The Representation of American Dream in Lorrain Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

Abdulrahman Sulaiman Khaleel

doi:10.33193/IJoHSS.28.2021.354

Abdulrahman Sulaiman Khaleel Department of English - College of Arts - AL-Iraqia University - Iraq

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33193/IJoHSS.28.2021.354

الكلمات المفتاحية: American Dream, Lorrain Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, The Black people, Domination

الملخص

In this article, the aim is to analyze theme of ‘American Dream’ within Lorrain Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Such a theme has appeared roughly as a recurring theme of debate in literary works and drama undoubtedly is not an exception of that. This paper tries to figure out an answer for the question in which how is the American Dream exposed according to every character within the play? Playwrights attempted through their artistic productions and reproductions to exhibit such a theme while writing dramas to enlighten the image of America on a societal ground. As for the play itself, the spread of African- American ideas in literature is made use of in socially depicting humans’ rights. Lorrain Hansberry being one of the prominent black writers, has been telling the world concerning the Black people’s pain and awes. The distresses, thwarting and domination of the subjugated Africans are exhibited in her writings. Throughout the drama, the protagonist is shown as controlled by the White and the way she strived being discriminated. The methodology of this article is a textual analysis for the excerptions under investigation making use of the Theory of Racism and Racial Discrimination to comprehend the sociological status of the characters in the play. It is found that Black people – under the siege of the Whites – have suffered the discrimination due to oppression, color and social status.

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