"Harlem Renaissance." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 424-426. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2012
This document, “Harlem Renaissance” from the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, discusses the age of the Harlem Renaissance and its enormous influence on the African American community and future generations. The document clearly explains the different types of social impacts that helped to create the Harlem Renaissance, such as African American empowerment, the Great Migration, and the NAACP. The author also explains how African Americans exceeded in areas of art such as theater, movies, and literature and even influenced future artists such as Pablo Picasso. The Harlem Renaissance got its name because the city of Harlem was nearly an all African American community and nearly all of the famous writers, playwrights, actors, and artists passed through Harlem and many were born there. This shows the magnificent impact that the Harlem Renaissance had on empowering the African American community in the United States and future generations.
This source was a very helpful piece of information that reveals an enormous amount about the time period that A Raisin in the Sun was set and created in. Being the first woman playwright to have a play on Broadway, Lorraine Hansberry must have been enormously influence by the Harlem Renaissance and she must have influence many other greats. This document explains a lot about how the Harlem Renaissance came about. The large migration of African Americans from rural to urban cities had a great deal to do with the empowerment African American felt and their new felt freedom to be creative and express themselves.
This passage, overall, is very helpful and reveals so much about A Raisin in the Sun and the setting it was created in. It shows a lot about the family, the Youngers, in the story, and helps in setting up the foundation to become knowledgeable of the play and everything it encompasses.
This short passage focuses on Brian Norman’s collection of essays about racial segregation- “Representing segregation: toward an aesthetics of living Jim Crow, and other forms of racial division.” The passage gives a brief review about how the collection respectively depicts the “graphics of segregation” and is an “eye-opening lesson to African-American history.” Despite this, however, the source is not very helpful in actually describing segregation and revealing about the time during the Harlem Renaissance. The source goes on to congratulate Brian Norman on how wonderful his collection of sixteen different essays was written and how it artistically depicts the time period. While the review is solid and helpful, it does not help by showing examples in the essays on how Norman showed these achievements. There are no real important details that can be taken from this passage other then the critics views on “Representing segregation: toward an aesthetics of living Jim Crow, and other forms of racial division” A more helpful source would in fact be the actual collection of essays. From what can be grasped from L.L Johnson’s review about “Representing segregations…” is that it goes into depth about how much African American suffered during the Jim Crow era and throughout history due to racial segregation. Raisin in the Sun is profoundly built on this foundation of racial segregation, and Brian Norman’s collection could possibly greatly strengthen the reader’s knowledge of the time period that Raisin in the Sun was written. Due to this, a better source to learn about the Harlem Renaissance, Jim Crow, and prejudice against African American would be the collection of essays this source reviews.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Locke, Alain. //"The New Negro."//World War I and the Jazz Age. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
This excerpt, written by Alain LeRoy Locke, shows how, through time, African Americans have become empowered, both mentally and physically, and developed a new sense of pride and respect for themselves as a whole. Alain Locke, who is famous for coining the phrase “New Negro,” for which this document is named after, tells of the strength and power that developed in the African American community during the twenties and how this advancement was derived from years of oppression, racial segregation, and mistreatment. This passage focuses mainly on how the African American people have risen from the bottom to become a new, more influential, group of people.
This piece of information is very insightful for the better understanding of the time period that Lorraine Hansberry wrote her play, A Raisin in the Sun. It carefully details the African American point of view, which is most important and is different for the other sources that have been chosen. This document shows how people like Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin of the Sun felt this new sense of empowerment that was quite scarce years before. African American began to feel that they too can accomplish their dreams and not have them deferred. They felt that, finally, the “American Dream” referred to them as well, and that they too could live comfortably and have families and not have to live in impoverished apartments where crime is high as well as the safety of their loved ones. It gave them, as a people, hope, and hope can go a long way.
Overall, this document was very helpful in assessing the situation and mental aspects of Lorraine Hansberry as she was writing A Raisin in the Sun. It reveals the mindset of the African American people during the Harlem Renaissance and the situations that they had to deal with and overcome as a race.
