Lorraine Hansberry Essay - 555 Words

Her first play, A Raisin In the Sun, is based on her childhood experiences of desegregating a white neighborhood. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best Play of the Year. She was the youngest American, the fifth woman and the first black to win the award. Her success opened the floodgates for a generation of modern black actors and writers who were influenced and encouraged by her writing. Hansberry was born in 1930, the youngest of four children of Carl and Nannie Hansberry, a respected and successful black family in Chicago, Illinois. Nannie was the college educated daughter of an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Carl was a successful real estate businessman, an inventor and a politician who ran for congress†¦show more content†¦-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cover of A Raisin in the Sun -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hansberry used the success of A Raisin In the Sun as a platform to speak out for the American Civil Rights Movement and for the African struggle to free itself from white rule. She helped raise money, gave impassioned speeches and took part in panels and interviews to further these causes. After her initial success she lived only six years and was able to complete only one more play, a movie and a television script which was too racially controversial to be aired. Her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brusteins Window, was received with mixed reviews and kept open for 101 performances only by the contributions and support of the theatre community. It closed the night she died at 34 from cancer. After her death Nemiroff finished and produced her final work, Les Blancs, a play about African liberation. Hansberry had begun to claim her identity as a lesbian in a 1957 letter to a lesbian periodical, The Ladder. This information and her 1964 divorce from Nemiroff was not widely known at the time of her death. In 1965 the Gay Liberation Movement did not exist and a woman could not claim such an identity without major reprisals. It was not until the 1980s that feminist scholars began connectingShow MoreRelatedLorraine Hansberry s A Raisin1474 Words   |  6 PagesLorraine Hansberry created the play A Raisin in the Sun. A Raisin in the Sun recounts an anecdote about The Youngers who is a poor African American family living on the Southside of Chicago. A chance to escape from neediness comes as a $10,000 extra security watch that the female authority of the family (Lena/Mama) gets upon her significant other s passing. Lena s kids, Walter and Beneatha, each have plans with the cash. The most established child, Walter (a man of 35 with a spouse and a youthfulRead MoreAnalysis Of A Raisin I n The Sun By Lorraine Hansberry1158 Words   |  5 Pageswritten by Lorraine Hansberry. To further understand the play please read the text below about the background of Hansberry’s life, living conditions in the era that the play took place, and reviews written about the play. Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright and a writer. She was born in Chicago May 19, 1930 in Chicago, and she grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood in the South side of Chicago. Her parents were well known civil rights activists; Carl Hansberry (her father) and Nannie Hansberry (her mother)Read MoreLorraine Hansberry1192 Words   |  5 PagesLorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun The characters in Lorraine Hansberrys play are very significant in understanding the play. The characters are examples of they way Lorraine lived day by day her live when she was a kid. The success of the play was brought out by the characters and her way of keeping our interest with each one of them. They characters are very critical in understanding the play. There were four main characters that made the play a sellout, Lena, Ruth, Beneatha and WalterRead Moreâ€Å"A Raisin in the Sun†700 Words   |  3 PagesLorraine Hansberry used symbolism in her successful drama, â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† to portray emotions felt in the lives of her characters and possible her own. Hansberry set her piece in Chicago’s South Side, probably the early 1950’s. During this period in history, many African-Americans, like the Youngers, struggled to overcome the well-known prejudices that were far too familiar. The main scene, in this touching realist drama, is the home of the Youngers, an overcrowded run-down apartment. Read MoreThe symbolism of the plant in A Raisin in the Sun1893 Words   |  8 PagesThe symbolism of the plant in A Raisin in the Sun One might ask how the scientific facts of the functional purpose of a plant would connect to a literary piece, especially the well-known play, A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. The plant in the text symbolizes the foundation for the family, honest hope, and Mamas dreams. Symbolism is not a definition of an item, but represents something specific other than itself. Much like Mamas plant, it represents many meaningful ideas withRead MoreRacism and Stereotype in Karl Linders Speech1157 Words   |  5 Pages This thought is amplified when comparing him to Mrs. Anna Lee, the woman who inspired Lorraine Hansberry to invent Karl. Mrs. Anna Lee was a member of a community association similar to the one in Clybourne Park. The association members signed a contract signifying that no African American individuals or families would be allowed to live in their community. After hearing about Carl Hansberry’s (Lorraine Hansberry’s father) purchase of a plot in t he associations jurisdictions, she sued the familyRead MoreLorraine Hansberrys A Raisin In The Sun1850 Words   |  8 PagesIn Lorraine Hansberry’s â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† (1959), she reveals the life of the Youngers family. In doing so, there surfaces a detrimental ideology that destroys the family financially and in their overall happiness. In Act II Scene I, Walter, the father figure of the family, says, â€Å"Why? You want to know why? Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don t know how to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!† (Hansberry 532). By way of explanation, the family and much of the African-AmericanRead More`` I Have A Dream, And Do Those Dreams Come True?1460 Words   |  6 Pagesin charge of what people dream, and do those dreams come true? Lorraine Hansberry did a great job expressing struggles within an individual family to the society in her play, A Raisin in the Sun. The play â€Å"opened at the Barrymore Theatre in New York on March 11, 1959† (â€Å"Background† par. 1). This was before Martin Luther King Jr.’s â€Å"I Have a Dream Speech† that took place on August 28, 1963; therefore, one could assume that Hansberry was experiencing the fight to gain African Americans’ rights whenRead MoreA Raisin In The Sun Character Analysis1322 Words   |  6 Pages Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, depicts the lives of the Younger family, an African American family living in the Southside of Chicago during the 1950s. The play takes place in their cramped apartment offering the reader insight into the arguments, discussions, and conversations that take place between the characters. In one scene, Hansberry specifically offers the reader a conversation between Asagai, an influential companion, and Beneatha to show us how disparate the Younger siblingsRead More Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin In The Sun1053 Words   |  5 PagesWalter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin In The Sun No matter how hard they try, there are some people who cannot get ahead in life. Walter Lee Younger is a man who is frustrated with his current position in life, and every disappointment he has encountered thus far. Although he tries to be a loving man, sometimes he does not know how to show the idea of love, Sometimes...sometimes...I dont even know how to try (Hansberry 89). His position in life can be regarded as symbolic of