry (a wealthy, real estate broker in segregated Chicago) and Nannie Louise Perry

• She grew up on the south side of Chicago in the Woodlawn neighborhood.

Controversial MoveControversial Move

In 1937, her father purchased a home in the Washington Park Subdivision an all-white neighborhood, where they faced racial discrimination

– Washington Park had a restrictive covenant that said no black person could live in or own a home in the subdivision

Washington Park fought Hansberry and they went to court in 1937

Supreme Court case of Hansberry Supreme Court case of Hansberry versus Leeversus 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.

“Hansberry Decision Opens 500 New Homes to Race”

The Chicago Defender Saturday, November 16, 1940

Later HansberryLater 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.

Civil Rights MovementCivil Rights Movement

• What was the Civil Right Movement?

• What was the goal of this movement?

• Were there any other movements during the period?

Social BackgroundSocial Background

• Published in 1959, four years after Rosa Parks’ was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus, sparking the Civil Rights Movement, Hansberry’s play illustrates black America’s struggle to gain equal access to opportunity and expression of cultural identity.

Sentiments in A Raisin… will be echoed by MLK in later speeches, marches, and rallies

Martin Luther King, Jr.Civil-Rights Leader

1929-1968I have a dream… a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the

true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’

ContCont’’d dreams represented in the play and d dreams represented in the play and later echoed by Kinglater echoed by King

• I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

• I have a dream…where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

MLKMLK

• How does King help to develop the idea of the American Dream?

• What does he do to the existing American Dream?

A Raisin in the SunA Raisin in the Sun• Originally title “A Crystal Stair” from

another Langston Hughes’ poem

• First production in 1959

• Known as the "movin’ on up" morality play of the 1960s– Morality play - It uses allegorical characters to teach

the audience moral lessons

The Play

Opened on Broadway on March 11, 1959 Cast includes Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, and

Ruby Dee The New York Drama Critics name it the Best

American Play of 1959 Ran for nearly 2 years on Broadway Made into a film starring most of the Broadway

cast in 1961

Basics of the PlayBasics 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

Importance of the PlayImportance 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

……Importance of PlayImportance of Play

• Broaches important issues and conflicts, such as poverty, discrimination, and the construction of African-American racial identity

Themes to Look ForThemes to Look For

• Dreams

• Money

• Family

• Women’s Rights

• Racial Tensions and Discrimination

• Assimilation

• Cultural Heritage

• Self-Identity and Self-Expression

SymbolsSymbols

• Definition: Some reoccurring image that stands for an idea beyond itself

• Be out on the lookout for symbols throughout the play!

Big Questions 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?”