Plays: Cultural Context

This week we were assigned to read "A Raisin in the Sun". I have really enjoyed reading ACT 1, Scene 1 of this play. The title for this play comes from the poem, written by Langston Hughes, titled "Harlem". This play was written by an African American woman named Lorraine Hansberry. Her play was the first by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. This play is about a family who lives in a poor black Chicago neighborhood in the 1950's. The family in the story, the Youngers, survive by working for white people. They are in near poverty, but get lucky with a large inheritance of money. Now they must argue about what to spend the money on. Everyone in the family has their own opinion of where this money should go. The way this play is written helps show the culture of these people. It is easy to see their race and the time period by their dialect and the topics they talk about. Also, by throwing terms of money around you can see the time period because it shows how valuable a little amount of money is to them. The way they are living shows that they are almost in poverty. Many family members share this small house and some of them do not even have their own room. I really like this play so far because the arguments between the different people are just funny. Even though they are being serious, it is amusing the way they go about the things they say and do. I cannot wait to finish reading this play to see how it ends. I think the writer wrote this play well and I love how she used true African American dialect from that time period.