hello everyone we are going to be taking some notes over your new play A Raisin in the Sun make sure that your notes are detailed so feel free to pause whenever you need to all right let's go ahead and get started I'm going to begin today by reading to you the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes this poem can be found in the very beginning of A Raisin in the Sun and it's the inspiration for the title what happens to a Dream Deferred does it drive 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 syy suite maybe it just sags like a heavy load or does it explode we're going to get to the poem in just a little while before we do that let's talk a little bit about the author Lorraine hansbury her childhood she was born on May 19th 1930 her family lived in a black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side Chicago at this time did not have legal segregation but there was still widespread self-segregation which meant that a community took it upon itself to segregate there was no one making them it was by choice so as a result Chicago was divided sharply into white neighborhoods and black neighborhoods as a result of past segregation learing hanbury's Family Life the hansbury family was one of the first black families to move into a white neighborhood the hbes faced threats discrimination hate and even legal action when they tried to accomplish this hansbury father fought their case or brought their case excuse me all the way to the Supreme Court this Supreme Court case was called hansbury versus Lee and on November 13th 1940 it was stated that whites cannot bar African-Americans from a neighborhood this conflict actually mirrors itself in A Raisin in the Sun and you'll find that hansbury actually mirrors a lot of the things that happened in her life in her writing a little bit about lorine hansberry's writing style it's often autobiographical in nature as you can see from what we've already said her very own family had to fight to live in a white neighborhood just as our protagonist will have to In A Raisin in the Sun she is credited with being one of the first black playwrights to create a realistic black character for the stage or realistic black characters for the stage excuse me Aras in the sun received the New York drama critic Circle Award for best play of the year hansbury was the youngest playwright and the fifth woman and first Black Rider to win this award hansbury died at the very young age of 44 from cancer in 1965 so in the grand scheme of things this is fairly recent comparatively to what it is you'll read for the rest of the Year this is actually a fairly modern play a background for raisin this then so cultural influence it bridged the radical changes brought from the 1950s to the 1960s African-American theatrical roles were usually were unusually small comedic and made up of stereotypes a rays in the sun featured three-dimensional serious portrayals of black characters so as you can see stereotypes we've talked about this term when discussing night a stereotype is when you take a cliche or a generalization and you apply it to an entire race or ethnicity religion a group of people and it cannot possibly be true so we're applying this theme this thematic parallel to A Raisin in the Sun so African-American theatrical roles were very stereotypical in nature and so what Hansberry did is she's providing the theater with dimensional characters that also are African-American and so they're able to portray various roles and serious roles it also brought up diverse issues so it dealt with serious issues that were directly ATT tied to the black experience of Living in America like poverty discrimination segregation and racial identity the black community the play goes beyond the issues of black versus white it's also very introspective so we get an inside look at the black community and how it views itself and how it should respond to the hostility we also get to look at not just the black community but also certain women's issues such as the females role in house in the house and in society such as working for a living versus staying in the home the opposite of introspection would be or excuse me the opposite of being introspective would be extrospection would be looking on the outside looking in rather than being on the inside and actually getting an inside look at something literary Focus the publication was in 1959 the genre is realist drama the setting for the time 1945 to 1959 right before the Civil Rights Movement hits its peak Chicago the protagonist Walter Lee younger and the antagonist rather than just one single person are in fact issues poverty segregation racism all of these things are what Walter Lee younger and his family continues to struggle with literary terms illusion the title of the play is an illusion to length Hugh's famous 1951 poem Harlem like we just read in the very beginning of the PowerPoint okay Harlem was written 20 years after the Great Depression and it focused on the phrase A Dream Deferred and asked readers to consider how long black society would put up with having their dreams being put on hold dreams are described in the poem as withering up Like A Raisin in the Sun so it asked the question are we supposed to accept only what is mediocre are we supposed to accept the best for you for yourself you know and your family and that's what Walter Le younger asks himself the quote on the left-and side reads hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken winging bird that cannot fly and that's from Langston Hughes here is the poem again this is how the play opens up why open with a poem just ask yourself that question what tone does this set for the rest of the play what is a Dream Deferred have you ever had a dream that you've had to put on hold put on the back burner have you ever had certain hurdles that you have to get over before you can achieve your dream ask yourself those questions literary Focus the symbols the house the house symbolically represents the unit of the family the unity of the family they will not let overt or even subtle racism push them apart Mama's plant this is a plant that Mama owns rather than having a whole garden and it is a symbol of her family and dreams she takes very good care of the plant so what does that say about how she cares for her family the plant never gets enough light or water but it nevertheless flourishes during the play Mama realizes that some members of her family are quote drying up okay While others such as Walter are about to explode and she realizes their dreams can be deferred no longer they can't keep putting their dreams on the back burner the literary Focus or the setting the play takes place in a segregated Chicago neighborhood in the late 1950s the play occurs during the late 1940s or the 50s a time when some racial questions were beginning to be raised but before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s these particular issues that were the base for the Civil Rights Movement were about to boil over so tensions in metropolitan areas like Chicago were about to hit their Breaking Point literary Focus so some themes and conflicts value of dreams dream deferred racial discrimination civil rights the American dream A Woman's Place in society Defiance and strength as well as family all various themes found and conflicts found in A Raisin in the Sun so here is an overview of erasing the sun it focuses on the youngers an African-American family living in Chicago during the 1950s the youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000 okay now if we typed this into an inflation calendar real quick it would be quite a large amount of of money so don't think of it as $10,000 today okay each of the youngers want to use the money for different purposes mama wants a house Walter wants a liquor store Bena wants to become a doctor Mama eventually puts a down payment on a house for the entire family the house that Mama buys is in Clayborn Park which is an allwhite area and the white Community reacts to the news of a black family moving by sending a representative to buy them off or to make them an offer so they will not move in the youngers refus the money and despite obstacles refuse to give in to this discrimination that they are facing so they say thanks but no thanks these stills from the film arasin in the sun are from the 2008 version which featured P Diddy Maran Colmes as the male lead as Walter Lee younger okay so it was a made for TV film this is from the play version in which Shan combes actually did play Walter younger as well the protagonist of the play is Walter younger he's a dreamer who Longs for a quick solution to the family's problems his well-intended plans are often not well thought out as they need to be he's into getrich quick schemes and a way to help his situation rather than immediately to help his situation rather than to wait and put effort and thought behind his plans Lena or Mama younger is the matriarch of the family that means the female leader of the family opposite of a patriarch she is religious moral and maternal which means she's motherly her dream is to buy house with a backyard Ruth younger is Walter's wife she has a very troubled marriage she struggles with that poverty and domestic troubles or her home life have made her weary of Walter's dreams so while she used to be very supportive she's no longer supportive of her husband because of her troubled home Life Walter thinks that she is keeping him down Benny or benea younger is Mama's daughter and Walter's sister remember all of these people are living under the same roof and they all have very strong personalities she is an intellectual college student she is well educated and more educated than the rest of her family she dreams of becoming a doctor Benny's tone can be very condescending at times and this creates a lot of tension within the family then you have Travis younger who is Walter and Ruth's sheltered young son um he doesn't really get to do some of the things that he like because he is taken care of very closely by all three women in the house Travis's part is small but he has a symbolic value as the hope for a new generation so is Hope for Change all right guys so I hope you liked your PowerPoint I I will see you in class