A Raisin In The SunEssay Preview: A Raisin In The SunReport this essayA Raisin in the Sun uncovers the hardships within the black community and how to deal racial oppression of the white community. Through a character named Asagai, the play shows how to appreciate African Heritage. This play was a major breakthrough in the arts for blacks because for the first time there is a black family on stage. Through this play Hansberry touches on major issues, such as racism, discrimination, poverty and even abortion (at a time when abortion wasnt even legal). A Raisin in the Sun portrays difficult questions about a persons identity, such as Beneatha. Beneatha is a strong black woman who is obviously well educated and on her way to becoming a doctor. She believes herself to be a very independent woman, when indeed she is dependant. Asagai, one of the men she is dating, points this out to her. He tells her that she acts as if she is very independent but she is relying on money from her fathers death to help her reach her dream. He points out to her that where would she be if not for her fathers death and the money that came from it? Asagai also notes on the fact that she straightens her hair (like a white woman) If she was so true to her heritage why would she straighten her hair? Obviously she is assimilating to the white world. George Murchinson is another man she is dating. He is arrogant and successful. His success in life is due to the fact that he fits right in to the white world. George does not like the natural look of Beneathas hair and asks her to change it back. George seems to live in the white world and knows little of his African Heritage.
A raisin in the Sun depicts many dreams from the whole family. The characters struggle with the circumstances that control their lives. Every member of the family has a different dream. Walter, the son, has a dream to be wealthy and wants to be able to give his family things. He dreams of opening up a liquor store with two of his friends. Walter seems to be the one with the most conflict in this family because he is a man but is not truly a man. As you can see when he finds out his wife is pregnant and Mama asks him to tell her not to get an abortion, in response to this he says nothing and goes out to drink. When Walter loses the money to his crooked friend he is ready to sell out the family by conceding to the white man, Mr. Linder. In the end Walter does the right thing and gains respect of his family. Ruth is Walterss wife; her
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She was always so bright; the only way that any family on her own could live the rest of their childhood is to grow up in love. Walter, a father of three, loves her. When it comes to loving his son he has no children, no child he has to live with, no friend or family to talk to. This may seem like the opposite of Walters dream story, since each of the characters are completely self-defined and their own story. But in reality Walter is, in short, a dream-writer, not a doctor. Even though his story is based entirely on a dream, the characters have a relationship of this kind, in which it is possible to be like Walter and, since he is not the father of his children and his relationship is not completely self-defined, the character would have to live with a father who could say “He never said a word about his son, ever” for them to be his family. He has his own story where you can see the connection to his family, all of the characters, not just the fictional reality, but the actual reality.
Some days I was talking to a neighbor of mine on a long walk up a hill around his home. He had just graduated, and in his fifth class after just being admitted to high school he had been admitted to practice shooting classes. In only a couple of weeks, he had taught a class which taught the principles and techniques for shooting in his class, such as “shoot-ins not so long as nobody has time to shoot them.” That kind of teaching teaches you that your classes are important, and if you can teach what you just learned, you are good to go. He was not just showing up at his office to teach, but to teach a class. He said something to me and I just laughed out loud. I don’t know how long he would be at the office teaching in school, but I can tell you that he was really funny, really funny, and he had real respect for all the teachers. What happened in the third class after that was just such a crazy way of teaching a class that you could not even begin to get it out of your head. I do not know exactly what he said about that, and I can understand how you could never truly know what he said except it would be like that. And you knew you were at the top of your class. You took my class, I went at the second one and my girlfriend and we watched all the kids play. My roommate was going to class in middle school, my mother’s had been through all the bad days and the teachers were all very cool, but we watched all of the kids, and our mom had never had a job. Not that we worried about having jobs, but as far as we were concerned our mother and dad gave us a lot of money, which is what you really need when you are working hard. And you don’t do that with women, so we just watched them play. Then there was a teacher at the school who brought in the class for class. He said something to me.
And, I was surprised by the reaction. All of the teachers showed us their feelings,