Film Comparison Project
A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a narrative of an African American family that lived in Chicago in the 1950’s. The family sought of moving into the neighborhood of the middle class individuals even after hearing that one of the neighbors is not ready to welcome them. The family utilized a portion of the insurance check in paying for the house down payment where the remaining funds were handed to the son to make an investment. The son later lost all the money and despite this fact the family is still ready to move into the neighborhood. A Raisin in the Sun explores the main theme that is the family struggles that a family has to overcome in order to improve their lives. The book explores that in order for the family to improve the lives of every individual they have to struggle through the challenges that are subjected from others to them in denying them the general human rights (Lorraine, 1994).
The film raisin in the sun mainly about dreams as the film presents the characters to be struggling in dealing with the oppression situations which drive their lives. The individuals struggle in achieving their dreams as every member of the family holds a distinct dream. Through the oppression that the characters face they put off their dreams in order to survive. The main theme value and aim of dreams in that family is the most important thing and therefore the biggest dream among the entire individual is building a house that keeps them together despite the challenges that they encounter in life. Family is very crucial and a home makes the family dream more effective (Elina, 2015).
The major similarity that exist between the film the raising in the sun and the book "A raisin in the sun" by Lorraine Hansberry is that they both demonstrates the value and objectives of dreams. Both plays are effective in demonstrating that in order to achieve dreams individuals have to go through challenges and oppression that may make them put off the dreams that they held dear. In both plays individuals struggle in attaining their individual dreams and in the process they lose most of their happiness thus obtaining depression. This is because of the encountered failures in trying to achieve their dreams (Lorraine, 1994).
Similarly in both plays the characters are able to realize that although their dreams are important the family dream of building a house in order to maintain their unity is the most essential. Family helps in strengthening the power of every individual in attaining that what they wish to do. In play by Hansberry the family son puts off his dream after losing all his investment money and decides to settle for the family dream of moving into a house and stay united. The importance of family is emphasized in both plays as the characters struggle economically and socially throughout the whole play but they are united by the dream of buying a house (Lorraine, 1994). In both plays the mothers are seen trying to emphasize on the importance of staying together as a family to their children who are held up in the paths of trying to achieve their dreams. It is thus clear that from both plays that every family individual is a strong person but a family makes people stronger and lessens the hardships that are involved in trying to achieve dreams as it operates as a team.
Both plays emphasizes about a home being a centrality. The home is illustrated as a force that is galvanizing for the general family as mama sees it as essential in providing unity for the family. However the two plays differs in the manner in which the characters are involved in lives struggles in trying to make their lives better. In The Raisin Sun by Hansberry the family is faced with oppression from individuals who denies them the basic rights of human (Lorraine, 1994). This is therefore a great challenge that hinders the family dream from coming true. On the other hand the film portrays the family to be facing the challenges of individuals holding different dreams that draws a way their happiness because of the failures that they encounter. The play therefore hold that family unity helps in achieving the dreams better as family acts as a source of power that helps in moving forward. This is therefore important in increasing the understanding of the reader.
In that although achieving individual dreams may seem as an essential thing without the happiness of the family the struggles are more. From comparing the two pieces an individual is able to understand the importance of a family. An individual is additionally able to analyze the value of dreams as well as the general objectives of the dreams which are to make life better. Both plays illustrate clearly the importance of happiness that is mostly stolen away by the life struggles and oppressions which may hinder the capabilities of individuals. From the play title it is clear that although dreams are put off due to the hardships the family dream will rise in the sun.
References
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.
Paige Elina. A Raisin in the Sun 1961. 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1AUi-d0maA
