My Life and “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry Essay

Introduction

A flow of people’s desire to follow a definite dream is great enough to stimulate them to struggle against various obstacles on the way to perfection. The world of a man is nothing without a dream. Japanese people would rather say that “a man without a dream has nothing in the future”. Actually, some dreams are hard to strive in the right direction due to the barriers made in the society. Many of social long-lasted problems of people in different communities, societies, countries on the whole leave much to be desired because of the negative influence of the nasty character features in every human being.

This negative impact grows when such motives get an ideological coloring of some groups of people tending to maintain their on rules and principles without adhering to the humane postulates. Racial segregation is a core factor which intended many famous American writers, playwrights, social figures in the first half of the twentieth century to show the real state of things in the “democratic and free” society of the United States of America with its strong power and following the scriptural principles of love towards each other. Raisin in the Sun reminds me of an incident in my life and of why I decided to go in Business in the first place.

Discussion

This book by Lorraine Hansberry was written and adopted first in the year 1959 just at the time when the opposition between white and black population of the US drew to a head in social spheres of interaction. Preceded by a “stellar cast” of eminent American black writers, such as, Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes etc. she wrote in one of the articles: “What is it exactly that we Negroes want to see on the screen? The answer is simple – reality.

We want to see film about a people who live and work like everybody else, but who currently must battle fierce oppression to do so.” (Morrine 2) The story of Hansberry was screened on the Broadway and screened first in 1961. Moreover, as the struggle of racial controversies lasts until now, the film starring Sean Combs was re-edited to make special emphasis for those who are in despair because of unfair reality of everyday life in America.

When I faced with such attempts of the representatives among white population of the US to make my voice in the company of peers heard they just laughed at me and they had hardly made some tries of assault. It happened in the twenty-first century already, but the problem of racial segregation and struggle for your place under the sun is still opened within the society. The lack of money and poor legal protection strives many of those who were for a long period of time oppressed by the former colonists to gain enough education and skills in order to resolve this problem as soon as possible.

Then my dream coincides with one which the main character of the play had – to obtain the qualification of an economist, so that to know the principles of management and the mechanisms of cycle of money which are universally accepted. This will definitely help me to prove the statement of Lorraine Hansberry continuing the thought of Langston Hughes as of the dreams in our life: “There is simply no reason why dreams should dry up like raisins or prunes or anything else.” (Grant 24)

The concept of main characters – Youngers – determines the manifestation of family unity and wholeness of love which cover these people. Living with neighboring Clybourne Park full of whites the Youngers are intended to save their inner warmth with regards to the great significance of the family traditions and family itself serving to support every member of it. Thus, the theme of family wholeness and the relationships between parents and children urge to keep them together under the conditions of cruel reality of discriminative motives within the societal cut of the United States.

Another episode calling spectators’ attention deals with the scene when the main character Walter stole the part of the insurance money and was blamed by his sister. This moment in the film, particularly, shows the culminate feature of the book by Lorraine Hansberry.

This also concerns with the importance of family and its branches in particular. Though, the idea of “freedom”, not money, is put into the forefront. Walter comes to this conclusion at the very end of the play and gets the slightest idea of the life sense for a single human being notwithstanding his color of skin or other peculiar things which can be interpreted by someone else as a precedent for hatred, evil, and, as a result, struggle.

For me this story presents the description of how the personal goals should be developed and what a man should need to achieve such ambitious aims of life? The point is that many of us live quietly without any attempt to react towards social cruelty and unfair attitudes of those who are the same as you. The only thing is not to stop in the urge of gaining merely relevant freedom based on humane principles. The historical background of the US does not give the opportunity for many Americans to accept Afro-Americans as a huge constituent part of the American society.

Robert Coles speaks of the black family–the Youngers–and their ordeal of trying to move out of a segregated Chicago borough as a “continual tension between hope and despair in people who have had such a rough time and whose prospects are by no means cheerful” (60). (Emerson 59)

My personal aim is growing every now and then when looking at the story of the Youngers. Trying to reach the point of mutual understanding between all layers in the American society I guess that it would be rather important for me to save those entire principles of a man’s true priorities which are the key for the happiest life and ability to save your identity. No matter how hard this way may appear, the stimulus of freedom as it is intended to leave all prejudices, so that to provide a strong and convincing hit on the issue of predominant discrimination in the USA, which in return prevents many of Afro-Americans in following their dreams.

Conclusion

Thus, business for me is a tool with the help of which I can make impact on improvement of my personal beliefs about better times for the social life and conditions in the United States. The more I try to follow the way of my dream, the more it seems to come true. This credo of my life is a “driving power” for all my steps on the way of resolving the problems concerned with such points as race, religion, culture.

Works cited

Morrin, Maxine. A Raisin in the Sun (MAXNotes Literature Guides). Research & Education Association (1994).

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Hansberry’s a Raisin in the Sun.” Explicator 52.1 (1993): 59-61.

“Review: Dreams Are for Everyone; A RAISIN IN THE SUN Liverpool Playhouse.” Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England). 2005: 24.