A Raisin in the Sun

Amazing characterization. Absolutely astounding tale of the everyday African American life during this 1950’s time period. Beautiful symbolism, easy to understand yet complex in its underlining meanings. As well as intriguing subplots that add to the central story being told. Walter and Mama are easily my favorite characters for the simple fact of how well their characters are portrayed. I would definitely recommend.

This was so cool. It was great to go back in time. Lots of dignity and desire still. Nothing to complain about but the ebook was not super organized with equal spacing. The material is still gold.

Great!

Had to buy it for my son they were doing an assignment on it...i was shocked because I read it when I was a kid.

Every website I looked up when researching about the Great Migration for my paper this past semester brought this play up. A Raisin in the Sun is about housing discrimination & was inspired by the Supreme Court Case Hansberry v. Lee (1940) in which the author’s father participated in. This is also the first Black-written play that hit Broadway in 1959 (we love Black Excellence 💃🏾✨)This was an interesting read, I’m not going to lie. The grandmother, Lena & matriarch of the family, receives at $10,000 life insurance check in the mail (worth about $89,000 in today’s currency). The family has ideas on how they want to spend it, however at the end of the day Lena has the final say. She chooses to put a downpayment on a house in a white neighborhood. Unfortunately this caused Karl Lindner, a representative of that neighborhood, to come over & strongly suggests they let him by them out so the neighbor can remain YT LOL.I understood how Walter Younger, George Murchison & Joseph Asagai represented 3 common Black men at that time HOWEVER WALTER WAS THE WORSE!!!! I won’t spoil the play for ya’ll, but towards the end he made a selfish move that, if any man did that to me, would’ve landed me a charge of 1st degree murder for said man. Whew chile. Black women were (& are) truly disrespected 🙄This play will give you a better insight on how a majority of families that migrated from the South to the North lived in the first half of the 20th century (& truth be told how some still live to this day).

First off why am I now just reading this glorious play? I must admit within the first couple of pages I was completely sucked in. Lorraine takes a simple family and shows how sexism, racism, and classism, can shape a family for generations. In only 100 + pages I am able to connect to the characters and understand who they are. Walter Lee Jr, is a dreamer, yet very stubborn and emotional. Beneatha mirrors her brother somewhat and is an intellectual who seeks out her place in the world and is not willing to settle. Lena (Mama) the family matriarch is strong willed and tried to maintain her morals and commands respect Ruth is the realist and very pessimistic about life but continues to preserve.These characters are very relatable. One part that stood out for me was when Ruth kept telling Walter "eat your eggs" because she didn't want to hear him still selling her a dream. He responded by saying you always crushing my dreams and that black women are the only women who don't hold their men down. I was completely flabbergasted. This stereotype of black women having to be a ride or die and help build you up manifested right there. Another point of contention for me was when Mama wanted to move the family and the white neighbors said they wouldn't be welcomed there. What bothered me the most was how Mr. Linder stated the white people in that community where hardworking and just trying to have a better life. Is that not what the Younger family was trying to do? Even though we don't have Jim Crow laws today, A Raisin in the Sun hold true to it's themes today. This can be read by everyone but I know it will hit home for AA.

“A Raisin in the Sun” depicts the richness of black vernacular through Hansberry’s style of writing, in addition, shows the variation in the range of African/ Black vernacular by how they use it. African/ Black vernacular is an integral part of literature and history of Blacks who live in Amerikkka and are descendants of the ancestors the ruled kingdoms, sailed the globe, enslaved by every race in the world with the backing of all religious and governmental “leaders”, survived countless atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow, and modern day lynching and gas lighting. And still we rise! This play is another example of how entangled black vernacular is stitched into the fabric of Amerikkka from the “mammies” that raised your children to the “bosses” that tended the fields.

I come to this play with the thought that ever since the first slave came to the American Colonies there has always been a Civil Rights struggle. This play is part of its voice, covering perhaps ideas current just after World War II and into the middle 1950's. It is a play full of dreams of empowerment and self-realization for members of one family and for members of all African-American families. It came to the theater prior to the famous "I have a dream" speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King. It is deservedly a milestone in modern American theater. In the space of three acts it's dialog and characterization provides a nuanced and textured look into the race relations I grew up with--even as a 'white boy.' Without taking anything away from this work's power, I believe that the work also reflects the Irish Struggle in pre-Independence, British Colonial times, as expressed by Sean O'Casey in JUNEAU AND THE PAYCOCK. Every culture and time has its special touchstones but for me, O' Casey showed the way and so I give this four rather than five stars. It doesn't help any that I have only seen the contemporary movie versions of the play: they seem to have been hampered by the theatrical conventions of the time. And much that would have seemed so fresh in the mid-fifties provided the basis for works that developed from the Civil Rights era and showcased even stronger African-American characters. This author and the original cast were the pioneers.

Disappointment when it arrived as the book was damaged as if it had just been thrown in the box and not treated with care. Still possible to read so does not affect anything other than I have purchased a brand new book but it hasn't been treated how a product that has been sold to someone should be.

I loved it! It gripped me till the end and I thought it was really well written, structured and paced.

A delicate insight into a taut and shameful period in American Society. I was kept on the edge of my seat from half way through this ,very short, play till the very end.

really liked the book, the film with Sidney Poitier. nice monologue speeches too.

A classic. Everyone should read this in school. Even teh dated biuts are faxcinating