A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, set in the 1950’s in Chicago, is a classic play because it flawlessly portrays the daily life of a lower class African American family struggling against the economy, and a society that keeps them down. Trying to keep the family together, Walter plots grand schemes, and tries to use his mother’s money to help himself. By not only addressing universal problems to connect with everyone, Hansberry also uses specifics of the time and race to make the audience care for each character while also identifying with each character. Deep, complicated characters like Walter and Lena Younger (his mother) push the play along because of the amount of thought and analysis put into these iconic characters. Because of the real, truthful, honest writing in the play, A Raisin in the Sun has earned its spot in the history of classic American plays.
As to another famous play, All My Sons has many similarities in general plot and that it’s about the hardships of life, raising a strong family, and the effect of money on people. Raisin In The Sun obviously remains focused on the point of view of an African American family which adds a different undercurrent then the death of the Keller’s son. Yet both illustrate the greed of the older man, the father figure in both pieces sacrifices everything for wealth yet believes that they are doing it for their families. This similarity then extends itself to the loyalty of both wives to men when they know perhaps subconsciously (All My Sons) that their husbands have done wrong. Both pieces use a classic nuclear family which makes the pieces at once profoundly American in culture and easy to watch due to the similarities in real life. Both of the pieces also show the cracks in the aforementioned Nuclear family by taking what should be a perfect image and contrasting it with the truth of human greed, catharsis, and love.
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