A talented playwright writes of a family wanting to better themselves by demonstrating their pride, dignity, humor, stubbornness, and belief from within and without. Receiving money due to the death of her husband, the matriarch dreams of buying a house in a white neighborhood while her son wants to invest in a business and the daughter seeks to go to medical school.

a raisin in the sun
actually PHENOMENAL. an epic tale about lives of quiet—and then explosively loud—desperation. it perfectly encapsulates the incredible langston hughes poem for which it’s named
this was just remarkably rich and layered. it seamlessly discusses race, class, gender, generational differences, faith, revolutionary ideology, motherhood/fatherhood, and more—and every theme is explored thoughtfully, with equal importance. somehow lorraine hansberry finds a way to get inside the mind of every type of person. each character is so real: flawed, clearly deeply motivated by deep desires, each one of them holding something back for the sake of the others that eventually lets loose. it’s such a loving narrative. love is everywhere despite the conflict and cruel words and selfish actions.
side note. it’s impossible not to wince every time the white neighbors’ association rep says “you people”—“i hope you people know what you’re doing.” oy. but of course they do— by the end, they’re doing the RIGHT thing, moving out of that limited cramped living space and out into new challenges, but by this time they’re a united front, bickering healthily like they did at the top of the play. and mama comes back around for her plant, nurturing a dying thing back to health in the right conditions. proper light and tender loving care.
GOD. i’m barely analyzing this work properly and it’s because it was so amazing that it rattled the good words right out of me. if you haven’t read this in a while … or never before at all… do yourself a favor. beyond good and a quick read too

Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play tells about a Chicago black family who receives a life insurance payment after the death of the father. Walter wants to use the money to invest in a liquor store, and his sister wants to put the money toward medical school tuition in her quest to become a doctor. Walter's wife is pregnant and worries that another child will put more pressure on the struggling family financially. Mama thinks the family should move out of the cramped apartment, and puts money down on a house in a white neighborhood where the prices are cheaper.

Moving to the house, in spite of the danger of discrimination if they live in a white neighborhood, is the start of fulfilling one of their dreams. It's a dream that the whole family can share. By the end of the play, Walter has become a man who puts his family's needs and dreams first.

Although the play premiered on Broadway in 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" is still relevant today. It's difficult for blacks to obtain well paying jobs since expensive educations and the right connections are often necessary. While there has been some improvement, housing markets often practice discrimination. When she was eight years old, Lorraine Hansberry's father bought a home in a white neighborhood, and fought restrictive laws with the help of the NAACP (Hansberry v. Lee, 1940). The experience of her family was the inspiration for this play.

A Raisin in the Sun details the story of a working-class family struggling to make ends meet. The Youngers are then faced with a difficult decision that brings their colored heritage and the lives of their ancestors to the forefront.

Although this book and Death of a Salesman have some similar themes, what makes A Raisin in the Sun much better is its dynamic dialogue and the conflicting desires of its characters. While not perfectly three-dimensional, each family member in the story had an idea or belief that drove them forward. Not all of the characters were likable, especially Walter, but they worked well together in terms of their times of communion and crisis. I empathized a lot with Beneatha - the obstacles she overcame in such a racist, cruel community to express herself and find her dreams spoke to me. I also need a man like Asagai in my life.

Hansberry could have expanded the size of the story to further flesh out the many themes within it, but she portrayed them well with what she did write. The American dream, racism, money, etc. are all touched upon, which is why I suppose so many high schoolers are exposed to this work.

Overall, a solid play with strong characters. Not the most mind-blowing book, but not one that's sleep-inducing either.

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.

One of the most important plays ever written.

3.5 stars

I wish I could have seen this as a play, since it is very well done, even if the story felt a bit repetitive.

Read for school!

Re-read this play after too many decades to remember. Still as powerful as ever. I'll be teaching it starting next week. My students are in for a treat!

At 29 - Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest, fourth woman, and first African American to win the best play of the year. And, damn, did she deserve it!

A Raisin in the Sun is a statement AND a work of art. At the same time it's funny as hell and heart wrenching, too.

It details the black struggles of the time with such depth - covering topics of segregation and racism, financial discrimination, assimilation, and image. It does this with characters that are DISTINCTLY black. And yet they were so relatable to - at the time of release - a mostly white audience. And they're STILL so relatable to a white audience - to ANY audience.

Because the cast isn't characters. They're just folks. It's a testament to how likeable they are.

How anyone could not like Mama is beyond me. From the second she steps foot on the stage she wins you over.

She's so strong and funny and wise. She's proud, in a good way. You latch onto her, because she embodies everything you want to be in life.

As her children go through hell and back, she keeps her family together. And - I think what I liked most about this play - is the ending Mama guides them all to.

It's no happy ending. It's not sugar coated or a fairy tale. But it's the best they can get, given the circumstances.

And what's so incredible about reading this play is to see all the struggles these characters face, and feel their circumstances - really feel them.

This is the first book in a while that I read without taking a single break. How could I?!

Back in the 90s, when my wife and I were homeschooling our daughters, I watched the 1989 American Playhouse production of this play on VHS, in preparation for teaching high-school level American Literature, and was deeply impressed with it. I made it required viewing for that class; but I'd never read the play itself until this week. Very often, plays are better experienced by watching them performed than by reading them. In this case, though, while the 1989 production brings the script to life visually, which adds a dimension, the play itself still repays reading even if you've watched the latter. That's partly because the 1994 Vintage Books edition, which is the one I read, has the whole text of the play as the author wrote it, whereas even the 1989 production cut some of it (though not as much as the producers of the 1959 Broadway performance did). It's also because, like James Barrie in The Admirable Crichton, Hansberry used the stage directions not just to guide the actors' movements, but to give significant information about the characters' thoughts and feelings and to comment on the action, and her scene introductions provide a lot more than bare physical description. That material adds greatly to the experience of her vision, and doesn't come through as such at all in a production.

