A Raisin in the Sun - Essay Example

Another aspect that sets the book apart is the use of gender, class and race to describe the main theme. This book is a stark example of how an ordinary black family living in that period in America is restricted from accomplishing their dreams and goals. Therefore, through this aspect, Hansberry has tried to explain how the question of race and class takes over and leads to influencing people in reality even though most people try to do away with such concepts and live for the better tomorrow of humanity.

During the course of the play, one of the characters, Asagai says to another character, Benethea, “You came up to me and you said… "Mr. Asagai – I want very much to talk with you. About Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity!” (1.2.98) Through these lines it is evident that each and every person finds it very important to explore where it is that he came from. Every person is interested in knowing where his roots lie and how he fits into the world. Much the same way, Asagai mocks in a playful manner saying these lines as he would like to understand more about the African culture from where he descends.

This play thus is a platform for raising issues pertaining to justice in terms of gender, class and race and the role that different people played in the formation and making up of society. Each and every character within this play and the Youngers family, feels a sense of loss when he is on his own, because on his own, he is made to face the cultural impediments and impact of being subject to ridicule just for being a part of a different race. The mother of the family says, “Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses.

I did the best I could.” This dialogue is a perfect example of the kind of discrimination that was faced by each one of them and how the older family members knew about the raging levels of the same and were used to it. With time, the family had learned to pay less attention to these surroundings that they existed in because they knew that there was very little done that could be reformed. Such established racist laws that demarcated even housing and shelter for black people and white people, made it even more difficult for African –Americans to leave the slum areas and even think of leading a better life.

This play depicts the kind of disdain that people belonging to African American families, were living in during the times of the war. Women were not given equal status, they were subject to living within the households as housewives, take care of the household and the many babies that they were forced to raise and nurture. Careers were very bleak, even for the men belonging to such a descent, and they could not get any jobs except for ordinary chores or running mundane minimum wage errands. Poverty was stark within such households, in addition to such people being looked down upon.

Such was the trauma and turmoil that people belonging to black families were forced to live within and adapt to. Fighting for equality for such families, as depicted through the play, had become a matter of reasoning that the other, white and powerful people were not even interested in listening to. In Act I, Scene II, the kind of life that the different members of the family were living, has been shown very well. Each member was