A Raisin in the Sun in Never too Late to Read Classics

Nov 30, 2016 Jen from Quebec :0) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, school, reading-challenge-books, re-read, classics-i-ve-read, female-authors, favorites-life-changers

SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EVEN REMEMBERED! I feel like I have gone from feeling 'meh' about this title to completely falling in love with it during this re-read. What has happened to make me change my opinion so greatly?...Perhaps the fact is that I am now older and thus, better able to appreciate/absorb/understand this play more so than I did whilst reading it over a decade ago. OR, perhaps the difference in my opinion lays in the fact that this time, I *chose* to (re)read this title, instead of *h SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EVEN REMEMBERED! I feel like I have gone from feeling 'meh' about this title to completely falling in love with it during this re-read. What has happened to make me change my opinion so greatly?...Perhaps the fact is that I am now older and thus, better able to appreciate/absorb/understand this play more so than I did whilst reading it over a decade ago. OR, perhaps the difference in my opinion lays in the fact that this time, I *chose* to (re)read this title, instead of *having to read it* for a class. Or, perhaps I now understand that era of American history better than I did upon 1st reading (most of my history classes were about Canadian history until I got to university) and this led me to enjoy the social commentary of 1959's America that Hansberry provided...Anyways-no matter *which* factor influenced the newfound adoration I felt during my re-read, I don't care. I am just happy that I re-read this play, and (re)discovered a GEM of a story...as I said, this play is SO MUCH BETTER THAN I EVEN REMEMBERED!

Also- to the group here on the site that chose THIS as their 'play of the month' Group Read, I am in your debt. This one is bumped up to 5 stars. It is not only a great STORY in general, but as you're reading, you can SEE how it would be a great PLAY, as well. That's a good playwright right there, I think.

Plus, with only 5 characters, (well-not counting those who are not in every Act, like 'movers' or Bennie's 'boyfriends')-with 5 characters, Hansberry is able to portray SO MANY DIFFERENT Characters- even more so than these 5; but using only 5 to do it!

For example, 'Walter Lee' is many things, and actually has many different character traits- more so than I gave him for upon my first read. Also, I had forgotten how much 'Bennie' is 'the college student', 'the dreamer', 'the fair maiden with offers from men', 'the serious woman who wants to be a doctor in a time when females just ARE NOT doctors', 'the sister', 'the aunt', 'the daughter', 'the revolutionary', 'the Black woman in her 20's', 'the educated Black woman', 'the atheist', 'the sister-in-law', 'the rebellious daughter', etc. At least, she embodies all of those things/characters to me. At the end of the play, I wanted to know more about HER story...

This play is both hopeful and hopeless, at the start as well as at the end. It is up to society to determine WHY. The Younger family's society is the south side of Chicago in 1959, which was-almost *shockingly*- NOT a great time nor place to be a working class Black family- even worse than I would have thought. Personally, I forget just how very long segregation (informal or formal) existed (exists!?) in the United States and it is books like these that help the world to NOT forget such histories.

Despite being a fictional play, it felt like realistic voyeurism, SUCH was the immediacy of the writing, (despite the 1959 slang, even.)

Highly readable and absolutely unforgettable. Go NOW: Read. This. Play. --Jen from Quebec :0) ...more

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May 25, 2020 Honey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: studied, 2020, colorful

I really, really enjoyed this play. I was reading Our World, the book of photographs taken by Molly Malone Cook (Mary Oliver's partner) and there were two candid pictures of young Lorraine Hansberry. It made me want to read her plays. I loved the bantering between Beneatha and Walter, brother and sister. I really loved Mama. The ending was perfection.
---the play mentions Mrs. Miniver twice and now I need to re-read that book for like the tenth time!--- ...more

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Aug 02, 2022 Jill rated it it was amazing

This was actually a reread for me because I have a Theatre degree and this is one of the great places of American Theatre and for good reason. This time around, I'm older and my experience helped me see this play in a deeper way than I did in my early 20s. The characters, the plot, the words are all excellent and worth reading many times. ...more

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