Alicia L. Moore’s and La Vonne I. Neal’s document on the lack of gifted programs for young, African American students is very moving. It uses Nina Simone’s song, titled “To be Young, Gifted, and Black,” in a very touching way that further emphasis the words that are being put down. The two writers tell of how the education system is failing young African Americans by not creating gifted programs that are good enough for a developing mind to feel a part of and continue to peruse. By doing this, the government is setting these children up to fail and not live up to their potential. “To be Young, Gifted, and Black” was dedicated to Lorraine Hansberry, the writer of A Raisin in the Sun, due to the fact that it was Hansberry’s unfinished work that was caused by her untimely death due to cancer.
This document does not necessarily help with the Harlem Renaissance that A Raisin in the Sun was written in, but it does give insight to the continuing of racial segregation by schooling that most believe does not exist. This passage does little to reveal the time period which A Raisin in the Sun was written, but it does reveal how much of an impact Lorraine Hansberry had on the African American community as the first African American women to have a play on Broadway. It reveals the hope and pride that can be created by the life of a person, even after their death.
The passage uses the lyrics of Nina Simone to show how even though the African American community is progressing and hardships such as racial segregation and mistreatment are getting better, there is still much more to be done. The passage gives insight on how the African American community is still being undermined by the white community and it is up to us, African Americans, to do what we need to do and help our children to become more knowledgeable and educated because education is power, and with education and knowledge no one can tell you that you are not as good as someone else.
This source focuses on theater productions and plays before Lorraine Hansberry’s time. Scholars researched and critiqued several “pre-Hansberry” plays and playwrights, such as The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, by William Wells Brown and Allison Hughes's The Trial of Dr. Beck. In the opening passage, the author, N. Graham Nesmith, states how Lorraine Hansberry opened up a new door for African American playwrights by, for the first time, makes drama critics take African American dramas seriously. Graham Nesmith explains how Lorraine Hansberry strongly believed that the African Americans whose plays were being brushed aside and taken for granted to receive the credit and respect they deserve and this critical essay written by Graham Nesmith and others focuses on these playwrights. Due to the fact that critics did not take African American plays seriously before Lorraine Hansberry, “[Graham Nesmith] asked several scholars and artists to talk about pre-Hansberry plays that they think deserve recognition. The results span nearly a century and a half.” This shows that for over a century, African Americans have not been given the credit they deserve, more than a century really, and this passage gives a tasteful analysis on those unaccredited people. While this source is interesting and gives a lot of insight on playwrights and plays before Lorraine Hansberry’s time, it does not do well in helping give information about Lorraine as a person, A Raisin in the Sun, or anything else helpful, even with helping in understanding the time period. The critical essay gives little, and nothing that I have not already read, about Lorraine Hansberry and A Raisin in the Sun. For these reasons, despite it being and interesting and insightful passage, the source is not very helpful, does not aid in learning about A Raisin in the Sun or the time period that surrounds it nor the playwright herself.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Piechocki, Valerie. "A Raisin In The Sun." Library Journal 136.11 (2011): 51. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Valerie Piechocki’s review over the narration of the play A Raisin in the Sun performed in 2011 does a decent job at critiquing the voice actors and informing its readers the details of why she found the voice actors to be loud and overzealous. Valerie Piechocki’s review opens up on a brief summary of the play as a whole, describing the basis of which the play was created on and how it is about an impoverished family who inherits a small fortune, but loses it due to a scam that Walter Lee convinces his mother to invest in. Piechocki continues to develop her review into the actual audiobook that she is actually reviewing, not the book itself, and calls the audio book “exceptional, but the dynamic of the cast as a whole is lacking.”
