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A Raisin in the Sun

Author: Janet Moredock
Date: 2017
From: Drama Criticism(Vol. 57. )
Publisher: Gale, a Cengage Company
Document Type: Work overview
Length: 1,841 words

About this Work

Title: A Raisin in the Sun (Play)
Published: January 01, 1959
Genre: Play
Author: Hansberry, Lorraine
Occupation: American playwright
Other Names Used: Hansberry, Lorraine Vivian;
Full Text:
Coordinating Scholar: Douglas S. Kern

Introduction
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) was the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. The play
portrays an African American family s struggle to escape poverty and partake of the American dream in post-World War II
Chicago. It premiered on 11 March 1959 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and became a great critical and popular success, winning
Hansberry acclaim as one of theater s most promising young writers. She received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award
for the play, becoming the youngest American and the first African American to win the award, for which works by Tennessee
Williams, Eugene O Neill, and Archibald MacLeish were also in consideration. Hansberry also wrote the screenplay for the 1961
film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun.

Plot and Major Characters

A drama in three acts, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the aspirations of an African American family, the Youngers, whose members
share a cramped, three-room apartment on Chicago s South Side in the years following World War II. As the play begins, Big
Walter Younger has recently died, and his wife, Lena, and their children, Walter Lee and Beneatha, are anticipating the arrival of a
check for ten thousand dollars the payout on Big Walter s life insurance policy. Each of the Youngers dreams of how the money
might be used to overcome the prejudice, mistreatment, and poverty that have heretofore limited their prospects. Beneatha and her
brother want to apply the money toward individual goals: for Beneatha, the money represents tuition for medical school, while Walter
sees it as a sum to invest in a liquor store that he wants to buy with two friends and that he believes could permanently resolve the
family s financial problems. Lena wants to buy a house, a goal she had long shared with Big Walter. She believes that living in
their own home in a better neighborhood will benefit all members of the family. Ruth, Walter s wife and the mother of their ten-
year-old son, Travis, is torn between supporting her husband s plan and the dream of having a better home. At the end of the first
scene, the family members disperse to school and work, but Ruth, whom Lena has already described as looking ill, suddenly falls to
the floor in a faint.

Ruth learns that she is pregnant and, worried that another child will be too much of a burden on the family s already strained
finances, admits to Lena that she is thinking of aborting the pregnancy. Meanwhile, Beneatha receives a visit from one of her suitors,
an African student named Joseph Asagai. He gives her Nigerian clothing and musical recordings as gifts and decries the fact that her
hair is mutilated that is, chemically straightened. Later, after Joseph has left, Walter arrives, eager to promote his plan to
buy the liquor store. Lena criticizes him for caring too much about money and challenges him to devote more time and attention to his
family. During this conversation Lena also tells Walter that Ruth is pregnant and considering terminating the pregnancy. Walter
refuses to accept that Ruth would take such a step, but at this point Ruth reappears and tells them she has made a down payment on
an abortion.

As the second act opens, Beneatha, dressed in the Nigerian robes Joseph gave her, is dancing and singing along to a Nigerian
record while Ruth irons clothes. Walter enters and, watching and listening to his sister, engages in a reverie about their African
heritage. He imagines himself as an African warrior, about to lead his men into battle. Soon, George Murchison, another of
Beneatha s suitors, arrives to pick her up for a date at the theater. Although Beneatha is not enamored of George, he is popular
with other members of the family because he has money. He disapproves of Beneatha s Nigerian attire and her new, natural
hairstyle, and Ruth persuades Beneatha to change before they leave. Lena subsequently returns to the apartment, and Ruth and
Walter overhear her telling Travis that she has used some of the insurance money to buy a house. She then gives the remaining
money to Walter, asking only that he reserve some of it to pay for Beneatha s education. In the final scene, as they are packing in
preparation for their move, the family learns that Walter gave the money to his friend Willy instead of depositing it in the bank, and
now Willy has disappeared. Just before the discovery of their loss, the family had rebuffed an offer by a neighborhood group called
the Clybourne Park Improvement Association to buy back the Youngers new home in a thinly disguised attempt to keep them out
of the white enclave.

In the play s final act, Walter reconsiders the practical advantage of accepting the neighborhood association s offer to buy back
their new home, the value of which is greater than the amount of money stolen by Willy. Karl Lindner, representing the association,
comes back to finalize the transaction, but Walter triumphantly rejects the offer, and, in the end, prepares to leave the apartment with
his family.

