The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry debuted on Broadway in 1959, and the movie was made in 2008. “A Raisin in the Sun” is about the Younger family, the fifth generation of lower-class African-Americans living in Chicago’s Southside. They are faced with problems such as racial discrimination, poverty, and conflicting dreams. As the family decides on how to spend the insurance check of $10,000 from Walter’s father’s death, these problems cause many conflicts to rise. Reading the 1959 play and the 2008 movie, I have realized certain similarities and differences in how the story plays out. Both versions of A Raisin in the Sun are parallel in that the unique relationships between the characters and the vibrant personalities of each character are portrayed similarly. The elements of the plot structure – the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution - were also remained constant in both versions of A Raisin in the Sun. In both the play and the movie, we can see that the unique relationships between the communications between characters are portrayed in similar tones and body languages. They argue about the same things and resolve their problems in similar ways. For example, when Beneatha and Walter’s conflicting dreams are threatened by how a sum of money would be spent – Walter wants to be a business man and thus use the insurance money to invest in a liquor store, while Beneatha hope that the money would be put into the bank for her studies
Storytelling has been a part of people 's’ lives since the beginning of time. It started with just verbal communication, then it was written, and now there hundreds of ways to tell stories. Movies and books are two very different ways to tell stories to an audience. A story can be a book but not a movie or vice versa. Many books are made into movies but lose major elements in translation.
The Raisin in the Sun play and movies have similarities and differences in how they story was portrayed, also the character of Walter Lee Younger. To begin with, the play of Raisin in the Sun is the foundation of the movie versions. Both movies have the same exact story and dialogue throughout all
Stephen King, one of the many famous movie makers and book writers once said, “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different”. However, when it comes to the oranges, the bright-colored fruit usually tastes better. Truly, many people have different opinions, but the movie is definitely better. This giant, white void will explain the many differences between Raisin in the sun’s book and movie, and focus on the great traits of the movie.
In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions. Hansberry challenges the traditional gender roles and issues of dominance throughout the play when Mama gives Walter lee the rest of the money at the end of the play. He becomes all excited and was supposed to save some for himself and put the rest of the money to Beneatha 's education. Instead, he gave all that money to Willy another character in the play which later on that he stole from him.
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family explores many issues, both within their family and with outside conflicts. This play has a historical feel to it. In Chicago 's south side a black family is living in a run-down apartment. It takes the readers back to a time that many young people don’t know of, and a time that offers respect to older generations (1959). The play takes on a few social reforms.
Stephen King, a famous writer once said, “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They are both fruit, but they taste completely different.” Truly, this applies to all movies and books. This quote is effective describing the novel and the movie, A Raisin in the Sun. Although the two share similar scenes and acts, the movie shows a lot more details which make it better.
“A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, was the first play ever produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and was considered ground-breaking for it’s time. Titled after Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” the play and the subsequent film adaptations are honest examinations of race, family, poverty, discrimination, oppression and even abortion in urban Chicago after WWII. The original play was met with critical praise, including a review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times where he wrote, “For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate. Not having any axe to grind, Miss Hansberry has a wide range of topics to write about-some of them hilarious, some of them painful in the extreme.” The original screen adaptation released in 1961 was highly acclaimed in its own right, and was chosen in 2005 for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.
“Progress is impossible without change,” Irish playwright and polemicist George Bernard Shaw once said. In order to move in a positive direction, we sometimes need to accept change. After watching the movie, A Raisin in the Sun, viewers can walk away, satisfied with the beneficial changes made to the film. Without question, movies are almost always better than the book. The movie, A Raisin in the Sun, is much better than the book because the added scenes helped the viewer have a better understanding of the characters and the time period.
Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun are both sensational dramas written in and around the 1950’s, which look at the lives of those futilely attempting to pursue the American dream. The key difference between the works is the race of the family therein. In Death of Salesman, we have a Caucasian family living in central New York. In contrast, A Raisin in the Sun showcases the racial tension faced by an African-American family living in South-Side Chicago in the 1950’s (Cooper). While this is a perspicuous difference the works still draw a large number of parallels to each other.
In the movie there were many different settings compared to the one setting in the play. The film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun takes the viewer to various settings such as the Younger family apartment, the Green Hat bar, Mama’s workplace, the street, the market, the hair salon, and the Younger’s new home. Each of these locations are mentioned in the play, but there were never any scenes set in those locations. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, everything happens in the living room or kitchen. “The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being” (23 Hansberry).
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.
A wise man named Stephen King once said, “Books and movies are like apples and oranges, They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” The book and the movie look the same at first you can really see the differences. You can see Walter being so nasty and doing something at the end of the book and movie that is very unexpected more most readers and watchers. You also see so much racism in the movie but in the book you don’t really see racism except the Linder part. Last but not least seeing the characters move to the places you can only imagine but now you can see where they good and the hardship they have to face.
Both the original play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and movie adaptation by director Kenny Leon follow the same storyline around the Younger family. The Younger family is a poor family
Both selections have something that makes them appeal to the reader, however only one is truly capable of portraying the theme, tragedies have the power to destroy relationships and bonds of trust between groups or individuals, which “A Raisin in the Sun” does. One of the major reasons the play is brilliant at making the theme more attainable to the reader is that it is based on family interactions for a majority, which is something everyone can easily connect to. Events such as when Walter is discouraged by the betrayal of Willy where his mother is the one to calm him down helps to awaken the bond every individual has with their mother, which makes the part where Walter denies Lindner’s offer a second time more significant, since it shows
Reader Response: 3 “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.