Mendoza 1
Jennifer Mendoza
Professor Zenobia Redeaux
English 2
21 May 2018
Yet if hope has flown away
Today some of the biggest problems for people are problems with poverty, racism, sexism, and the value of dreams. These are also some of the main themes in Lorraine Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun.” The play “A Raisin in the Sun” is still relevant. Hansberry’s play shows the struggle of a family’s problems and how they got through it. In many ways the people all over the world and America have changed, but the same problems still exist.
Every civilization, and every economy has its own form of currency. On that account, it’s always a problem for many people. “A Raisin in the Sun” shows one or few problems concerning money. People can become poor that they constantly yearn for money in order to simply survive, while others have so much money that they become foolish and spend it on whatever they want. Hansberry’s play show how people with very little money do all they can to gain more to survive. A place of poverty and poor communities, this is the south side Chicago where the Youngers preside. Their scarcity of money and short income places them into an affordable apartment with one room, shared among five members, and one bathroom. “Ruth: Lena… I’ll work… I’ll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago… I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to scrub all the floors in America and wash all the sheets in America if I have to but we got to move!” This shows Ruth’s feelings on her situation, and how badly she wants to get out of her small apartment, and live in a house, that can only be achieved by money. Her feelings are also shared with many people all over the world who live in slums, or ghettos and don’t have enough money to get out, and reach a better place, that can only be reached with money, that everyone has become so reliant on.
A Raisin in the Sun records the effort of an African American family to move out of the ghetto to a better neighborhood. The setting of the play is in the ghetto of Chicago in 1945-1959 and illustrates the conflicts that surrounded the questions of race and housing during this period. The play’s relevance to the issue of racism that was frequent and troublesome in the post-WWII society and its continued popularity can be attributed to the feeling of exclusion that every person feels. The Younger family lives in Southside Chicago in the play (Hansberry). This area in the real-life United States was subject to widespread racial conflicts that primarily began when African Americans migrated north during and after World War Two to get one of the many available factory job in cities (Black Belt). Meanwhile, many white people started moving away from cities and into the suburb areas because of revolutionized housing developments that made standard, suburban homes affordable and the advancement of transportation that allowed people to live farther away from the cities while still enjoying its amenities (Bl...