While this is an interesting review and somewhat explains the main plot of the play, it is not helpful in research about the actual play, A Raisin in the Sun. The main purpose of this review was on the audiobook of the play, not the play itself, and does not reveal any type of information that could not be available on the back of the book. Valerie Piechocki’s review would be more helpful and purposeful if she incorporated more of a review on the actual book. Valerie Piechocki honestly tells her readers what she liked and did not like about the audio book and that would have been a helpful tone if portrayed in a different way- with more focus on the play itself then the audio book.
For these reasons, this source of information, entitled “Raisin in the Sun” by Valerie Piechocki, is not a helpful source to refer to when looking for information on A Raisin in the Sun. It would be helpful, however, if one was looking to buy or download the audio book and wanted to listen to actors voices hear how the play was meant to sound.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Siegel, Naomi. //"Dreams, Now."// New York Times 19 Mar. 2006: 17(L). Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2012
The passage focuses on the analysis of Lorraine Hansberry’s biography written by Elizabeth Van Dyke. “Dreams, Now” compliments Van Dyke on her ability to capture Lorraine Hansberry through her writing and respectfully demonstrates the life and struggles she faced being an African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance. The author, Naomi Siegel, incorporated, in her article, a brief summary of the content in Elizabeth Van Dyke’s biography of Hansberry, Love to All, Lorraine.
This article is somewhat useful in the sense that it gives insight on Lorraine Hansberry, her life and what inspired her to write Raisin in the Sun. The article tells of brief events that are discussed in the full book, such as how her father was a civil rights activist and it how it cause him to be “cold [and] more concerned with making a political and social statement than with being close to [his] children.” This is a very interesting bit of information because it shows, though in a concise way, the subject of writing Lorraine Hansberry was influenced by and how this developed into what she wrote about in her play.
While this article is very insightful and does share an ephemeral beginning to Lorraine Hansberry’s life and full story, reading Love to All, Lorraine would be much more interesting and helpful. All this article really does is introduce its reader, most likely someone who reads book reviews, to the life of Hansberry enough for the reader to grow interested. The article itself is not of that much importance in terms of being helpful towards the Raisin in the Sun. Reading Elizabeth Van Dyke’s biography, however, would be very helpful in learning the foundation of Hansberry’s playwright career and how she gained the inspiration in her life to write such a moving piece of work.
Brianna Henry Wilder JR HON LA 27 March 2012
Weales, Gerald. //"Thoughts on //A Raisin in the Sun//."// Commentary 27.6 (June 1959): 527-530. Rpt. in Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens and Lynn M. Spampinato. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
Gerald Weales’s critical essay on the debate over whether or not the Broadway performance of A Raisin in the Sun deserved its New York Drama Critics’ Award in 1959 is truly an insightful and eye-opening source. Weales’s subtle hints of his own opinion, but blunt description of other critic’s thoughts are interesting and evoke thought on the writer as a person. He goes on to describe the play, comparing it to other plays such as The Crucible, A Touch of the Poet, Henderson the Rain King, and Giovanni’s Room, as well as sets up the argument on whether or not Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the award on fair grounds or just because she was an African American. The emphasis that Gerald Wealses pushed was the simple fact that African Americans are being judged based on their race rather than as the profession on which they exceed in. Weales compares her to Jackie Robinson, who was an extraordinary baseball player, but will be remembered not because he was good at baseball, but because he was an African American who was good at baseball. This is an interesting argument that critics have made and it helps to understand the time period the play deals with and what sort of people were Lorraine Hansberry’s audience.
Overall, this source did a very reasonable job in revealing to its readers a thorough and clarifying review on not just the written copy of A Raisin in the Sun, but also the stage performance on which the critical essay revolves around. It shows, in full detail, both sides of an argument that has been debated by theater critics and helps with better understanding of the play, brings to light key characters and situations that occur in the play, such as that Walter Lee wanted his mother to invest in a liquor store so they could become rich, but the money gets stolen.