Major Themes
The American dream is a central theme of A Raisin in the Sun, and early critics often cited this fact as an important reason for the
play s popularity with both white and black theatergoers. Although Hansberry s realistic treatment of the lives of a black family
was highly unusual for Broadway at the time, audiences recognized in the Youngers trials a universal struggle for independence,
respectability, and success. At the time the play was written, the pressures and barriers most blacks encountered in pursuing the
American dream were profoundly different from those experienced by most whites. Hansberry was able to look to her own family s
experiences with challenging Chicago s discriminatory housing laws in creating a nuanced portrayal of the Youngers
precarious situation, as they contemplate claiming freedoms that the society around them is actively and often
violently attempting to deny them. It is this underlying and inescapable opposition that gives particular poignancy to the play s
themes of diversity versus conformity and idealism versus cynicism. For the Youngers, moving to a better neighborhood means
moving to a white neighborhood, and they are aware of the high cost of this failure to conform to societal norms. Beneatha finds that
her political idealism and her interest in African cultures are out of step with the expectations of those close to her, which suggests
that she is likely to encounter even greater resistance in the wider world.

Hansberry s original title for the play, The Crystal Stair, was taken from a line in Langston Hughes s poem Mother to
Son (1922), in which a mother urges her son to continue to meet life s challenges. The title A Raisin in the Sun comes from
another of Hughes s poems: Harlem (1951). In considering the possible consequences of a dream deferred, the
poem s speaker wonders whether it will dry up, like a raisin, or ultimately explode. Hansberry s play presents a
message of hope, while, at the same time, suggesting that continued efforts to deny African Americans their rights could have
dramatic results.

Critical Reception
Though introduced to positive reviews, critics began to question the effectiveness of A Raisin in the Sun as a portrayal of the true
plight of African Americans and as a critique of American society, noting its apparent suggestion that the best way for African
Americans to improve their lot was to emulate whites. With time, however, audiences and readers came to recognize the play s
depiction of the subtle interactions between the benefits associated with the American dream social freedoms, education,
economic opportunity and the experiences of its African American characters. Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka (1987; see
Further Reading), for example, originally criticized the play as middle class but refuted his early criticism, noting that the play
accurately depicts the struggles of black Americans. A key theme in the criticism of A Raisin in the Sun, according to Jude Aigbe Agho
(1991; see Further Reading) has to do with its significance as a transitional work between the Harlem Renaissance and the Black
Arts Movement. Agho saw the play as an admixture of polemicism and protest. Woodie King, Jr., (1979; see Further Reading)
considered the play the beginning of the black theater movement and noted the breadth of the play s influence. Freda Scott Giles
(2005) argued that the play both exposed American theatergoers to a realistic African American experience and challenged African
Americans to increase awareness of their heritage.

The role of the black matriarch in the play has attracted critical attention. Mary Louise Anderson (1976) considered Lena in an
analysis of the attributes of the matriarch that hold the family together. She argued that such figures view the Black male as
undependable, hold deep religious convictions, regard mothering as their most important duty, and attempt to protect their
children from the prejudices of the white world. Leonard R. N. Ashley (1990) lamented that the play is a conventional
naturalistic drama that could be about any ethnic group. Zachary Ingle (2009) decried the bowdlerization of the film adaptation,
criticizing changes made to Hansberry s text to make a more popular entertainment that did not risk arousing the anxiety of whites
about the social mobility of blacks. Nancy Cho (2008) saw a relationship between homosexuals in Tennessee Williams s plays and
blacks in A Raisin in the Sun, arguing that they both represent an unstable junction of mainstream culture and political
resistance. Cho argued that their work contests boundaries of class, race, gender, sexuality, and nation, and they stage not
the uniformity but the contradictions embedded in mid-century American culture.

Principal Works
Plays

A Raisin in the Sun. 11 Mar. 1959, Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York. Performance. Random House, 1959. Print.
 A Raisin in the Sun. Screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Daniel Petrie. Columbia Pictures, 1961. Film. (Feature)

The Sign in Sidney Brustein s Window. 15 Oct. 1964, Longacre Theatre, New York. Performance. Random House, 1965.
Print.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black. Adapted by Robert Nemiroff. 2 Jan. 1969, Cherry Lane Theatre, New York. Performance.

Les blancs. Adapted by Nemiroff. 15 Nov. 1970, Longacre Theatre, New York. Performance.

Les blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry. Edited by Nemiroff. Random House, 1972. Print.

