School Work
Amanda Sarapochiello
Period 4B
11.19.09
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, is about an African American family who lives in Chicago and suffers from harsh issues of poverty in the 1950’s. The family does not have enough money to afford the house they are living in and they often have to make a lot of sacrifices. They cannot even give their son money when he needs it for school and their son was sleeping on a couch for a very long time and did not even have a room of his own. They also have another baby on the way. Now where is that baby going to stay? They barely have enough money to have a room or a crib for the baby. Hansberry gave everyone in that family a dream and they are trying to achieve those dreams of theirs. Therefore, dreams were a big part of their lives. Like, Mama had a dream of having her own garden, but that was kind of impossible because they lived in a small apartment, so she just has a little plant, and Hansberry used that plant as a symbol of their families dreams. Self-fulfillment and dreams are a big part of this book. Everyone in the book has a dream. Mama has a dream that she wants to have her own garden, but she cannot have her own garden because they live in a small apartment in the south side of Chicago. So, therefore, she has a little plant that she keeps outside on the window sill. This plant is a symbol of the whole families dreams. She tries her best to keep this plant alive. Whenever it starts to die she brings it back alive. “Well I always wanted a garden like I used to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home. This plant is close as I ever got to having one (She looks out the window as she places the plant)” (53). This quote shows that Mama wants to have a garden very badly, but a plant was as close as she could get to having a garden. When it says she was looking out the window as she replaced the plant, it is showing that maybe she is remembering all the other houses that can
Period 4B
11.19.09
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, is about an African American family who lives in Chicago and suffers from harsh issues of poverty in the 1950’s. The family does not have enough money to afford the house they are living in and they often have to make a lot of sacrifices. They cannot even give their son money when he needs it for school and their son was sleeping on a couch for a very long time and did not even have a room of his own. They also have another baby on the way. Now where is that baby going to stay? They barely have enough money to have a room or a crib for the baby. Hansberry gave everyone in that family a dream and they are trying to achieve those dreams of theirs. Therefore, dreams were a big part of their lives. Like, Mama had a dream of having her own garden, but that was kind of impossible because they lived in a small apartment, so she just has a little plant, and Hansberry used that plant as a symbol of their families dreams. Self-fulfillment and dreams are a big part of this book. Everyone in the book has a dream. Mama has a dream that she wants to have her own garden, but she cannot have her own garden because they live in a small apartment in the south side of Chicago. So, therefore, she has a little plant that she keeps outside on the window sill. This plant is a symbol of the whole families dreams. She tries her best to keep this plant alive. Whenever it starts to die she brings it back alive. “Well I always wanted a garden like I used to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home. This plant is close as I ever got to having one (She looks out the window as she places the plant)” (53). This quote shows that Mama wants to have a garden very badly, but a plant was as close as she could get to having a garden. When it says she was looking out the window as she replaced the plant, it is showing that maybe she is remembering all the other houses that can