lorraine hansberry author of a raisin in the sun may 19, 1930-january 12, 1965
TRANSCRIPT
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Lorraine HansberryAuthor of A Raisin in the Sun
May 19, 1930-January 12, 1965
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Early Life
• Born in Chicago in May of 1930.
• Her parents were well educated and successful.
• She lived in Chicago’s Southside in an African American neighborhood.
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During this era…• Segregation was still legal and widespread
throughout the South.
• Northern states had no official policy, but most were generally segregated.
• Chicago was strictly divided among African American and white neighborhoods.
• Hansberry’s family was one of the first to move into a white neighborhood.
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On a Raisin in the Sun
• Recognizably autobiographical
• Realistic portrait of African American life
• Opened as a play in 1959
• It was met with great praise from African American and white audiences.
• Won several awards
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The 1950s
• An age of complacency and conformism
• Symbolized the growth of suburbs and commercial culture
• The ideas of the happy housewife and African Americans content with the inferior status placed on them by society
• This resulted in public resentment which led to the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s.
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What is the American Dream?
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In her play Hansberry explored…
• Poverty
• Discrimination
• African American racial identity
• Oppressive white community of 1950s America
• Feminism
• Abortion
• DREAMS (VERY IMPORTANT)
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Dreams
• Dreams are CRUCIAL.• They motivate and drive the
main characters.• They function in positive ways by
lifting their minds from tough work and life.
• They also function in negative ways by creating more dissatisfaction.
• Most of this is due to emphasis on materialistic goals rather than on pride and happiness.
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A Note on the Title of the Play
• Taken from a line in the 1951 Langston Hughes’ poem, “Harlem”
• This poem was written after the Great Depression crushed the Harlem Renaissance and devastated African American communities.
• The poem captures the tension between the need for African American expression in the oppressive environment of white America.
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“Harlem”Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
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Thoughts….
• Hughes asked whether a “dream deferred” withers up like a raisin in the sun? These thoughts as well as Hansberry’s confront the racist and dehumanizing attitude prevalent in the American society.
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Hansberry’s Legacy
• Sadly, Hansberry died at the young age of 34 after a courageous battle with cancer, yet her fight for equality lives on through the power of her words in A Raisin in the Sun.