The tradition the poem shows is that their clan is gathering together to celebrate and enjoy themselves. In Asian culture, it is traditional for families and friends to gather up and celebrate see this. In another part of the poem, “This is the old way, setting off firecrackers to drive away evil spirits, leaving the driveways red for good fortune…” (Lines 20-22), the quote tells the reader that newer ideas are being mixed with older ones.

a raisin in the sun theme essay

The phrase “fluidly adapted” supports the idea that melodramas focus on real issues, their characters caricatures of the men and women of the time in which they are based, a method of commenting on our ever-changing society through entertainment. Before analysing and comparing the genre which links these two films, it is important to note the periods in which they were set and made, and the social constructions behind both their main themes and their characters’ actions. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was made in 1945, the year in which the Second World War ended.

In The Shadow Of The Banyan Analysis

He pretends to love his son so much and wants to appear innocent and honorable in hiseyes. She ends up doing all kinds of jobs to enable the family to move to a better house. On the other hand, Beneatha is a no-nonsense feminist college student who is against the unfair treatment and expectations of the society from women .

a raisin in the sun theme essay

Note that when Beneatha’s African suitor, Asagai, is on his way to the Younger apartment, Beneatha gives her mother a hasty briefmg on African history, coaching her mother in conversational protocol. She tells Mama that Asagai is from Nigeria, which Mama immediately confuses with Liberia. After correcting her, Beneatha begs Mama not to make stereotypical comments about Africans and tells her that the only thing that most people seem to know about Africa has been learned from Tarzan movies. Beneatha berates those missionaries who, like Mama, are more concerned with changing the African’s religion than in overthrowing colonial rule. Afrocentrism, or the expression of pride in one’s African heritage, so popular among the black youth of the 1990s, was, in 1959, a little-known phenomenon. But Lorraine Hansberry’s affinity for all things African resulted from the people of greatness that she was acquainted with through her family.

The Younger household is not a safe haven, especially for women who question male leadership. After years of labor, Walter Senior passed away, but from his hard work came an Insurance check that represented his dedicated life to his children. Mama’s nurturing personality is also represented in the play, this is symbolized by the way she treats the houseplant. Much the same as her family, Mama’s plant does not have the essential assets to prosper.

Speculate The Times!

In the play, Beneatha is presented as hope against the oppression she is suppressed by which reinforces her central theme. However, Petrie minimizes her role in establishing the central theme. Beneatha embraces her ethnicity in the play, however Petrie removes this aspect in his film. Daniel Petrie’s directorial decisions in the movie adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun portrays Hansberry’s central message of oppression however he fails to reinforce society’s responsibilities for this oppression. In the film Petrie alters the setting of the Youngers’ living room thus revising Hansberry’s intent to present the family as impoverished.

  • The play portrays a lot of different things through the characters actions.
  • Poems by Langston Hughes will also be incorporated in the paper to better explain the black experiences before the II and Civil Rights Movement.
  • The rest of this report will be dialog created by author of this report that will set the stage for the established and pre-existing content from A Raisin In The Sun.
  • The eldest son, Walter (a 35-year-old man with his wife and young son), wants to invest in a liquor store.

Mama’s daughters name is Beneatha younger she is an aspiring doctor and she knows she can do it even with her being an African American woman. Then there’s the youngest which you do not really hear a lot about he is walter and ruth’s son his name is travis all he wants to do is have a real house. In the play and Lorraine Hansberry’s life, there are many connections.

Emotional Ideas And Truths In Emily Dickinson’s Poetry

He feels that investing money plays a huge role in gaining money, which is why he wants to invest in a Liquor company, which ultimately fails, and he loses all… Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. Since this would have given a negative impression of the natural look, both Hansberry and Sands decided to omit the hairstyle change from the Broadway opening. At the beginning of the play, Ruth serves eggs — but not without getting into an argument with Walter over the eggs — which again accentuates the importance of this symbol of fertility to the play. In addition, toward the end of the play, we learn that Mama’s maiden name was Lena Eggleston, a name that underscores the theme of fecundity as much as the argument over eggs at the beginning of the play. Hansberry’s play is timeless because she is able to make contemporary political issues part of the very art of the stage, drawing her audience into a conversation that continues to look these up be relevant even today.