A Raisin in the Sun
By: Abbey O'Brien, Megean Borgra, Javier Cortes, Al Cortes
Thesis
Theme
Conflict~ Man vs. Society
In both the play and the film a recurring conflict between man vs. society was shown. The Younger family had to deal with a lot of racial discrimination involving their jobs and where they lived. With Mama's executive decision to buy a house in Clybourne Park Produced some more social problems. Clybourne park is an all white neighborhood and apparently would like to stay that way due to the fact that the Clybourne Park welcoming committee politely offered to buy the house back from the Younger family.
"Take a more common interest in the life of the community, When they share a common background. I want you to believe me when I tell you that race prejudice simply doesn't enter into it. it is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families are happier when they lived in their own communities." (pg.117-118)
3 People
Lena
Lena is the mother of two grown kids. She recently retires from doing domestic work in other families houses. She loves to take care of her little plant that expresses her and gives hope to the family. Mama gives the money to Walter because she saw how he was falling apart and she trusted him to do the right thing. When she finds out the money is gone she prays to the lord to give her and her family strength to get through what happened. She doesn’t agree with what Walter wants to do with Lindner and the house business deal.
In the movie A Raisin in the Sun Mama (Lena) was portrayed by a strong willed woman. The actress is what you would expect the character to look and act like. She had the attitude that you got from the play. However in the play mama seemed to have been brought up as older, and in the movie didn’t seem to be the age as portrayed. The clothing she also wore was the type you would except her to wear, wasn’t fancy and super nice, you could tell her clothing was older, and worn out more.
Walter
Beneatha
Beneatha is the daughter of Lena and lives in the same apartment with Walter, Ruth, Travis, and her mom. Beneatha’s dream ever since a kid was to become a doctor to help cure people. She goes to medical school where she met Asagai. After Walter loses the money from the insurance check she loses hope of becoming a doctor. Asagai asks her to marry him and move back to Africa to Nigeria.
In the play, Beneatha chops off her hair, in the movie, she doesn’t. In the play, Beneatha is someone who likes to speak her mind, and doesn’t let anyone stop her, but in the movie, she was just straight up sassy.
3 Items
Mama's Plant
"Mama you gonna take that raggedy looking old thing to the new house? ... It expresses ME!" (pg.121)
In both the play and the movie the plant was very important to mama and who she was as a person.
Walter's Eggs
"Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to change my life, im choking to death, baby! and his woman say: your eggs is getting cold!" (pg.33-34)
In the movie the eggs scene was a lot more dramatic that just reading it in the play, the actors had a lot more emotion.
Kitchen Window
"Lord, aint nothing as dreary ad the view from this window on a dreary day, is there." (pg.53)
A big difference from the play to the movie was the amount of windows. In the play there is only the one window in the kitchen but in the movie there are multiple windows in the apartment. the Window still has the same significance in both productions.
Conclusion
Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorrainne. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage, 1958. Print
A Raisin in the Sun. Dir. Kenny Leon. ABC, 2008. Film.