A Raisin in the Sun. Adapted and directed by Bill Duke. PBS/American Playhouse, 1988. Film. (Feature)

A Raisin in the Sun. Teleplay by Paris Qualles. Directed by Kenny Leon. Sony/ABC Television, 2008. Film. (Teleplay)

Other Major Works

The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality. Simon and Schuster, 1964. Published as A Matter of Colour:
Documentary of the Struggles for Racial Equality in the USA. London, Penguin Books, 1965. Print. (Nonfiction)

The Negro Writer and His Roots: Toward a New Romanticism. The Black Scholar, vol. 12, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 1981, pp. 2-12.
Print. (Essay)

To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. Adapted by Nemiroff. Prentice-Hall, 1969. Print.
(Autobiography and play)

A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay. Edited by Nemiroff. Signet, 1995. Print. (Screenplay)

Footnotes: First published as A Destiny Is in the Stars in Crisis in 1969.

Further Reading
Biography
Leeson, Richard M. Lorraine Hansberry: A Research and Production Sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 1997. Presents a biographical
chronology of Hansberry s life, as well as detailed summaries of her drama and an annotated list of other critical works by and
about her.

Criticism

Agho, Jude Aigbe. Lorraine Hansberry and the Revolutionary Theatre of the 1960s . Ekpoma Journal of Languages and
Literary Studies, vol. 4, Apr. 1991, pp. 135-143 Notes that Hansberry was a transitional artist between the post-Harlem Renaissance
and Black Arts Movement, which made A Raisin in the Sun an admixture of polemicism and protest.

Baldwin, James. Sweet Lorraine . Collected Essays, Library of America, 1998, pp. 757-761. Eulogizes Hansberry and her
friendship with Baldwin. Baldwin honors A Raisin in the Sun as an important historical achievement and recalls, never in the
history of the American theater had so much of the truth of black people s lives been seen on the stage.

Baraka, Amiri. A Critical Reevaluation: A Raisin in the Sun s Enduring Passion . A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney
Brustein s Window, edited by Robert Nemiroff, New American Library, 1987, pp. 9-20. Praises A Raisin in the Sun s continued
relevance and deems the play an American classic. While refuting his previous written criticisms of the play from the 1960s, Baraka
claims that Hansberry s drama, even more so than Baldwin s or his own, accurately details the real struggle of the
black American experience.

Carter, Steven R. Hansberry s Drama: Commitment amid Complexity. U of Illinois P, 1991. Acknowledges the significance of both
A Raisin in the Sun and Hansberry as a playwright. Carter highlights A Raisin in the Sun s enduring popularity and also
comprehensively discusses Hansberry s noteworthy body of work and dramatic legacy more generally.

Domina, Lynn. Understanding A Raisin in the Sun: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Greenwood
Press, 1998. Compiles a detailed interdisciplinary collection of history, analysis, and commentary regarding A Raisin in the Sun,
including excerpts written by Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, and bell hooks (among many other selections).

Elam, Harry J., Jr. Remembering Africa, Performing Cultural Memory: Lorraine Hansberry, Suzan-Lori Parks and Djanet
Sears . Signatures of the Past, Cultural Memory in Contemporary Anglophone North American Drama, edited by Marc Maufort
and Caroline De Wagter, Brussels, Peter Lang, 2008, pp. 31-48. Discusses scenes in African American plays in which the characters
are made to realize their African pasts and the effect of the past on the present.

France, Arthur. A Raisin Revisited: A Reevaluation of A Raisin in the Sun as Tragedy . Freedomways, vol. 5, no. 3, Summer
1965, pp. 403-410. Explains why France considers A Raisin in the Sun a tragedy and not simply a naturalist drama.
Ghani, Hana Khalief. I Was Born Black and Female: A Womanist Reading of Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin in the Sun
. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 1, no. 10, Oct. 2011, pp. 1295-1303. Provides a feminist reading of A Raisin in the
Sun, confronting the patriarchalism that is portrayed in the play.

Gill, Glenda. Sean Combs s 2004 Broadway Portrayal of Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin in the Sun: A
Historical Assessment . Journal of American Drama and Theatre, vol. 17, no. 3, Fall 2005, pp. 57-76. Criticizes the performance of
Combs in the 2004 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun and questions whether the director s goal, like the author s, was
social change.

Hannah, John M. Signifying Raisin: Hansberry s A Raisin in the Sun and Wilson s Fences . Reading Contemporary
African American Drama: Fragments of History, Fragments of Self, edited by Trudier Harris and Jennifer Larson, Peter Lang, 2007,
pp. 153-181. Notes that August Wilson never credited Hansberry with influencing his plays and proceeds to compare the two
authors most famous works.

