A Raisin in the Sun

I think teaching this to ninth-graders is going to be a bit of a challenge but I'll give it my best shot.

Update: the ninth-graders loved it

Wow! That packed a punch on so many levels! I'm still contemplating this family and their struggles, heartache, and strength. Highly recommend.

Powerful.

I finished thinking of one word: dignity. It is a different context than A Gathering of Old Men but they both conveyed yearning and personal dignity.

One electric moment is when a wife tells her husband (with mother-in-law in the room) that she was (because of their poverty) planning to abort her pregnancy. Mama says:

Well— Well—son, I'm waiting to hear you say something... (she waits) I'm waiting to hear how you be your father's son. Be the man he was. (Pause. The silence shouts) Your wife say she going to destroy your child. And I'm waiting to hear you talk like him and say we a people who give children life, not who destroys them — (she rises) I'm waiting to see you stand up and look like your daddy and say we done give up one baby to poverty and that we ain't going to give up nary another one...I'm waiting.

Once again, I told myself that I had read this in my teens, but I hadn't. I heard about it, knew it took place on the South Side of Chicago. I'm so grateful that I read it now. The same thing happened with David Copperfield.

Finished: 03.11.2018
Genre: play
Rating: B+
#CCBookReviews
Conclusion:
Lorraine Hansberry was the first black female playwright
whose play was produced on Broadway.
A Raisin in the Sun made theater history
#Classic

n  My Thoughtsn

This play is pretty amazing; Lorraine Hansberry’s talent shines in the layered narrative of A Raisin in the Sun. Moreover, the Youngers are one of the most memorable families in a play I’ve seen since the Wingfields.

Published in 1959, so much seems to be ahead of its time. This is especially true with Beneatha, the objective best character. She is set on having a career, seeks a meaningful relationship that is intellectually stimulating, doesn’t mute her voice to be and questions established norms—including religion. To question faith, especially as a woman (and a black woman at that) is a pretty big deal in this time period.

“Mama, you don’t understand. It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I am not going out and be immortal or commit crimes because I don’t believe in God. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no blasted God—there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!”

This is a big declaration to make, especially in the 50s. In general, when a family has so little due to structural socioeconomic inequity, faith is an incredibly important cultural cornerstone; one that can help to cope with grief and trauma, as well as provide a basis for community building. But as any religion has its positives, it also has it’s detracting elements; notably in that it can be used to allow for passive acceptance of unjust situations on the basis that it is a higher power’s “plan.”

Now religion really is not the major issue tackled in this play, just to be clear, the star topic is racial strife. There is a lot I would like to say, especially in terms of the Youngers’ discrimination, but I feel like I could be entering spoiler territory as this is the crescendo of the play’s drama. It is still worth noting, because even though the play takes place in 1950s Chicago, red lining continues to remain a pressing matter today all across the United States. Whether by overt state/municipal policy, or by more subtle individual-levels of covert racism, it all results in the same bullshit.

Just as Beneatha questions religion, she also sarcastically exclaims of polite segregation, “He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.” In general, messages delivered with a tone of civility or spirituality can still be inherently malignant if they only serve to maintain an unjust status quo that defiles the justice of others.

Overall, this play is filled with a number of really thought-provoking conversations and arguments that only a family cooped in a too-small apartment are capable. This is a great read, and I definitely recommend it.

“It isn't a circle—it is simply a long line—as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end—we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd by those who see the changes—who dream, who will not give up—are called idealists...and those who see only the circle we call them the "realists"!”

Fucking hell. 3rd sem has been the best in terms of prescribed reading. This was absolutely magnificent. I cannot imagine how amazing it would be performed. Lemme go search on YouTube.

There are more than a few established classics that I had never heard of until I did my teaching degree here in Canada. Since everyone else had come through the Canadian school system, they were very knowing about "The Lottery", Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Raisin in the Sun. These established American classics got blank looks from me. Well, not so much Mockingbird; I'd heard of that one a couple of years before, and the name was familiar to me from before moving here.

But I'd never heard of A Raisin in the Sun. Here in Toronto, grade 9 kids watch the movie and read the play, and it seems to make a lasting impression, given how excited the adults in my English class at OISE* were every time it was mentioned. Since I wanted to teach English (and History) here**, I thought I better brush up on the local canon (no one seemed to notice or care that their institutionalised English canon was largely American, even though there are plenty of good Canadian works around - neglected, but hanging on all the same).

If, like me, you aren't familiar with this play from the 50s, here's a quick run-down: set in Chicago in the small and dingy apartment of a black family, the play is about the dreams of these family members - Lena Younger ("Mama"), her son Walter and daughter Beneatha, Walter's wife Ruth and their young boy Travis - and their excitement and anticipation for a cheque of ten thousand dollars from the life insurance of Lena's husband. They each have dreams of what they could do with the money, which belongs to Lena. She wants to put most of it towards Beneatha's medical degree so she can be a doctor. Ruth wants a home of her own. Her husband Walter wants the money to get into a bottle-shop business with two other men, so he can quit being a chauffeur to some rich white family.

Money, as usual, causes more problems than it solves, but in the case of the Younger family it's more complicated than that. There's so much subtlety in this play, so much going on in the small details. It's exquisitely written, simple, honest, forthright, daring, vulnerable, earnest, and yearning. Each character captures so much, embodies so much (they are each a cliché, it's true, but that only makes them even more representative - plus, clichés are clichés because they're true, not because they're unoriginal; at least, that's how they start). They are believable as individuals and as part of a family - and also as spokespeople for their fellows. They way they speak, each with their own distinct cadence and pronunciation and diction; their ideals and aspirations: they live and breath on the page just as they would on the stage.

What really struck me as I was reading this, is that if you had told me it was written last year, or anytime really, I would have believed you. It still seems so current, so relevant. Yes, regarding black people in a white-dominated world, but also regarding the lower classes, the working poor. Even if race relations were better than they are, class divisions persist just as rottenly as ever.

This story really impressed me. I ached for them. I felt what they felt, even when these feelings contradicted themselves as the family members came head-to-head - especially against Walter. You can't help but empathise with them all, in an earthy, human, organic way. And considering how little, really, has changed - yes, the play is just as relevant and timely as ever, not just in America (for which I can't personally speak) but just as especially in other ex-British colonies like Canada and Australia, which are more multi-cultural but just as divisive in their way.

There's more going on this play that class and race. Beneatha represents a struggle for identity and frustrated feminism, and her friend Joseph Asagai brings the larger, political spectrum into their living room - especially interesting in the context of having recently read Half of a Yellow Sun. There's the issue of rights, of responsibility and morality, and a day-to-day struggle that felt familiar. I like how the play's described in the blurb, as "authentic, unsentimental and unflinching" - three excellent words to capture the quality of this play.

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* OISE stands for "Ontario Institute for Studies in Education"; it's part of the University of Toronto. Apparently it's the most difficult place to get into for a teaching degree - really it just has the best location so everyone applies and they get their pick of the best.

** I still do want to teach here, but at graduation I discovered that there are no teaching jobs in the province. Now I'm working at the Ministry of Education and it's even clearer than before that the jobs don't exist - not even for French teachers, not anymore. Scary times. So, my perfect job has been shelved until things improve.

A classic play that is as relevant today as it was at the time that it was written.