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A Raisin in The Sun Introduction and Notes

The document provides background information on the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It summarizes that the play is set in 1950s Chicago and focuses on the Younger family, who receive an insurance payout. This causes conflicts within the family over how to spend the money. It also touches on themes of the American Dream and racial prejudice. Key characters include Walter Lee Younger who dreams of owning a business, and his sister Beneatha who wants to become a doctor.

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Ralph Vincent Aquino Yaon
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294 views19 pages

A Raisin in The Sun Introduction and Notes

The document provides background information on the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It summarizes that the play is set in 1950s Chicago and focuses on the Younger family, who receive an insurance payout. This causes conflicts within the family over how to spend the money. It also touches on themes of the American Dream and racial prejudice. Key characters include Walter Lee Younger who dreams of owning a business, and his sister Beneatha who wants to become a doctor.

Uploaded by

Ralph Vincent Aquino Yaon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Raisin in the Sun

By Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry
• Youngest of 4 children
• Parents, prominent intellectuals
• Father purchased a house in an all-white
neighborhood
• Threatened by white mob and forced to leave by a
court order
• Hansberry took the case to the supreme court and
won.
• 1st black playwright
• youngest American to win a New York Critics'
Circle award.
• died at 34 of pancreatic cancer.
A Dream Deferred
by 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?
Plot/Setting
• Chicago’s South side
• Early 1950’s
• “the living of too many people for too many
years”
• Money conflicts
• Conflicts outside the family
• Climax is a make or break moment
• Resolution reveals the strength of the family
Characters
• Lena Younger-Mama
• Walter Lee Younger-35 yr. old son, chauffeur
and father of one son. Dreams of owning his
own business. Neglects his wife
• Ruth Younger- Walter’s wife , mother of their
son, Travis
• Beneatha Younger-Mama’s college-age
daughter, dreams of becoming a doctor. She
has two boy friends; George Murchison and
Joseph Asagai
Themes
• The American Dream
• The power of prejudice
• From defeat to victory
Characterization
• Flat
• Round
• Static/dynamic
• Protagonists
• Antagonist
Symbols
• Plant
• Insurance money
• New house
• Nigerian clothes and music
vocabulary
• Indictment-accusation
• Drily(dryly)-matter-of–factly; without emotion
• Exasperated-irritated; annoyed
• Oppression-feeling of being greatly troubled
or harshly treated
• Ally-supporter or confederate
• Mutual-shared; held in common
vocabulary
• Anguish-pain and suffering; sorrow
• Permeated-penetrated and affected every
part
• Hereros-Bantu-speaking ethnic group in
Namibia(formerly called South West Africa)
• Unobtrusively-without attracting attention
• Furtively-thoughtful
• Reflective- thoughtful; meditative
Vocabulary

• Yoruba-in the language of the Yoruba, an


ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria and
parts of Benin and Togo

• Assimilation-policy of fully absorbing minority


groups into the dominant culture so that their
members lose their ethnic and cultural
identities
ACT II/Vocabulary
Madama Butterfly- heroine of the
opera
Ocomogosiay-coined word
combining syllables from Yoruba,
Swahili, and Zulu to represent a
shout of triumph in a battle
Pearl Baily- American entertainer,
singer, and actress. Ruth imitates
her.
• Alundi- Yoruba for “happy holiday”
• Jomo- Kenyatta, African nationalist
leader and first president of Kenya
• Owimoweh- variation of a Zulu word
for “lion”
• Chaka- great Zulu chief and military
leader
• Ashanti empires- reference is to the
powerful eighteenth and nineteenth
century Ashanti empire in present day
Ghana
• Songhay Civilizations- reference is to a
fifteenth and sixteenth century West
African empire and great trading state.
• Benin- West African country known for
its wooden masks, bronze statuettes,
and pottery
• Bantu- subgroup of languages
including Zulu and Swahili spoken in
Africa
• Sobriety- state of being sober,
clearheaded
• Resignation- passive acceptance
• Revelation- disclosure; something
made known
• Imploring- pleading
• Crackers- derogatory term for
impoverished white people
• Vigor- intense strength; vitality
• Exuberant- full of life; uninhabited
• Peckerwoods – derogatory term for
impoverished white people
• Conked- hair that has been
chemically straightened and is worn
smoothed down
• NAACP- National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. To use
legal means to end discrimination against
African Americans
• Thirty pieces …..less- allusion to the
thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot
received for betraying Jesus
• Saucily- sassily; impertinently
• Taut-tense; strained
ACT III/Vocabulary
• Retrogression-backward movement
• Flippancy-playful impudence
• Wrought- created; made
• Ofay- derogatory slang for a white
person
• Gait- manner of walking
• Agitated-excited; frantic
• Epitaph- short composition
• Negotiate-bargain; arrange to conclude a
business deal
• Groping- searching uncertainly; fumbling
• Reverie- daydream; dream like attention
• Bustling- energetic activity; busyness

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