We have finished A Raisin in the Sun. For this blog post, you can address anything about the book that interests you, whether we have discussed in class or not.
One topic that interested me throughout reading A Raisin in the Sun is that of Lorraine Hansberry’s process of creating the book’s characters. Some of my peers suggested that each character reflected a part of her own personality, while others said that she created them to be archetypes of the black community at the time. I think that it’s a mixture of both, combined with other elements that are necessary for telling a story. For example, characters with opposing views need to exist to make interesting relationships- like George Murchison and Joseph Asagai. The things that those two characters stood for made their interactions memorable, but they also represent the paths that a minority could take in a society that didn’t embrace their culture. Another example is in Beneatha, who strives to become educated and do well for herself despite the odds stacked against her. I could see elements of Ms. Hansberry’s personality being injected into her character, as she was also an educated black woman in the mid-20th century. One could analyze and make assumptions all day, but it all comes down to this: we don’t (and will most likely never) know the author’s thought process and exact intentions, so all we can do is guess.
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