Introduction to A Raisin in the Sun

You will continue to do your independent reading for 15 minutes at the beginning of each class and take notes on your reading.

You will also continue to work on your vocabulary!

A Raisin in the Sun (1959), the first and best-known play of African American dramatist Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), tells the story of the Youngers, a black working-class family that has decided to move into a white neighborhood. The play pioneered the acceptance of African American drama by Broadway producers and audiences, who instantly responded to its universal theme of the search for freedom and a better life.

The struggle for progress is a predominant theme in the play, which centers on the Youngers, who work toward a better life after the death of Big Walter, the patriarch of the family. Set in a run-down apartment on the Southside of Chicago after World War II, the play opens with the family contemplating what to do with the ten thousand dollars of insurance money awarded after Big Walter s death. Family matriarch Lena and her children, Walter and Beneatha, regard the money as the key to the realization of their dreams of escaping their ghetto surroundings into middle-class respectability but they all envision different paths to this goal. Walter wants to invest in a liquor store, while his sister, Beneatha, hopes that the money will allow her to attend medical school. Lena, who is an authoritative yet loving mother, decides to put the money toward a down payment on a house in an exclusively white neighborhood.