Download A Raisin in the Sun – August 22, 1995

A Raisin in the Sun (Modern Library) Hardcover – August 22, 1995
Author: Visit ‘s Lorraine Hansberry Page ID: 0679601724

Review

“A beautiful, lovable play. It is affectionately human, funny and touching. . . . A work of theatrical magic in which the usual barrier between audience and stage disappears.”
John Chapman, New York News

“An honest, intelligible, and moving experience.”
Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune

“Miss Hansberry has etched her characters with understanding, and told her story with dramatic impact. She has a keen sense of humor, an ear for accurate speech and compassion for people.”
Robert Coleman, New York Mirror

“A Raisin in the Sun has vigor as well as veracity.”
Brooks Atkinson,New York Times

“It is honest drama, catching up real people. . . . It will make you proud of human beings.”
Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram & Sun

“A wonderfully emotional evening.”
John McClain, New York Journal American

From the Inside Flap

“Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on the stage,” observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America–and changed American theater forever.  The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which warns that a dream deferred might “dry up/like a raisin in the sun.”

“The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun,” said The New York Times.  ”It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic.”  This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry’s landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.

See all Editorial Reviews

Series: Modern LibraryHardcover: 176 pagesPublisher: Modern Library; Modern Library edition (August 22, 1995)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0679601724ISBN-13: 978-0679601722 Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.6 x 7.6 inches Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #245,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #71 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Playwriting #686 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Dramas & Plays > Regional & Cultural > United States #1126 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Specific Demographics > African-American Studies
Recently, in my eighth grade English class, we read To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. During our study of the 1930’s in Alabama we were assigned to read another book by an African American author. I chose A Raisin the Sun because my mom recommended it. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun written in 1959 is an intriguing, must read play. This play shows the strength of an African-American family’s values and ability to stick together. They face many hard things that shock the reader and the audience including an accidental pregnancy. They battle against harsh prejudice and a system that attempts to keep them from having good opportunities to improve their life. Hansberry does a good job of intertwining family hardships with the individuality of each character. She develops each character personally and carries on his or her traits through out the entire book. The attitude she takes towards the great struggles of a Chicago family, Walter, Ruth, Mama, Beneatha and Travis Younger is convincing because of her tone and description. She shows that life for an African American person at this time is difficult and full of obstacles more challenging than the ones that white people faced. Although A Raisin in the Sun takes place 29 years after To Kill a Mockingbird, African American people are still treated with no respect and are limited in their rights. Both stories constantly demolish African-American families’ dreams. Hansberry illustrates through her tone that the family life is rough and the Youngers’ are eager for a big change. This action in the plot causes excitement and suspense. As a reader I constantly want the Younger family to over come their challenges and do well in the future.
The play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was awonderful piece of writing. I’m a fourteen year old and I thinkthat the book is good for most ages but you need to be at least 12 to fully understand it. I read this book while reading To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. It was interesting to read those books at the same time to see the points of view of racism of both sides. I noticed something very similar in both books. The Black people are always very welcoming and polite to the white people. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was always willing to help Mayella Ewell with chores. In A Raisin in the Sun, when the man came from the welcoming committee, they were very polite to him and invited him into their home. Little did they know that they would be rejected even though they were very courteous. That happened in both books. In A Raisin in the Sun, it seemed like their race was holding them back from accomplishing their dreams. When Mama bought the house for her family, they were all brutally rejected by the community. This upset the family very much. Walter says, "Maybe—maybe I’ll just get down on my black knees,Captain Mistuh, Bossman. A-hee-hee-hee! Yasssuh! Great White Father, just gi’ ussen de money, fo’ God’s sake, and we’s ain’t gwine come out deh and dirty up yo’ white folks neighborhood…" When he says this it is a very dramatic part of the play. It shows how white people are controlling so much that goes on. They can’t live in a house they want to live in. It seems like the white people are perceived as some kind of royalty in the book. Like queens and kings, they are not anything special but were just born into the "right" family. Unlike royalty, it’s not the name they inherit but the color of their skin.
Produced in 1959, A RAISIN IN THE SUN was the first Broadway play written by a black woman: Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), a memorable author who based the central story on an incident that occurred in her own family and which eventually evolved into a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1940 as Hansberry v. Lee.

The play presents us with three generations of the Younger family: the widowed matriarch Lena; her son Walter Lee and daughter Beaneatha; and Walter’s wife Ruth and their son Travis. The family resides in a semi-slum apartment building on the south side of Chicago in the 1950s, where each tries to rise above the difficulties of their enviroment and the many social limitations imposed upon African-Americans at that time. But there is hope on the horizon: Lena is about to receive insurance money from her husband’s death.

Unfortunately, instead of pulling the family together, the money actually drives them apart. Each member lays claim to it in some form or fashion. Lena dreams of owning her own home; daughter Bea is attending medical school and needs money to finish her degree; and most especially Walter Lee dreams of owning a liquior store. Bit by bit the pressure chips away at the family, already strained by years of frustration, and explodes at the play’s climax–although not precisely in a way that one might foresee. When the explosion arrives it does not shatter the family; it unexpectedly reaffirms it.

When I review a play, I like point out that plays are not really intended to be read. They are intended to be seen on stage, where performing artists and designers breathe life into the lines and bring force to the story and its themes. This is true of every play.
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