Essay on A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry PDF

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“Like a Heavy Load”: A Raisin in The Sun and the Strength of a Black Family...

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“Like a Heavy Load”: A Raisin in The Sun and the Strength of a Black Family Prior to the Fair Housing Act in 1963, states in America were legally and systemically oppressing African Americans by making it nearly impossible for a working-class, black family to mortgage a decent house. As a result, cities like Chicago were deeply segregated, with the Northside housing white Americans and the Southside housing black Americans. The Southside, known as the “ghettos”, was drastically different from white neighbourhoods, as public services were limited, and crime and unemployment were serious problems affecting the community (Ghani 608-609). In her play, A Raisin in the Sun (1994), Lorraine Hansberry highlights the underlying pride and character required to push the limitations of housing segregation in Chicago to keep alive the “dream deferred”. To do this, she presents the Youngers, who are shown to be proud and hardworking people and who are not afraid to protest their oppression. Moreover, the playwright idealizes a country where a black family’s laborious work appreciated. Because of this, the play not only exemplifies many of the same problems that impoverished African Americans shared during this period, but also reveals the possibility and potential for growth. As Hansberry writes in her autobiography, “write about the world as it is and as you think it ought to be and must be” (To Be Young, Gifted and Black 257). The play shows that the Youngers’ bravery is enough to carry along a dream to future African Americans who can live in dignity along with the rest of the country. Hence, A Raisin in the Sun does not attempt to answer the question posed in Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” (found in the epilogue of Hansberry’s play), “what happens to a dream deferred?” as much as it exemplifies the courage it takes to carry the “heavy load”. Even though every character in Hansberry’s play has a different dream, they share a central desire for movement and progress.

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The play follows the Youngers, an African American family living in “Chicago's Southside, sometime between World War II and the present” (Hansberry 22). Their home is “a segregated neighborhood in a city that remains one of the most segregated areas in the United States. Virtually every act they perform is affected by their race” (Ghani 609). The family - consisting of Ruth and Walter (parents of Travis), Beneatha (Walter’s sister), Lena (Mama) - all reside in a 2-bedroom kitchenette. Although their day-to-day life is often a struggle, they finally receive their deceased father’s life-insurance money, a $10,000 cheque made out to Mama. She holds the only way out of poverty for the Youngers and the chance to fulfill their dreams. Ruth supports her mother-in-law in putting the money into a house, away from the “rat trap” that they have been living in for decades, where “weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room” (Hansberry 23-24). This is not uncommon for residences of the black neighbourhoods of Chicago and it is known that “absentee landlords often do not maintain their properties” (Ghani 609). Mama’s dream in improving her family’s life can be established by moving to a less poverty-ridden neighbourhood. While Mama was able to purchase a house in the white suburb of Clybourne Park, its welcoming committee informed the Youngers that they are very much unwelcome. It was common for white families to feel threatened when black families move into their neighbourhoods. This is due to a housing segregation system, where a home in an integrated neighbourhood loses its value. For this reason - and among many others, including blatant white superiority - violence against a black family living in an exclusively white neighbourhood is an expected response. In fact, as mentioned by Johnson in the play, bombings of black homes in said areas are common enough to the point of being legitimately feared. Johnson herself is shocked at the Youngers’ plan to move to Clybourne Park. It was, at the time, a radical choice for a black family to

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move to a white suburb. In reality, the more common attitude for African Americans was that “they don't go where they ain't wanted” (Hansberry 100). To comprehend the significance of Mama’s purchase of the house, we must examine the risk that the Youngers are taking. They are not only going against a system that has been immensely profiting from their oppression and has every capitalistic reason to allow for their mistreatment, but are also putting their physical selves in danger. It is not difficult to imagine a bleak future for this family, yet the Youngers persist on taking this opportunity to improve their way of living. By being one of the first black families to move to a place that no black person is ever welcome, they are carving out a path for future generations. It is undoubtedly a decision that contributes to the progress of the country. Thus, Hansberry idealises the strength of a black family, showing its importance in a culture that rejects them as equals. Michelle Gordon describes this as “genuine realism” as she writes: [Hansberry’s] conception of genuine realism renders human beings as active agents—in their own liberation as well as in the oppression of others—and opens a cultural space in which to imagine alternatives to a truthfully represented repressive social reality. (112) In conjunction with the realistic interpretation of life in the “ghettos” of Chicago, Hansberry gives the characters the power to change the future of their family and their country. She does this in such a way that Mama’s purchase of a humble house with a backyard, where she dreams to grow a few flowers, becomes a courageous step towards a pragmatic socio-economic future. Nonetheless, they are only able to buy the house with a large sum of money that most working-class black families would not receive. The money is a form of deus ex machina in that it seems to solve much of the family’s problems. Though overly idealistic, it highlights how the father’s work as a labourer is being rewarded. Hansberry does this to show that a black man’s constant effort

