Read this edition but didn’t read a raisin in the sun so idk if I should be logging this but I need to reach my reading goal

walter lee you will CRUMBLE

Never read Sidney Brustein before but I’m glad I did. Lorraine by all accounts was a kind person with heart and her plays reflect that. Just like Raisin, there is so much passion in the characters and story.

We read this book in English and I guess it really should be 2.5 stars. The plot itself wasn't all that interesting,but the writing, which was done in dialect, and the themes of the book were very well done. The most important characteristic of this kind of drama/book is to open people's eyes to the past and the mistakes made so that we can make the world a better place. Lorraine Hansberry definitely accomplished this in A Raisin in the Sun.

A Raisin in the Sun takes its audience on a journey through the perspective of Walter Lee, a black man struggling to achieve the American dream. Walter struggles to identify his own identity in a world where white men have all the power and means, and people of color are subjugated to inferior positions in society. In the end, Walter finds his spirit hidden in the shadows of his own insecurities only to rise above his situation like the descendent of those great Afrikan Kings of old, when they were victorious in battle. Like a Zulu Warrior-King, Walter Lee completes his rite of passage, and thus becomes the Patriarch of his family. Walter Lee is an ambitious black man with a family, and he is full of anger about what he believes to be his caste in life. Walter struggles in various aspects before he finally demonstrates himself to be a man of courage and honor.
One of Walters’s greatest struggles is with his connection to his ancestral Afrikan roots, while living in a racist white-society, and there is generational conflict between Walter and those around him as well. The conflicts seem to be lessons needing learning.
In the beginning of the journey, Walter appears to be the average black male during an era of great social movement, who is struggling to find his place in the world. He gets up in the morning and has to struggle for a spot for the bathroom, which is not only shared by his own family, but also by other families living in his building. Walter lives in the projects, and like most people who live in such red-lined areas, he demonstrates a great deal of escapism in his behavior. For instance, like many who live in the ghetto, the only people whom Walter can complain to are others in the same situation as he is. And like many poor and struggling middle-class families, he is under a great deal of pressure to provide for his family, but at the same time he is forced to repress his own dreams of success, as he is continually forced to compromise into conformity of a culture created for the benefit of Anglo’s. The situation is complicated further as Walter tries to be a role model to his own son, while trying to fill the shoes of his own father who has passed away. The pressure to fill those shoes and the memory of the struggle his father went through to provide, which Mama reminds Walter continuously, begins to take its toll on Walter.
Walter blames his family for his shortcomings. When the pressure gets too much for this struggling black man, he lashes out at the only people who will endure his rhetoric: his family and culture. Walter demonstrates the effect of colonialization on his mind when he degrades the position of the black woman in the family, by blaming the black woman for the black mans failings in the white mans society. The effect of forced acculturation and gentrification is blatant in this regard, as Walter in his ignorance becomes as the oppressor he seemingly detests, but who society he inadvertently desires to assimilate into. Walter demonstrates the reverse-discrimination, and self hatred many descendents of Afrikan slaves in White America developed due to Aryan racism and socio-politico-classism. This is extremely evident when Walter reiterates the ignorance the white man taught him regarding black people when he makes comments like, “The worlds most backward race of people, and that’s a fact” (I.1, 38). Walter is plagued with an inferiority complex and becomes more desperate to escape his circumstances.
