Unit 1 Topic A Raisin in the sun

Unit 1 Topic: A Raisin in the sun. B. Ed Hons. Semester –IV Course title: Advance English Literature Represnted by : Miss Shahzaib chaudary Department of Education (Planning &Development) Lahore college for Women University.

LEARNING OUTCOMES. • Student will be able to read short stories with an average speed. • To comment on and literary excerpts. • Identify the main characteristics of different geners of literature. • Write a summary of atleast 100 words of any literary works.

LORAINE HENSBERY(1930 -1965) • Introduction to the Author • Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of Black. • Around the age of seven, Hansberry and her family moved into a restricted white neighborhood, deliberately violating the city's "covenant laws" that legally sanctioned housing discrimination. • Hansberry is best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun. • Overall, Hansberry has been acknowledged as a gifted playwright and an articulate and strong supporter of the civil rights and women's movements.

CHARACTERS Characters • Walter Younger • Ruth Younger • Beneatha Younger • Travis Younger • Lena Younger (Mama) • George Murchison • Joseph Asagai • Karl Lindner • Mrs. Johnson • Moving Men

PLOT • Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, is the story of a lower -class African American family living on the Southside of Chicago during the 1950 s. The family seeks to move into a home in a White middleclass neighborhood. Although a portion of a $10, 000 insurance check has been used as a down payment on the house, the remainder of the money has been given to the son of the family. In an effort to quadruple the money, the son invests the money and ends up losing all of it. Despite the fact that the family has lost the remainder of the insurance money and was told that they would not be welcome in the White neighborhood by one of the neighbors, the family decides to move forward with their plans to move into the neighborhood.

THEMES • The Value and Purpose of Dreams • A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives • The Need to Fight Racial Discrimination • The character of Mr. Lindner makes theme of racial discrimination prominent in the plot as an issue that the Youngers cannot avoid. The governing body of the Youngers’ new neighborhood, the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, sends Mr. Lindner to persuade them not to move into the all-white Clybourne Park neighborhood. Mr. Lindner and the people he represents can only see the color of the Younger family’s skin, and his offer to bribe the -Youngers to keep them from moving threatens to tear apart the Younger family and the values for which it stands. Ultimately, the Youngers respond to this discrimination with defiance and strength. The play powerfully demonstrates that the way to deal with discrimination is to stand up to it and reassert one’s dignity in the face of it rather than allow it to pass unchecked. • The Importance of Family

MAIN MESSAGE IN RAISIN IN THE SUN • Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives. The title of the play references a conjecture that Langston Hughes famously posed in a poem he wrote about dreams that were forgotten or put off.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS. • A Raisin in the Sun Discussion Questions • The play is prefaced by a Langston Hughes poem. . • Why do you think all the scenes take place in the family's house? • How is Beneatha different from other Younger family members? • How is theme of assimilation treated in the play? • What are the greatest strains on Walter and Ruth's marriage?