A Raisin in the Sun
Handout
1. What does Hansberry offer to readers in A Raisin in the Sun?
Hansberry offers an “aesthetics of segregation” to generate public testimony about urban black life, to represent her radically expansive notion of the real, and to provide a prophetic framework for anti-racist, anti-colonialist movements gaining force in the US and the world.
2. What is the theme of A Raisin in the Sun?
The engagement of segregation struggles in Chicago as a penultimate symbol of black oppression and resistance described by Hansberry in which she brought local, individual struggles of African Americans—against segregation, ghettoization, and capitalist exploitation—to the national stage.
Homework
What does Act 1 scene 1 encompass around?
Act 1 scene 1 encompasses around the vitality of money. The first case was when Walter and Ruth talk about a check coming into the mail. Second case was when Travis asked Ruth 50 cents for school in which he gets no cigar that leads to Ruth convincing her son just for a reluctant goodbye kiss. Another scenario is when Travis asks his dad for permission to carry groceries at the supermarket after school for money, which leads to a dollar awarded given by Walter. The next scenario is about the check coming into the mail which we readers find out is an insurance check of 10 grand which the Younger family could take advantage of. Another scene is about using the 10 grand for Beneatha’s education and the house down payment in which Ruth tells Leda or Mama she should use for herself instead, yet she refuses. The last and final scene involves Beneatha getting a possibility of marrying with a young ole chap named George Murchison who has green written all over him (“money” man), but she doesn’t want to marry him which Mama and Ruth approve of even though the family wants her to. Money is a big deal for everyone in the Younger family especially Walter who is obsessed with it according to Mama....