A Raisin in the Sun: Oppression, Identity and Dreams

Every once in awhile a great work emerges that spans generations because of the inspirational and powerful forces that influence great plays and films today. By walking us through the lives of an African American family in the 1950’s A Raisin in the Sun raises questions about what it means to be black today with the support of the NAACP,  as well as what it meant to be black then. In an era where freedom was won but discrimination and structural forces were key elements in the struggles of African American families represents a key theme that runs throughout the play. Not only does the play symbolize the struggles of African Americans, it symbolizes the struggles of what it means to be poor and to feel entrapped in a society that does not accept you. By addressing the different character roles, the plotline, the setting, and the overall themes of morality and humanism in A Raisin in the Sun and through critical analysis of these elements it can be argued that the play persists in existence by raising key issues of identity, struggle, collectivity, resiliency and hope.

The characters in A Raisin in the Sun all embody different personality traits and different roles. The Youngers symbolize not only an African American family, but also a family as a whole and all that it means to be human. Each character struggles with specific issues that are directly related to their African American identity in 1950’s Chicago. Walter Lee is a character that, through drinking and frustration, embodies the very many ways in which African American men can be stereotyped and stereotype themselves due to structural forces that are out of their control. His characters frustrations are realistic and insightful. His relationship with Mama is the most telling in regards to his character role as well as hers. In the scene in which he is about to find out that his wife is pregnant, he argues adamantly to Mama about his dreams and how his ambitions to open a liquor store with his friends will change the familys’ life as well as his. He literally tells Mama “Money is life”. Mama responds by stating that, “Once upon a time freedom was life, and now its money…how different my children are”. This represents a split in African American generational experience. While both Walter and Mama know the pains of discrimination and what it means to be a minority in society that constantly subjects them to seeing the rich and the white population succeed and run the city while African Americans at the time are subjected to hanging on to their pipe dreams such as Walters, the realities they face are slightly different. Mama’s biggest concern is keeping her family together and keeping her faith; both of which continue to allow her to navigate the racism and the Jim Crow laws they experience as a people collective.

The setting contributes to the themes of the play in a very significant way. Since the play is set in 1950’s Chicago, the ways in which African Americans navigated their identities are similar and yet different to the ways in which they do so now, contributing to the play’s persistence relevancy today. Every character in the play has a different dream that is hindered by the oppressive circumstances in which they are forced to live their lives. The setting of the Youngers apartment in which the vast majority of the play takes place is significant because it embodies centrality, the ins and outs of a struggling family, and the issues that each individual member faces there. The setting must be understood and analyzed critically. Although we know that the family likely struggles in every day life with the continuity of black oppression outside the home, that oppression leaks inward. For example, Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor while she struggles with her yearning for Africa and African knowledge baffles the ‘assimilated’ family. They criticize her for wanting to embrace their Africanism because the United States, in all its corruption, is all that they know. We must be critical in understanding the importance of the apartment as the setting. Although the play is very much about oppression and blackness in 1950’s American society, it isn’t as evident as it could have been. However, the play is successful in reiterating the themes of family in the face of oppression, the themes of dreams, and the themes of misplaced and strategically navigated identities under oppressive circumstances.

In general, it is somewhat difficult to classify the play in the ways in which so many plays are classified. However, for the purposes of this critical analysis, we can classify this play as a drama. While it can be argued that all plays are quite melodramatic in nature, this play had the right amount of emotion and exaggeration as the situation demanded. In fact, while viewers must continue to be critical of this, viewers must remember the reasons behind the creation of this play. They must remember that the setting, which is in the 1950’s racism-littered United States and poverty stricken Chicago, is actually downplayed in what the characters would have likely experienced outside of the home. They actively bring their frustrations with their lives in-home, creating a necessary drama and a humanizing aspect that is realistic of all human beings. When human beings are frustrated and struggling with unlikely dreams and issues in and outside of the family, they both knowingly and unknowingly take it out on the ones that they love.

While the play ends in uncertainty, it can be rest assured that the family has, through their struggles in the past few weeks in which the play has taken place, come together and compromise their dreams for the sake of their family. Love conquers all, which is another theme in the play that must not be forgotten. The family, through all their struggles, is emblematic of a close-knit, resilient family, while all of the characters are strong in mind and in spirit. Although they have their flaws, in order to critically understanding and appraise the play in all that it entails, it must be understood in its realism as well as its ideologies. Not all families can successfully navigate broken dreams in a society that does not accept them because they are born a certain way, but the Youngers are able to, and remain together, by force and by choice.

Work Cited

A Raisin in the Sun. By Lorraine Hansberry. Time-Life Video, 1961