Raisin in the sun is a play of epic proportions. The lives of the younger' uncovers the hopes, dreams, and despair of Black Americans as a whole. In this play we are engulfed into the quest of one black family's pursuit of the American Dream. James Truslow Adams used the term "American Dream" in his novel The Epic of America and describes it as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" (214-215). He goes on to say that "it is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position" (Adams 214-215).
[...] Ultimately, blacks were forced to lead the action in providing black education. Blacks stood to the challenge by purchasing land, constructing buildings, and raising money to hire teachers (Foner and Maloney 1). Families wanted their children to receive the best opportunities for economic empowerment and moved to towns and cities so that their children could have access to education (Foner and Maloney 1).Children given new knowledge from their school teachers instructed their parents and the rest of their family after school hours (Foner and Maloney 1). [...]
[...] The pride of the Youngers is a triumphant sign of the times. No longer will Black Americans quietly accept the ills of discrimination in the land of the free. Raisin gives a personal light to the strength that a family has to overcome the barriers of discrimination and make way for the coming of the Civil Rights Movement. Lorraine Hansberry's classic play astonishingly tells the story of so called Black Americans; their refusal to be made second class citizens, and their attempts in pursuing the American Dream (Hansberry 137). [...]
[...] Doctors, lawyers, and congressmen/women among others have come from the ghettoes of Black America and prospered due to their intellectual ability and educational pursuits. Beneatha joins that class of underdogs by studying to be a doctor as she lives on the Southside of Chicago, a neighborhood renowned for its corruption, violence, and poverty. Beneatha's character represents the Black Americans who use education as a means to escape the despair of the projects, and ghettoes across America in their aim to capture the American Dream and make something of themselves. [...]
[...] His ambition is not solely a chase in greed after money, nor is it merely a devilish antic to desire the purchase of a liquor store. His reasoning is that alcohol is guaranteed to sell. To own a business in which the product is determined to sell brings him one step closer to achieving the American Dream. Many people criticize Walter Lee for being selfish in using the family's money for his business start-up funds. Ultimately, Walter Lee was chasing his American Dream of improving one's class by bootstrapping and working his way up with the help of the income from the insurance money. [...]
[...] Davis, the eve of the Civil War, the Jim Crow idea was one of many stereotypical images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the day--along with Sambos, Coons, and Zip Dandies“ (Davis 1). Jim Crow became a term identified as a racial slur that was synonymous with black, colored, or Negro in the vernacular of many whites (Davis 1). Towards the end of the 19th century acts of racial discrimination toward blacks were often referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices (Davis 1). [...]
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