The critical essay also does a wonderful job, having been written in the time the play was produced, at giving its reader a thorough understanding of the time period it existed in and how it relates to how people see African Americans solely based on their achievements as an African American, not a whole. This is a very interesting and insightful piece of information that has led to a better understanding of the time period and the story that Lorraine Hansberry has written. It takes a naturalistic story and turns it into a piece of history that defines and characterizes a large group of people, not just one family, and turns it into something timeless.
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
"Harlem Renaissance." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 424-426. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2012
This document, “Harlem Renaissance” from the International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, discusses the age of the Harlem Renaissance and its enormous influence on the African American community and future generations. The document clearly explains the different types of social impacts that helped to create the Harlem Renaissance, such as African American empowerment, the Great Migration, and the NAACP. The author also explains how African Americans exceeded in areas of art such as theater, movies, and literature and even influenced future artists such as Pablo Picasso. The Harlem Renaissance got its name because the city of Harlem was nearly an all African American community and nearly all of the famous writers, playwrights, actors, and artists passed through Harlem and many were born there. This shows the magnificent impact that the Harlem Renaissance had on empowering the African American community in the United States and future generations.
This source was a very helpful piece of information that reveals an enormous amount about the time period that A Raisin in the Sun was set and created in. Being the first woman playwright to have a play on Broadway, Lorraine Hansberry must have been enormously influence by the Harlem Renaissance and she must have influence many other greats. This document explains a lot about how the Harlem Renaissance came about. The large migration of African Americans from rural to urban cities had a great deal to do with the empowerment African American felt and their new felt freedom to be creative and express themselves.
This passage, overall, is very helpful and reveals so much about A Raisin in the Sun and the setting it was created in. It shows a lot about the family, the Youngers, in the story, and helps in setting up the foundation to become knowledgeable of the play and everything it encompasses.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Johnson, L.L. //"Representing segregation: toward an aesthetics of living Jim Crow, and other forms of racial division."// CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries Oct. 2010: 294. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
This short passage focuses on Brian Norman’s collection of essays about racial segregation- “Representing segregation: toward an aesthetics of living Jim Crow, and other forms of racial division.” The passage gives a brief review about how the collection respectively depicts the “graphics of segregation” and is an “eye-opening lesson to African-American history.” Despite this, however, the source is not very helpful in actually describing segregation and revealing about the time during the Harlem Renaissance. The source goes on to congratulate Brian Norman on how wonderful his collection of sixteen different essays was written and how it artistically depicts the time period. While the review is solid and helpful, it does not help by showing examples in the essays on how Norman showed these achievements. There are no real important details that can be taken from this passage other then the critics views on “Representing segregation: toward an aesthetics of living Jim Crow, and other forms of racial division”
A more helpful source would in fact be the actual collection of essays. From what can be grasped from L.L Johnson’s review about “Representing segregations…” is that it goes into depth about how much African American suffered during the Jim Crow era and throughout history due to racial segregation. Raisin in the Sun is profoundly built on this foundation of racial segregation, and Brian Norman’s collection could possibly greatly strengthen the reader’s knowledge of the time period that Raisin in the Sun was written. Due to this, a better source to learn about the Harlem Renaissance, Jim Crow, and prejudice against African American would be the collection of essays this source reviews.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Locke, Alain. //"The New Negro."//World War I and the Jazz Age. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
This excerpt, written by Alain LeRoy Locke, shows how, through time, African Americans have become empowered, both mentally and physically, and developed a new sense of pride and respect for themselves as a whole. Alain Locke, who is famous for coining the phrase “New Negro,” for which this document is named after, tells of the strength and power that developed in the African American community during the twenties and how this advancement was derived from years of oppression, racial segregation, and mistreatment. This passage focuses mainly on how the African American people have risen from the bottom to become a new, more influential, group of people.
