The Art of Social Criticism Historical Context of a Raisin in the Sum

The Art of Social Criticism:

Lorraine Hansberry'southward A Raisin in the Sun

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Home

Historical Context

Epigraph

Mama

Walter

Bennie

Ruth

Travis

Bibliography

Notes

Credits

English 217 Homepage

Historical Context

On the surface, A Raisin in the Sun is nearly an African American family unit's struggle to get out of the ghetto on Chicago's Southside. However, Hansberry utilizes numerous themes and circuitous characters that crave multiple levels of assay beyond the primary bug that bulldoze the plot. The beauty of the play is that information technology explores the African American identity, social condition, and racial challenges in conjunction with the intricacies of universal homo nature. Throughout Hansberry'south brief life, she took every chance to be revolutionary not just in her actions in everyday life but besides through her literary works. The fact that she could "tell painful truths to a society unaccustomed to rigorous cocky-criticism and nevertheless receive its praise" is a testimony to her skill both as a writer and a student of life [3].

In many means, Hansberry'south early on life contributed to the manifestation of her beginning work. Although she was born into middle course comfort on the Southside of Chicago, Hansberry witnessed the injustices plaguing American society immediate. Despite her family's material condolement, they were still restricted to the black ghettos so Lorraine grew up alongside a number of lower class friends and neighbors who taught her about their harsh reality [iv]. Surprisingly, her privilege still did non insulate her from the struggles and anger of racial minorities and the lower classes. At one indicate, her begetter waged a legal boxing that reached the Supreme Court, Hansberry v. Lee, that dealt with their right to buy a dwelling in a previously all-white neighborhood [5]. The battle was won, but the war was far from over as Hansberry'southward family was subjected to vicious concrete attacks one time they moved in. Although her piece of work is not autobiographical, it is undeniable that hints of her childhood surface throughout her writing and influence her thoughts and beliefs.

Raisin was initially relegated to the outdated category because it emerged prior to the Civil Rights Motility of the 1960s. However, this view neglects to acknowledge the insights and warnings regarding the cataclysmic results of civil unrest and inequality inherent in Raisin. Too, prior to the manuscript'due south completion in 1957, a number of important events occurred that undoubtedly affected Hansberry'south writing. Amid others, the Supreme Court ruled against local covenants that perpetuated segregated neighborhoods in 1949 and adamant in 1954'due south Brownish v. Lath of Education that "separate but equal" schoolhouse segregation is unconstitutional [six]. In many ways, Hansberry anticipated the need and called for minority empowerment against inequality and bigotry. One of her major thematic criticisms was the "gap between the American dream and the Blackness American reality" [seven]. The ability to take a dream and the chance to fulfill information technology was and unfortunately still is different depending upon social condition and racial makeup. The Younger family unit is portrayed in such a proud and honorable light to emphasize the injustice and to call for policy and societal changes.

Hansberry is largely responsible for redefining the term universality in art. For a long time, the term was monadic in its conception and awarding. Information technology had been developed and practical to mean whiteness rather than including the variety of modernistic-day society. Some other contributing cistron to the inaccurate conceptualization of the term was that black art continued to split itself from the mainstream by isolating discussions of social problems from racial bug. Instead, Hansberry sought to meantime consider "social significance and racial consciousness" [8]. Her attending to details opened the door for white audiences into an understanding of blackness experiences that made those experiences understandable and relevant. In the words of James Baldwin, the play received such acclaim from the African American customs considering "'never before in American theater history has so much of the truth of blackness people'south lives been seen on stage'" [9]. The inclusion of the black experience within the framework of the human experience forced a redefinition that opened the term universality to include the minority voice [10]. This change may oftentimes become unnoted, but is an important illustration of one manner Hansberry unintentionally changed the mural of club through art. In fact, Hansberry herself believes "'the question is not whether one will make a social statement in i'south work - but only what the argument will say'" [11]. All fine art makes a statement; some are simply more controversial than others.

The vicious reality and irony of the play is that despite the realization of the family's dream to move to the new business firm, the newspaper stories virtually blackness homes beingness bombed, the attacks upon blackness families mentioned by Mrs. Johnson, and the crudeness of the new neighborhood'southward welcoming committee promises that their struggles are far from over. Herein lies the mastery of Hansberry'south work. She is able to deal with issues of racism and discrimination while maintaining a thoughtful story well-nigh a family unit, race bated, struggling against poverty. Although initially underrecognized as a timeless piece of work, historical context reveals Raisin's significance as a lasting literary social criticism.

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Source: http://websites.umich.edu/~eng217/student_projects/araisininthesun/historicalcontext.html

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