Initial Read: 1/2-1/5/18

What a great way to start off the 2018 reading year! I read this for literary criticism and am so glad I did, because I don’t think I would’ve picked it up on my own.

A Raisin in the Sun has been called one of the “great American plays” and I can definitely see why. Hansberry’s characters are rich and compelling, and the topics of racism, class struggle, and familial relationships are persistent ones. Hansberry was definitely ahead of her time, in a way.

I think another thing that made this play so compelling to me was the parts in which the Youngers are attempting to move into Clybourne Park. When the white people in the neighborhood tried to pay them off for them to move, I felt so disgusted. However, these scenes resonated even deeper within me after having read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in Power, and specifically, the essay “The Case for Reparations,” in which Coates details government sponsored, systemic housing inequality. It was a fascinating essay and having that background going into this play gave that scene so much more intensity.