Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

As a “turning point for black artists in professional theater,” Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun represents an important commentary on the African American condition in the United States during the 1950’s. Prior to its Broadway run, there were no plays which had all black casts, subject matter, or written and directed by blacks. The play is both a Negro play and a universal play in that it explores the specific socio-economic conditions faced by blacks during this period and the universal themes of dreams and desires that appeals to a much wider audience.

The plot describes the Younger family who has lost their patriarch (Big Walter). He had left them a $10,000 life insurance policy that they were to collect on very soon. His son (Walter Lee) is already planning what he could do with the money to realize his dreams of providing a better life for his family. He has two friends (Willie and Bobo) with which he wishes to partner with in a liquor store venture. The family all share a small apartment in a poor black neighborhood. Travis, Walter Lee’s son, is forced to sleep on the couch while Bennie (Walter Lee’s sister) shares a room with her mother (Lena). Walter Lee is married to Ruth and they both work in service to rich whites.

They all have dreams. Lena dreams vicariously through her children. Also, she wishes for a small garden patch to grow the plants and flowers she loves so much. Bennie dreams of becoming a doctor. Asagai dreams of returning to his homeland to improve conditions there.  

 Hansberry’s inclusion of a phrase from Langston Hughes poem “Harlem” provides an important metaphor for the play. Despite the discrimination and economic disadvantage they experience, the Youngers dreams and aspirations will never dry up, much like “a raisin in the sun.”

The theme of the “American Dream” permeates the work as it is centered upon the family achieving the greatest realization of that dream…home ownership.

One of the lines from the play that I found most interesting occurred early on while Walter Lee is having breakfast. He is sharing his dreams with his wife and all she can say is to eat your eggs. He says, “Damn these eggs.” If we consider the eggs as being symbolic of the mundane daily existence he must perform to survive than that is really what he is cursing. He wants more than what he already has. He wants to be a business man afforded all of the respect he thinks that will bring him.