1. Background Info and Start-Up work
A Raisin in the Sun
Background Info and
Start-Up work

4. Author Info
Lorraine Hansberry ( ). African-American playwright, Raisin was her first play (published in 1959).
Her writings generally focus on characters who stand up for their own and others' dignity.
Died at a young age (35) due to cancer.

5. Setting
Inner-city Chicago (similar to The House on Mango Street). Lower middle class neighborhood.
Time period is mid to late 1950s (start of civil rights movement). The play is set almost entirely in a cramped apartment.

6. Main Characters
Lena Younger (mother/grandmother) - husband has recently died, family is waiting for his $10,000 life insurance check.
Walter Younger (Lena's son) - chauffeur, struggling to provide for his family. He’s married to Ruth but it’s not a perfect marriage at this point.

7. Main Characters Ruth (Walter's wife) and Travis (Walter's son)
Beneatha (Lena's daughter, Walter's younger sister) – in medical school - more of a "free spirit" than the rest of the family

8. Additional Characters
Asagai (represents Black heritage)
Murchison (represents assimilation)
Lindner (represents white prejudice)
Bobo & Willie (Walter's friends)

9. Theme Revolve Around… The search for dignity and self-respect
The difficulty in achieving meaningful relationships
The search for identity and self-fulfillment
The positive and negatives of pursuing goals

10. Theme Revolve Around… 5. The past affecting the present
6. The strength and endurance of the human spirit
7. Men and women trapped by their environment

11. Langston Hughes
Raisin in the Sun opens with a poem by Langston Hughes.
Hughes was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement. His poems deal with the tribulations and joys of black America.

12. Harlem Renaissance
Refers to a literary and artistic movement in the 1920s centered in Harlem, New York.
This movement and its writers were the forerunners of the revolutionary black writers of the 1960s.
H.R. was characterized by a celebration of the African American culture.

13. Langston Hughes’ Poem “Harlem”
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over –
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

14. Dream Quotes
Choose 2 of the 5 quotes and interpret what the author/speaker means.
1) No one regards what is before his feet. We all gaze at the stars. (Ennius, 239 B.C.)
2) God gives me hills to climb. And strength for climbing (Arthur Guiterman)
3) Those who seek adventures do not always find happy one. (Cervantes, 1547 – 1616)
4) No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. (unattributed)
5) Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible. (unattributed)