Walter devises a plan to break free of socio-economic deficit through black-entrepreneurism. Walter attempts to mimic the white oppressor’s business activities but soon learns that it is not just the white man who is greedy and corrupt, when one of his black partners swindles the money Walters’s mama gives him to start his business, money acquired from Walters’s fathers’ death, the savings Walter’s father sacrificed so much for. This betrayal by Walters’ friend almost breaks Walters’ spirit as his family blames Walter for being so ignorant, which incidentally reinforces his sense of insecurity and inferiority. The fact that Walters momma has already spent a great deal of the insurance money on a home for the family also exasperates his feeling of inferiority because it is the women in his family who continue to provide sustenance for the family and who seem to be more responsible than he is. Walter is belittled further by his momma condemning him for having lost what Walters father had struggled for. In his desperation, Walter initially decides to make a deal with a white man named Mr. Lindner who represents a community board in the white neighborhood (Clybourne Park) where Walters’s mamma has purchased the house for the family. “Don’t cry, Mama. Understand. That white man is going to walk in that door able to write checks for more money than we ever had. It’s important to him and I’m going to help him… I’m going to put on the show, Mama” (III.3, 143). Walter slides deeper into that colonial-mentality as he decides to take money from Mr. Linder as a payoff for Walter to relocate his black family into some other neighborhood.
This decision enrages and hurts Walters’s family, especially his momma who reminds Walter of the integrity and pride of Walters’s father, who was the head of the family and who was the provider while dealing with more extreme forms of racist-discriminative-segregationist than Walter is seemingly enduring. Walter becomes a sell-out in the eyes of his family, and even Walter himself shows contempt for his actions though he is ironically acting out of desperation to live up to his fathers legacy. The fact that Walter is expecting another child only intensifies his resolve to make something of himself.
The darkest places of the human psyche are where many learn people learn the truth about themselves, and thus is the case with Walter Lee. It is all the negativity that brings Walter Lee to see that even though he is superficially poor, that he is rich in family and a history of his people overcoming almost insurmountable odds. Walter becomes aware of his responsibility to his family and their dreams, and not just his own. Walter also begins to accept accountability for his own short-comings and ceases to project this upon his family and people. Walter begins to turn his anger into hope, disparity into possibility, and regret into opportunity. Walter realizes the true strength of his people, of his family, of the sacrifices that were made for him by others. He demonstrates his newfound or revitalized integrity when he refuses to become a sell-out to the white mans fears, and tells Mr. Linder:
Yeah. Well – what I mean is that we come from people who had a lot of pride. I mean – we are very proud people. And that’s my sister over there and she’s going to become a doctor – and we are very proud -. (III.3, 148)
Walters’s new demonstration of courage, pride and integrity touches his family in a most intimate way, and they display their love and respect for him in turn by supporting Walters in his statements toward Mr. Linder. Momma especially shows her pride for her son Walters taking the role as the head of the family when she responds to Mr. Linder when he tries to contradict Walter and turn mamma against Walter. Momma tells Mr. Linder:
I am afraid you don’t understand. My son said we was going to move and there ain’t nothing left for me to say. You know how these young folks is nowadays, mister. Can’t do a thing with ‘em. Goodbye. (III.3, 148-149).
A family is re-united in hope, sprung out of the annals of fear and repression. This story is one of courage and the ability of an oppressed people to find that courage within them selves to determine their own idea of success and community, of family and progress. Walter epitomizes the struggle of most colored people, especially the black man in the post-emancipation era of white-American culture. He symbolizes the struggle of the colored man to gain access in the white mans world and to retain his ancestral heritage and culture in the midst of great tribulations and socio-cultural changes that will effect his own children’s future. Walter becomes the image of slave becoming free, and that freedom becoming self-empowerment, a movement of self determination. This story also describes the predicament of many colored and poor people in describing the disparity between those that have and those that do not. Walter Lee presents the inner struggle of the black/colored man/woman in conflict with contemporary slavery, racism and classism as well, when he says.
This story shows how the ties to ones culture are part of ones strength and integrity, and what happens as a result of exploitative-acculturation and repression of ones cultural identity and history. It tells of the boy who endures a profound evolution into his manhood with the help of strong females in his life. Mama puts it very simply when she proudly acknowledges her son Walter, “He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain…” (III.3, 151). Mamas’ words ring true for many colored people today, as we struggle for true equality and justice in a system that has been built for whites, upon the backs of colored peoples.

