Answer all of the following about “A Raisin in the sun”
1) Which question are you going to write about for A Raisin in the Sun?
– Hansberry is often viewed as a visionary because of her ability to predict many of the relevant issues to the African-American community today. Identify some of these issues and explain how they are the same or different from how Hansberry portrayed them.
– What statement does Hansberry seem to be making about race? Does she make more than one statement? If so, do these statements conflict with each other?
– Within the Younger household, there are three generations of women. Compare and contrast how the characters each form their unique identities.
– Although the play’s setting is likely the late 1940s, A Raisin in the Sun may best be understood in relation to the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Discuss this context for the play.
2) What is your working thesis statement?
3) What information do you want to find in your sources that will help support your thesis? (For instance, if you’re writing about the civil rights question, you would likely look up sources that corroborate the key tenets of the civil rights movement with the key ideas about racism and the need for civil rights in Hansberry’s play–which, note, was written before the civil rights movement started).