Literature review (Coursework Sample)

Student Name Institution Affiliation Course Instructor Date Introduction The play – A Raising in the Sun is drawn from Hughes Langston's poem called Harlem, which has a part reading What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the Sun? The poem entails the goals of justice and freedom being sought by the civil rights movements and the dreams of Beneatha and Walter. The hopes held by the younger family create frustrations for the African-Americans who are attempting to break cycles of racism and poverty. The main themes include money, discrimination, race, assimilation, pride and dignity, gender and feminism, and dreams. Author Biography Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, was a writer and playwright born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, United States. She was the first African-American drama personality and the youngest playwright. Lorraine’s family had undergone a lot of discrimination and segregation and even filed complaints in court in 1940 ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Colbert</Author><Year>2021</Year><RecNum>2365</RecNum><DisplayText>(Colbert)</DisplayText><record><rec-number>2365</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app="EN" db-id="50wxdpzd9vd5r7e9t5b595djrfpttrxw9avp" timestamp="1650458555">2365</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name="Book">6</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Colbert, Soyica Diggs</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry</title></titles><dates><year>2021</year></dates><publisher>Yale University Press</publisher><isbn>030024570X</isbn><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Colbert) Pg. 18). Hansberry worked at a printing press for the Pan-Africanist Freedom newspaper, basing her work on African struggles and liberation. She also wrote about the oppression of homosexuals and lesbianism. Hansberry succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 1965, aged 34. Analysis of A Raisin in the Sun In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the Younger’s family is perturbed by poverty. The family is extended and consists of five members staying in a bit of apartment based in Chicago. The year is around 1950 when Lena, the mother, receives a life insurance check for her deceased husband. The amount in the assessment is ten thousand dollars, and the first thought that comes to mind is improving the family's living conditions by buying them a home. Despite the family languishing in poverty, they would be settled if they had a place to stay. Since the family members do not have a single thought, the book highlights how each member would love the money spent ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Owens</Author><Year>2022</Year><RecNum>2364</RecNum><DisplayText>(Owens et al.)</DisplayText><record><rec-number>2364</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app="EN" db-id="50wxdpzd9vd5r7e9t5b595djrfpttrxw9avp" timestamp="1650458429">2364</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name="Book">6</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Owens, Patricia</author><author>Rietzler, Katharina</author><author>Hutchings, Kimberly</author><author>Dunstan, Sarah C</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Women&apos;s International Thought: Towards a New Canon</title></titles><dates><year>2022</year></dates><publisher>Cambridge University Press</publisher><isbn>1316518248</isbn><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Owens et al.) Pg. 191). The book also highlights the challenges that come with each member's idea. Lena is a traditional woman with values and a strong will, and Ruth is middle-aged and hardworking, while Beneatha is young, still in college, and with many egos. Lena (Mama) is religious and has lived in a generation worried about "getting lynched." She also has worries about traveling, highlighted in the phrase "getting to the north," and upholding the dignity she has. She is in charge of the family after the demise of her husband. Lena Younger dreams of purchasing the family home with the check she received worth $10000. The amount resulted from the husband's life insurance. Lena has been through diverse life situations, from being enslaved to working as a farmer hence the lesson of valuing oneself, being proud, and creating a sense of belonging to the family. The previous generation Lena lived in warranted complete obedience of the woman to what the man decides. The man was the final decision maker, and women had to obey. Women's liberation and independence began in the early 1960s. Women would leave home and take up male roles. Lena was in a set-up of staunch Christianity, and younger people had respect for the elderly, and decisions were not based on money, as she notes it as the "power of the dollar." In the past, freedom was life, but now Lena notes that freedom is money. Lena is eager to engage her son to take household head roles, yet the son is obsessed with opening a liquor store and money. The generational gap between Mama and her children is comprehensive; they do not read from the same page, resulting in conflicts that are seen as the play continues. Mama has a huge task of handling the likes and dislikes of the family ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Abd-Aun</Author><Year>2020</Year><RecNum>2366</RecNum><DisplayText>(Abd-Aun and Haleem)</DisplayText><record><rec-number>2366</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app="EN" db-id="50wxdpzd9vd5r7e9t5b595djrfpttrxw9avp" timestamp="1650458728">2366</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name="Journal Article">17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Abd-Aun, Raad Kareem</author><author>Haleem, Haneen Ali</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Woman as&quot; the Other&quot; in Glaspell&apos;s Trifles, Hansberry&apos;s A Raisin in the Sun and Kane&apos;s Blasted</title><secondary-title>International Journal of Arabic-English Studies</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>International Journal of Arabic-English Studies</full-title></periodical><pages>169-186</pages><volume>20</volume><number>2</number><dates><year>2020</year></dates><isbn>9953103232</isbn><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Abd-Aun and Haleem) Pg. 149). The children are so obsessed with money that Mama struggles with them while wondering about the kind of adults they will turn into. She has a soft spot for Travis, her grandson, that not even Ruth can punish him as Lena would come in to help create tension between them. Ruth is Lena's daughter-in-law. She is hardworking and centered on traditional values, just like Mama. She dreams of purchasing a home and bettering the family life. Ruth is tired as the stress issues of languishing in poverty have broken her. She makes rational decisions due to the frustrations that she would not have made due to circumstances. At one point, she contemplates aborting to avoid financial burdens to the family ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Marušić</Author><Year>2019</Year><RecNum>2367</RecNum><DisplayText>(Marušić)</DisplayText><record><rec-number>2367</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app="EN" db-id="50wxdpzd9vd5r7e9t5b595djrfpttrxw9avp" timestamp="1650458802">2367</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name="Thesis">32</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Marušić, Doroteja</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Female Identity in the Play A Raisin in the Sun and the Novel Americanah</title></titles><dates><year>2019</year></dates><publisher>Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. Faculty of Humanities and …</publisher><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>(Marušić) Pg. 20). Ruth's husband is obsessed with money, thus creating marriage challenges. She notes, "Remember how we used to talk…..about how we were going to live….it's all starting to slip away…”. Beneatha, Lena Younger's daughter, is still young and in college. She is selfish, determined to be a doctor, and still at her young age. She is from a modern generation, utterly different from Lena and Ruth. She is the most educated of the three women and aims at changing the face of the world. The age Beneatha lives is experiencing a change where women are fighting for their rights and equal opportunities. In 1955 December 1, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give a seat to a white driver, and the black community boycotted busses for a year, inspiring the females and blacks worldwide ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Čerče</Author><Year>2019</Year><RecNum>2368</RecNum><DisplayText>(Čerče)</DisplayText><record><rec-number>2368</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app="EN" db-id="50wxdpzd9vd5r7e9t5b595djrfpttrxw9avp" timestamp="1650458881">2368</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name="Journal Article">17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Čerče, Danica</author></authors></contributors><t...