The title comes from a poem by Langston Hughes, “Dream Deferred” (which I have not read), some of which is quoted as an epigraph for the written play, and reads in part, “What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ Like a raisin in the sun?” The dream of the African-American community in general has been for fair and equal treatment in the nation in which they were born and of which they're a part. Here, though, we're not presented with “the African-American community” as an abstraction, but with a very concrete black family, the Youngers, living in an overcrowded south Chicago apartment in the late 1940s or 50s (roughly the author's present). Likewise, their particular long-deferred dreams are more specific than a vague “fair and equal treatment.” Family matriarch Lena and her now-dead husband dreamed of someday owning a home that's big enough to adequately house their family, and not infested with roaches and rats. Her son Walter dreams of owning his own business and making enough money to feel successful and important, give his wife an easy life, and open vistas of dreams for his own son, instead of working for someone else in a dead-end, low-paying job. And his college-student sister Beneatha has dreamed since childhood of becoming a medical doctor. Now, the impending payment of the late Mr. Younger's life insurance money may provide a down payment on some of those dreams. But choices will have to be made; and poverty and racism are formidable challenges in the path of any of their dreams.

It's difficult to do justice to this play in a review, because it has so much breadth and depth. There's a lot here, and its messages are presented naturally through the lives and situations of the characters, who are well-drawn, three-dimensional distinct individuals who come across with enormous realism. (They discuss ideas at times, but those conversations don't come across as sermons.) And in some instances Hansberry raises questions she doesn't try to answer; she just encourages her readers/viewers to think about answers for themselves. All of the important characters have their foibles; they don't all think alike or agree with each other all of the time, they don't always make smart choices, and they sometimes don't handle conflict situations in the most constructive way. But we can understand what's in their heads, and that none of them are bad people as such –they're just human. And while they're people of a particular race, facing a particular socio-economic situation in a specific culture, Hansberry has achieved what not many playwrights necessarily do, a work of art that uses the particular to tap into universal themes that can speak to all people, of any race, in any time and place. And as the truly great works of literature always do, it climaxes with a moment of significant moral decision. Over 60 years after it was written, this play has stood the test of time as one of the crown jewels of American drama. It continues to be both highly relevant and emotionally powerful.

This particular edition is enhanced by an Introduction, a bit over nine pages long, by Robert Nemiroff, who was Hansberry's husband when the play was written and produced (though they divorced amicably before she died), and her designated literary executor. (Besides discussing the message and themes of the play and making a case for its significance, he explains the many omissions in the original production, which were mainly just due to logistical factors.) Sadly, as the short “About the Author” notes, Hansberry herself died in 1965 of pancreatic cancer, at the age of only 34.

May just possibly be my all-time favorite American play*. The circuit is so taut, the story is so heartbreaking, life-altering and thought-provoking--I cannot wait to ever catch it live at the theatre.

At 29, Hansberry orchestrated something even Arthur Miller & Tennessee Williams wanted--a TRUE portrait of the American Family, how the roles are intertwined & dependent upon the others. The maestros don't come as close as she, I am inclined to think...

*Well... a more modern work, "Angels in America" makes it a tie.

In this 1959 classic, three generations of a Black family share a squalid Chicago apartment. As they look forward to a life insurance payout that could change their lives for the better, the impending excitement and stress draws out their conflicting attitudes about faith, Blackness, heritage, assimilation, poverty, gender roles, and gender equality. And each family member's response to the coming windfall highlights the years of forbearance and frustration they've had to endure in a society built on systemic racial discrimination.

Even 65 years later, A Raisin in the Sun feels relevant and packs some serious emotional oomph. I couldn't find this edition on GoodReads, but I actually listened to an older audio production on CD featuring the original Broadway cast. As I listened, it definitely added a layer to hear all the characters brought to life by the talented actors who originated the roles. And it was fascinating to think about all that's changed since 1959 and, sadly, all that hasn't. I'm looking forward to discussing this with my book club.

Over the years I have learned that I am not a good reader of plays, so for this one I decided to listen and I am so glad that I did. I was swept into the story, moved by it and sad to see it end.

A Raisin in the Sun was published in 1959, when Lorraine Hansberry was only 29 years old. Only five years later she died from cancer, but she did see her play become a hit. This is quite a feat for a young African-American woman telling the story of African-American characters.

The story revolves around the Younger family who live in an apartment on Chicago's south side. The patriarch dies and leaves behind a $10,000 insurance policy for his wife. This is a huge amount of money for this family, and the conversations begin about what she will do. Her adult son and daughter are at odds, and the daughter-in-law is a peacekeeper. Beneatha (daughter) is in medical school and the money could help her finish her education. Her son wants to buy a business. Only the DIL seems to think that their mother has the right to spend the money the way she wishes. And they don't know that Mama has plans.

Mama wants to buy a house for the family to live in, invest in the business, and assist with college. She finds a home and makes an offer. Unfortunately things start to go awry. The home she is purchasing is in a white neighborhood and they do not want these new neighbors. One man visits them and offers to pay them to stay away. That is all I will say as the decisions that must be made and how they get there is so rewarding.

This play is powerful and enjoyable. I was moved by Hansberry's words. And although written more than 60 years ago, it is timely today.