Tears of a sports genius hounded for his race

Hansberry grew up in a heavily segregated Chicago community, and A Raisin in the Sun explores the interplay of racial and economic tensions that were so familiar to her. The play follows a Black working-class family who moved away from the south during the Great MigrationThe movement of roughly six million Black people from America's south to the north, midwest and west between the 1910s and the 1970s. It was one of the largest movements of people in the history of the United States. in pursuit of a better and more equal life. They do not find it. Chicago is riddled with racial discrimination, housing inequalities and classismDiscrimination or prejudice based on someone's social class. : when the family buys a home in a White neighbourhood, they are approached by a representative of the 'Clybourne Park Improvement Association' with an offer to buy them out, as their neighbours do not want to live near a Black family, and they are even warned about the violent retribution of their new neighbours. When Hansberry was just 7 years old, her family moved into the all-White neighbourhood of Woodlawn in Chicago. Her family home was swarmed by a violent mob which terrorised the Hansberrys, throwing bricks and broken concrete at them. Hansberry recalled being "spat at, cursed and pummelled in the daily trek to and from school". There are subtler ways racism manifests in A Raisin in the Sun too: job discrimination leaves limited economic opportunities for the Younger family and forces them into servile and degrading employment, whilst Beneatha faces backlash even within the family for exploring her African heritage.

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The term "American dream" was invented during the Great DepressionA severe worldwide economic depression that started in the US in 1929. When Roosevelt was elected, the US unemployment rate stood at over 20%. by historian James Truslow Adams, who defined it as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone". It is a dream of affluence, equal opportunity and harmony - and one which the Younger family clearly hopes for. Walter Lee dreams of abandoning his dead-end job to start a liquor store; Mama dreams of a garden where she can tend to her plants; Beneatha aspires to break a racial and gendered glass ceiling by becoming a doctor. But these dreams are endlessly deferred, hence the title that Hansberry borrowed from Langston Hughes: "What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?". The reality confronted by the Youngers is that the American dream is fraught with obstacles, including racial discrimination, income and class inequalities, and misogynyHatred of or discrimination against women. The term comes from the Ancient Greek "miso", meaning "hate", and "gyne", "woman".. At the start of the play, the Younger family live in a cramped apartment in Chicago's South Side, where at the end they are moving into a larger property in a White neighbourhood. But even this must be paid for through tragedy: they can only afford it by cashing in the life insurance of Big Walter, who died before he could realise his own dream of buying a family home.

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A Raisin in the Sun predates the epochal changes in gender relations in the 1960s, including the rise of second-wave feminismCalling for women's rights with the aim of achieving gender equality. as a mass movement, but Hansberry's play takes gender as one of its principal themes. Each of the women in the play positions herself differently in relation to her gender: Beneatha is a modern woman pursuing a profession, whilst Ruth and Mama hold more traditional values, despite their strength and free-thinking outlook. The latter two are a foil to Walter's entitlement and machismoStrong or aggressive masculinity. An exaggerated version of masculinity. : whilst Walter endlessly and churlishly bewails his sorry existence as a limousine driver, we see Ruth and Mama - both of whom also have paid jobs - taking on the entire burden of domestic work without complaint. Ruth is almost always seen completing household tasks when she is on stage, whilst Walter gets drunk with his disreputable friends. And though Walter sees himself as a man of great aspirations and ideas, criticising his wife and mother by saying "we one group of men tied to a race of women with small minds," he squanders his father's life insurance in a day, whilst Ruth and Mama make a shrewd investment in a new home. Meanwhile, Beneatha remains staunchly misunderstood in her pursuit of an independent and authenticTrue or realistic. life, reflecting her double marginalisationTreating members of a group as if they are not worthy, and socially excluding them. as a Black woman: some have suggested that she is the play's analogue for Hansberry herself. And yet the play ends with a celebration of masculinity, as Walter finally assumes responsibility for the household and steps into his Black pride, refusing the cynical buyout offer from their to-be White neighbours who want their neighbourhood to remain segregated.

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The theme of assimilationWhen individuals or groups acquire the habits, attitudes and ways of life of a new society. Often used in the context of immigration. recurs repeatedly in the play, with characters explicitly railing for or against assimilation into a structurally racist society. Beneatha's inner conflict over her identity is reflected by her two love interests: the snobbish, pompousSelf-important and overly serious. George Murchison, who views himself as superior to other Black people because of his proximity to White privilege, and the proud Nigerian Joseph Asagai, who encourages her to connect with her African roots. Where George is fully assimilated, sneering at the Younger family's lack of knowledge of theatre and culture, Asagai describes Beneatha's straightened hair as "mutilated" and tries to teach her about her heritage, reflecting his refusal to model his life on white ideals. In The Souls of Black Folk, WEB Du Bois devised the term 'double consciousness' to depict the internal conflict felt by African Americans who feel torn between their double-identity, describing the "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body".

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Money is a central preoccupation of the play, which is foregrounded by the family's eager allusions to the $10,000 "check" that will arrive with Big Walter's life insurance. Walter Lee fantasises about how the money could enhance his social standing and allow him to become a masculine provider for the household; Mama wants to own a home as a symbol of autonomy and self-sufficiency; Beneatha needs to fund her medical schooling to live an independent life. When Mama asks why Walter talks so often of money, he replies, "Because it is life, Mama!". She replies: "So now it's life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life - now it's money. I guess the world really do change." But the reality is that for every member of the family, the acquisition of money represents the possibility of freedom, be it the freedom of leisure, the freedom of choice, or freedom from drudgery. It is, in many ways, the only recourse they have.

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