A good book, a better movie.

i think this book is very good because it's a play and a book that was made in 1959 the play was also a radically new representation of black life.This book is mainly a dream being deferred and was never came true in a person life

The book I just finished reading is called A Raisin In The Sun,
by Lorraine Hansberry. This a fiction book,and the theme of it is to not be selfish.
The book is a play about a man named Walter,who's mom Lena is getting a check in the mail that is worth ten thousand dollars.The money is comming from Lena's husband who passed away.Walter has a wife named Ruth(who he later finds out shes pregant),his son Travis and sister Beneatha.Walter wants some of the money to invest in a liqour store with Willy,but everyone thinks its a bad idea.Mama buys a nice new house for her family in Clybournepark,where the race there is white.Mama wants to put some of the money left into Beneatha's schooling,because Beneatha wants to become a doctor.Walter feels like he has'nt benefitted from the money,Mama can see that in him so she gives him the rest of the money and tells him to put some in Beneatha's schooling and the rest for him.Walter's selfihness got to him and things go wrong.
The book was very interesting and i really liked it.My favorite part in the play was when Beneatha's friend Assagi(more than a friend)broung her some nice dresses that he got for her from Africa. The tone of the play was hardship and no hope.The mood of the play to me was that nothing was going to go right. The book wasnt confusing and it was very descriptive. The book relatyes to larger issues like how you should'nt be selfish and you have to take blame for wrong actions that your responsible for.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading plays and anyone who likes reading drama filled books.This book isnt similar to any book I read it was something diffrent for me in a good way
I would rate this book a 5 between a scale from 1-5, because thats just how much of a good book it was.

i didnt like this book it was really boring... i mean i learned alot from it but it was still boring... again a book we have to read you know its good (well from what i have read)

Raisin was 5 stars, excellent play that I did not find to be "middle class".
Sidney Brusteins Window just did not really interest me.

I love this book. I enjoyed what Hansberry was arguing: break out of illusions, us v. them and take action to PROGRESS. It was well-done.

In the book "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansbury, we go back in time to the 1950s. We learn about a family; this family's last name is Younger. The Younger family are all getting paychecks for $10,000 very soon and every member has an idea of what to do with the The first member of the family is Mama,she was also Mr. Younger's wife; she plans to buy a new house and make all the dreams that she had with her husband come true. The second member of the family is Walter Lee, he is Mamas son and Mr. Younger's son and he wants to open up a bar; he thinks it will be a great investment and get them a whole ton of money. The one member of the family that isn't related to Mr. Younger but does have a say in on what to do is Walter's wife Ruth; she thinks that building a house (Mama's idea) and dedicating it just to him is a great idea. However for Ruth, she doesn't want to use all the money on a bar, she wants to use some of it on her son; Travis. The final member of the Younger family is a girl named Beneatha, she wants to use all her money on medical school. She also thinks that black people shouldn't forgive white people for what they've done to all blacks around the country. Ruth later on discovers that she is pregnant and considers having an abortion for fear of raising two kids. Mama buys a new house in a completely white area and even gets a letter saying that they would offer her money to stay away from the place, however she refuses this deal and moves into the house of dreams. Walter lost a little more than half his money from his friend that scammed him out of $6,500. Beneatha gets a proposal from her boyfriend and wants her to come back to Africa with him. Some parts were never told in the book, however the family seemed to get their way in and out of trouble a few times in the book and I think they will be just fine.

I thought that the overall reading was good, but normally i really don't like those types of back to history books. But this one wasn't so bad, there were a lot of controversy over a lot of things and I always like reading about that type of stuff. I really liked the Mama and wanting to build all the dreams that she and her husband had thought if when he was still alive. That was very good bye the author as well, when the white people didn't want her in the neighborhood just because she was black. The limit that she had to go to in order to fulfill the dream house was incredible. The money from Walter was just proof of how many scams their were back in the 1950s, he was scammed by his own friend and then left town. Beneatha was taking it really hard about everything, all the white and black racial slurs and how it effected their lives. This also shows how blacks had feelings towards whites in the 1950s.

"Mama-Mama- I want so many things... I want so many things they are driving me crazy..."
"I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!"- "Finish your eggs first"