2. Discuss the ways in which the setting of Raisin has a profound effect upon two of the characters. 3. If people can be divided into three groups — those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened — apply each of these […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsStudy Help Full Glossary for A Raisin in the Sun
always in his voice there is a quality of indictment a description of Walter, who has grown increasingly accusatory about the bleakness of his financial future. Ashanti Beneatha’s reference to the Ashanti people, along with George Murchison’s references to the Songhay Empire, Benin, and the Bantu language, shows that Hansberry […]
Read more Study Help Full Glossary for A Raisin in the SunCritical Essays Three Versions of A Raisin In The Sun
For example, the entire scene with Mrs. Johnson was eliminated from the original stage presentation of Raisin. Another deletion from the complete version was the scene in which Beneatha has cut her hair and is wearing it in the “natural” style that she knows Asagai will admire. This scene, although […]
Read more Critical Essays Three Versions of A Raisin In The SunCritical Essays Language and Style of A Raisin In The Sun
The language of many of the characters of Raisin is unconventionally non-Standard English; the black characters are not merely speaking English that is ungrammatical; rather, they are speaking a dialect common in the black communities that are heavily populated by migrants from the South. Their dialect, although similar to the […]
Read more Critical Essays Language and Style of A Raisin In The SunCritical Essays Thematic Structure of A Raisin In The Sun
Several other motifs are also successfully intertwined into this drama. Hansberry’s avant-garde concerns, her prophetic political vision, and her ability to perceive the future importance of events that few people in 1959 were even aware of are used as lesser motifs or minor themes throughout the play. The issue of […]
Read more Critical Essays Thematic Structure of A Raisin In The SunCritical Essays Applying Literary Terms to A Raisin In The Sun
Hansberry expresses many political and sociological views in Raisin, ideas which attack racism and prejudice; the audience is moved to either take action after having seen the drama or to change previously held bigoted beliefs. The chief character in a work is called the protagonist, or sometimes, the hero. Walter […]
Read more Critical Essays Applying Literary Terms to A Raisin In The SunLorraine Hansberry Biography
Since its Broadway debut, Raisin has been translated into over thirty languages, including the language of the eastern German Sorbische minority, and has been produced in such culturally diverse places as China, the former Czechoslovakia, England, France, and the former Soviet Union. Its universal appeal defies, in retrospect, some of […]
Read more Lorraine Hansberry BiographyCharacter Analysis Big Walter
Big Walter is another character whom we never meet and only learn about through the dialogue of others. When Mama reminisces about her life with Big Walter, she speaks of him with admiration, although the audience might question Mama’s tolerance of some of his past behavior. Mama says, with a […]
Read more Character Analysis Big WalterCharacter Analysis Willy
Although we never meet Willy, we know a lot about him based upon things that are said about him by the other characters. Willy has no loyalty toward Walter or Bobo: He absconded with their money. Although he knows that he is robbing two people who have as little as […]
Read more Character Analysis WillyCharacter Analysis The Two Moving Men
Although the moving men have no speaking parts, their few moments on stage are memorable. They are admonished by Mama for not handling her furniture with the care she feels her furniture deserves. The moving men remind us of Walter; maybe their dreams are as intense as Walter’s. As they […]
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