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must be valued - particularly by his family - and that his persistence must not be lost in vain. At the same time, this plot device reveals how even with a significant amount of money, a working-class, African American family will still struggle to economically advance due to the evident institutional racism. For instance, Walter’s attempt to invest in a business would not have failed if he had been a white man. Despite it being valued by his family, a black man’s labour is not enough to advance them in a White America. Thus, the $10,000 is being used to challenge the system, to call attention to a black man’s work and to illustrate his family’s pride. Similar to his father, Walter genuinely feels that his purpose is to improve the way of life for his family and for future generations by raising the Youngers from the working-class to an upperclass. He passionately believes the insurance money would be best spent as a business investment. As Saber describes, “Walter bears the dreams of many generations of black suffering, and he demands his place under the sun of the American dream. The power of dreaming emerges from his strong sense of pride” (459). Despite his strong sense of pride and determination, he finds himself unable to keep his promises of handing his son the world (Hansberry 109). Nonetheless, this strong sense of pride echoes throughout the story. Even though Walter does much of the decision making in the family, Mama seems to have a certain power over the direction of the household. She carries the dreams held by her husband and previous generations, giving them context to influence her children’s decisions. In buying the house without hesitation, Mama shows her dedication to her family and refusal to let anyone treat them unequally. Even as Clybourne Park’s residences attempt to buy the house from the Youngers, she does not waver from her beliefs. When confronting Walter regarding the sell-out of the house, she says: Son—I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers but ain't nobody in my family never let nobody pay 'em no money that was a way of telling us we

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wasn't fit to walk the earth. We ain't never been that poor… We ain't never been that— dead inside. Having lived through more severe, southern racism, Mama understands how deep-rooted the racism is in the country and does not dismiss their mistreatment, as it “discredits [her] before [her] children” (Ghani 614). In fact, she asks Travis to witness the exchange between Walter and Lindner, a member of the welcoming committee, to persuade Walter to decline the bribe. Walter finally “acknowledges his links not only to his family, but also to his race through past, present, and future generations and identifies with their mutual struggle against racist restrictions" (qtd. in Ghani 613). He is reminded of his duty and continues to fight for his family’s right to an equal chance of the American Dream. Therefore, even after the money intended for Walter’s investment is lost, Walter still manages to prevent further anguish over the loss his father’s earnings in declining the sell-out of the house as he finally explains, “what I mean to say is that we come from a people who had a lot of pride” (Hansberry 148). To Lindner’s surprise, the Youngers value their dignity over money offered by the white families of Clybourne Park, so much as to say “I sure hope you people know what you're getting into” (Hansberry 149), as if they’re somehow unaware of the significance of their decision. Hansberry writes the Youngers to be a realistic black family that empowers themselves to fight for a chance to break away from the “ghettos” - a part of the “highly profitable system of white supremacy” (Gordon 126) - knowing the incredible odds stacked against them. Through the labour work of their deceased father, they have earned the chance to peruse the American Dream and have more than enough courage to do so. As their integrity stems from the older generations that resisted discrimination, their objection “is a duty that blacks must carry out if they want to live in dignity in their own land” (Ghani 614). It requires a strong character and pride in one’s self to protest being treated as lesser than one’s value.

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Works Cited Ghani, Hana' Khalief. “I Have a Dream-Racial Discrimination in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 1, no. 6, 2011, pp. 607-614. MLA International Bibliography, doi: 10.4304/tpls.1.6.607-614. Gordon, Michelle. “’Somewhat Like War’: The Aesthetics of Segregation, Black Liberation, and A Raisin in the Sun.” African American Review, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 121-133. MLA International Bibliography, ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2009381158&login.asp&site=ehost-live. Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in The Sun. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1994. Nemiroff, Robert. To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1969. Saber, Youmna. “Lorraine Hansberry: Defining the Line Between Integration and Assimilation.” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 39, no. 5, 2010, pp. 451-469. MLA International Bibliography, doi: 10.1080/00497878.2010.484330....