This piece of information is very insightful for the better understanding of the time period that Lorraine Hansberry wrote her play, A Raisin in the Sun. It carefully details the African American point of view, which is most important and is different for the other sources that have been chosen. This document shows how people like Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin of the Sun felt this new sense of empowerment that was quite scarce years before. African American began to feel that they too can accomplish their dreams and not have them deferred. They felt that, finally, the “American Dream” referred to them as well, and that they too could live comfortably and have families and not have to live in impoverished apartments where crime is high as well as the safety of their loved ones. It gave them, as a people, hope, and hope can go a long way.
Overall, this document was very helpful in assessing the situation and mental aspects of Lorraine Hansberry as she was writing A Raisin in the Sun. It reveals the mindset of the African American people during the Harlem Renaissance and the situations that they had to deal with and overcome as a race.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Moore, Alicia L., and La Vonne I. Neal. //"Young, gifted, and black: keeping your soul intact."// Black History Bulletin 73.1 (2010): 4+. Gale World History In Context. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.
Alicia L. Moore’s and La Vonne I. Neal’s document on the lack of gifted programs for young, African American students is very moving. It uses Nina Simone’s song, titled “To be Young, Gifted, and Black,” in a very touching way that further emphasis the words that are being put down. The two writers tell of how the education system is failing young African Americans by not creating gifted programs that are good enough for a developing mind to feel a part of and continue to peruse. By doing this, the government is setting these children up to fail and not live up to their potential. “To be Young, Gifted, and Black” was dedicated to Lorraine Hansberry, the writer of A Raisin in the Sun, due to the fact that it was Hansberry’s unfinished work that was caused by her untimely death due to cancer.
This document does not necessarily help with the Harlem Renaissance that A Raisin in the Sun was written in, but it does give insight to the continuing of racial segregation by schooling that most believe does not exist. This passage does little to reveal the time period which A Raisin in the Sun was written, but it does reveal how much of an impact Lorraine Hansberry had on the African American community as the first African American women to have a play on Broadway. It reveals the hope and pride that can be created by the life of a person, even after their death.
The passage uses the lyrics of Nina Simone to show how even though the African American community is progressing and hardships such as racial segregation and mistreatment are getting better, there is still much more to be done. The passage gives insight on how the African American community is still being undermined by the white community and it is up to us, African Americans, to do what we need to do and help our children to become more knowledgeable and educated because education is power, and with education and knowledge no one can tell you that you are not as good as someone else.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Nesmith, N. Graham. "Out of obscurity: before A Raisin in the Sun, socially relevant black dramas worth revisiting." American Theatre Oct. 2004: 134+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
This source focuses on theater productions and plays before Lorraine Hansberry’s time. Scholars researched and critiqued several “pre-Hansberry” plays and playwrights, such as The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, by William Wells Brown and Allison Hughes's The Trial of Dr. Beck. In the opening passage, the author, N. Graham Nesmith, states how Lorraine Hansberry opened up a new door for African American playwrights by, for the first time, makes drama critics take African American dramas seriously. Graham Nesmith explains how Lorraine Hansberry strongly believed that the African Americans whose plays were being brushed aside and taken for granted to receive the credit and respect they deserve and this critical essay written by Graham Nesmith and others focuses on these playwrights. Due to the fact that critics did not take African American plays seriously before Lorraine Hansberry, “[Graham Nesmith] asked several scholars and artists to talk about pre-Hansberry plays that they think deserve recognition. The results span nearly a century and a half.” This shows that for over a century, African Americans have not been given the credit they deserve, more than a century really, and this passage gives a tasteful analysis on those unaccredited people.
