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HarlemThe 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 ...
A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The title of the play references a conjecture that Langston Hughes famously posed in a poem he wrote about dreams that were forgotten or put off.
The Youngers are the main characters in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun. In Scene 1, the family is obsessed with a $10,000 insurance check that is set to arrive any day. Each person in the family wants to escape poverty by using the money to fulfill their own dreams.
Graft means to pay off someone to gain something in return. When Walter is telling Ruth his plans for owning a liquor store, she replies "You...
Hansberry decided to use “a raisin in the sun” as her title because the characters' dreams were all “raisins” that lost their “taste” because some dreams “exploded,” while others were “syrupy sweet” (Hughes 8).
Langston Hughes inspired the title of the play A Raisin in the Sun.
A Raisin in the Sun ends with the Younger family leaving their longtime apartment in Chicago's South Side neighborhood in order to move into a house they've purchased in the otherwise all-white neighborhood of Clybourne Park.
Though Ruth hates the idea of aborting her child, she feels it's the best decision for her financially-strapped family. In the end, though, Ruth chooses to keep her child.
After the death of her husband, Mama Younger receives a $10,000 life insurance check. The Youngers see it as a way out of their current circumstances, but they soon realize that they have different dreams. Mama, Ruth, and Travis want a house, while Beneatha wants an education.
Lindner from the welcoming committee visits to inform the Youngers that they are not welcome. Dramatic irony is when the audience has insight that the character does not have, like when Bobo walks in the door and everyone but Walter Lee is aware that his own investment has gone poorly.
Walter believes that the women in his life are his main antagonists. In particular, he believes that his wife, Ruth, prevents him from taking the steps necessary to escape his dead-end service job and create a better life for himself.
Climax Bobo tells the Youngers that Willy has run off with all of Walter's invested insurance money; Asagai makes Beneatha realize that she is not as independent as she thinks. Falling action Walter refuses Mr.