A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry: Chicago born, 1930, died 1965. A Raisin in the Sun honored for being first play by black woman to be
produced on Broadway. She said that in her work she is “trying to break down the racial stereotype of the Negro by writing
plays about people who happen to be Negroes rather than Negro plays.”
Vocabulary
Assimilation
Deferred
Defiance
Despair
Eccentric
Entrepreneur
Exuberance
Gall
Heritage
Indictment
Ludicrous
Mirage
Mutilate
Neurotic
Oppression
Retrogression
Snob
Sophisticate
Tyranny
Vindicate
Characterization
Ruth
Beneatha
Mama
Walter
Some thoughts to ponder:
Younger apartment parallels family difficulties
Insurance money
Younger marriage
Clybourne Park Improvement Association
George v. Joseph
Title
Themes
Search for dignity and self-respect
Unfulfilled dreams
Search for identity and self-fulfillment
Faith in the past vs. living in the present
Strength and endurance of the human spirit
Changing roles of women
The nature of marriage transformed
The real meaning of money
Man is trapped by his environment
Materialism vs. intellectualism
Integration
Assimilation
Ghetto-itus
Prometheus
Alaiyo
Plant