Harris, Marissa. The Fragile Bond between Mother and Adult Son: The Evolution of Dueling Protagonists in A Raisin in the
Sun . Bound by Love: Familial Bonding in Film and Television since 1950, edited by Laura Mattoon D Amore, Newcastle upon
Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, pp. 118-134. Contrasts the various versions of A Raisin in the Sun to demonstrate how
different directors interpreted the conflict between Walter and Lena.

King, Woodie, Jr. Lorraine Hansberry s Children: Black Artists and A Raisin in the Sun . Freedomways, vol. 19, no. 4, 1979,
pp. 219-221. Discusses A Raisin in the Sun as the beginning of the black theater movement and notes the breadth of the work s
influence.

Reid, Mark A. Family Film: Black Writers in Hollywood . Redefining Black Film, U of California P, 1993, pp. 44-68. Defines
black films as those made and distributed by black people. In his critique of the 1961 Columbia Pictures film version of A Raisin in the
Sun, Reid criticizes the Hollywood mainstream by asserting, major film productions like Raisin require mainstream audience
approval, but theatre productions like Raisin can attract an interracial audience and still focus on topics that would offend a
mainstream film audience. It is understandable that the film had little effect on mainstream film audiences, and that most film critics
ignored the importance of this film.

Stecopoulos, Harilaos. Melodrama of the Movement: Lorraine Hansberry s A Raisin in the Sun . From Bourgeois to Boojie:
Black Middle-Class Performances, edited by Vershawn Ashanti Young and Bridget Harris Tsemo, Wayne State UP, 2011, pp.
209-234. Contends that A Raisin in the Sun revises and combats notions that melodramatic domestic discourses are strictly reserved
for the white and middle-class. According to Stecopoulos, Hansberry s play complements the battle for civil rights by paving the
way for people of color to reimagine and react to stereotypical/dominant concepts of home and domesticity.

Wetmore, Kevin J., Jr. A Rotimi in the Sun : Lorraine Hansberry, Ola Rotimi and the Connections of African Diasporan
Theatre . African Performance Review, vol. 4, no. 1, 2010, pp. 27-34. Discusses the similarity of political movements in the United
States and Africa based on a reading of Rotimi s plays and A Raisin in the Sun.

Production Reviews
Atkinson, Brooks. The Theatre: A Raisin in the Sun; Negro Drama Given at Ethel Barrymore . Review of A Raisin in the Sun,
directed by Lloyd Richards, The New York Times, 13 Mar. 1959, p. 24. Appraises the original 1959 Ethel Barrymore Theatre
production of A Raisin in the Sun as filled with truth and vigor. Atkinson comments that the play is likely to destroy the
complacency of any one who sees it.

Brantley, Ben. No Rest for the Weary: Raisin in the Sun Brings Denzel Washington Back to Broadway . Review of A Raisin in
the Sun, directed by Kenny Leon, The New York Times, 4 Apr. 2014, p. C1. Reviews Leon s 2014 Ethel Barrymore Theatre revival
of A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington (Walter Lee Younger), Sophie Okonedo (Ruth Younger), Anika Noni Rose
(Beneatha Younger), and LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Lena Younger). Brantley applauds the disarmingly relaxed
production while praising Washington s performance.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2017 Gale, Cengage Learning

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Moredock, Janet. "A Raisin in the Sun." Drama Criticism, edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, vol. 57, Gale, 2017. Gale Literature
Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/WJNCTM854896521/GLS?u=reshs&sid=GLS&xid=879718ed. Accessed 30
Sept. 2020.
Gale Document Number: GALE|WJNCTM854896521

Highlighted Passages:
Text: Each of the Youngers dreams of how the money might be used to overcome the prejudice, mistreatment, and poverty that
have heretofore limited their prospects.
Text: She believes that living in their own home in a better neighborhood will benefit all members of the family.
Text: Walter arrives, eager to promote his plan to buy the liquor store. Lena criticizes him for caring too much about money and
challenges him to devote more time and attention to his family.
Text: he then gives the remaining money to Walter, asking only that he reserve some of it to pay for Beneatha s education. In
the final scene, as they are packing in preparation for their move, the family learns that Walter gave the money to his friend Willy
instead of depositing it in the bank,
Text: In the play s final act, Walter reconsiders the practical advantage of accepting the neighborhood association s offer to
buy back their new home, the value of which is greater than the amount of money stolen by Willy. Karl Lindner, representing the
association, comes back to finalize the transaction, but Walter triumphantly rejects the offer, and, in the end, prepares to leave the
apartment with his family.