While this source is interesting and gives a lot of insight on playwrights and plays before Lorraine Hansberry’s time, it does not do well in helping give information about Lorraine as a person, A Raisin in the Sun, or anything else helpful, even with helping in understanding the time period. The critical essay gives little, and nothing that I have not already read, about Lorraine Hansberry and A Raisin in the Sun. For these reasons, despite it being and interesting and insightful passage, the source is not very helpful, does not aid in learning about A Raisin in the Sun or the time period that surrounds it nor the playwright herself.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Piechocki, Valerie. "A Raisin In The Sun." Library Journal 136.11 (2011): 51. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
Valerie Piechocki’s review over the narration of the play A Raisin in the Sun performed in 2011 does a decent job at critiquing the voice actors and informing its readers the details of why she found the voice actors to be loud and overzealous. Valerie Piechocki’s review opens up on a brief summary of the play as a whole, describing the basis of which the play was created on and how it is about an impoverished family who inherits a small fortune, but loses it due to a scam that Walter Lee convinces his mother to invest in. Piechocki continues to develop her review into the actual audiobook that she is actually reviewing, not the book itself, and calls the audio book “exceptional, but the dynamic of the cast as a whole is lacking.”
While this is an interesting review and somewhat explains the main plot of the play, it is not helpful in research about the actual play, A Raisin in the Sun. The main purpose of this review was on the audiobook of the play, not the play itself, and does not reveal any type of information that could not be available on the back of the book. Valerie Piechocki’s review would be more helpful and purposeful if she incorporated more of a review on the actual book. Valerie Piechocki honestly tells her readers what she liked and did not like about the audio book and that would have been a helpful tone if portrayed in a different way- with more focus on the play itself then the audio book.
For these reasons, this source of information, entitled “Raisin in the Sun” by Valerie Piechocki, is not a helpful source to refer to when looking for information on A Raisin in the Sun. It would be helpful, however, if one was looking to buy or download the audio book and wanted to listen to actors voices hear how the play was meant to sound.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Siegel, Naomi. //"Dreams, Now."// New York Times 19 Mar. 2006: 17(L). Gale Biography In Context. Web. 14 Feb. 2012
The passage focuses on the analysis of Lorraine Hansberry’s biography written by Elizabeth Van Dyke. “Dreams, Now” compliments Van Dyke on her ability to capture Lorraine Hansberry through her writing and respectfully demonstrates the life and struggles she faced being an African American writer during the Harlem Renaissance. The author, Naomi Siegel, incorporated, in her article, a brief summary of the content in Elizabeth Van Dyke’s biography of Hansberry, Love to All, Lorraine.
This article is somewhat useful in the sense that it gives insight on Lorraine Hansberry, her life and what inspired her to write Raisin in the Sun. The article tells of brief events that are discussed in the full book, such as how her father was a civil rights activist and it how it cause him to be “cold [and] more concerned with making a political and social statement than with being close to [his] children.” This is a very interesting bit of information because it shows, though in a concise way, the subject of writing Lorraine Hansberry was influenced by and how this developed into what she wrote about in her play.
While this article is very insightful and does share an ephemeral beginning to Lorraine Hansberry’s life and full story, reading Love to All, Lorraine would be much more interesting and helpful. All this article really does is introduce its reader, most likely someone who reads book reviews, to the life of Hansberry enough for the reader to grow interested. The article itself is not of that much importance in terms of being helpful towards the Raisin in the Sun. Reading Elizabeth Van Dyke’s biography, however, would be very helpful in learning the foundation of Hansberry’s playwright career and how she gained the inspiration in her life to write such a moving piece of work.
Brianna Henry
Wilder
JR HON LA
27 March 2012
Weales, Gerald. //"Thoughts on //A Raisin in the Sun//."// Commentary 27.6 (June 1959): 527-530. Rpt. in Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens and Lynn M. Spampinato. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
Gerald Weales’s critical essay on the debate over whether or not the Broadway performance of A Raisin in the Sun deserved its New York Drama Critics’ Award in 1959 is truly an insightful and eye-opening source. Weales’s subtle hints of his own opinion, but blunt description of other critic’s thoughts are interesting and evoke thought on the writer as a person. He goes on to describe the play, comparing it to other plays such as The Crucible, A Touch of the Poet, Henderson the Rain King, and Giovanni’s Room, as well as sets up the argument on whether or not Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun won the award on fair grounds or just because she was an African American. The emphasis that Gerald Wealses pushed was the simple fact that African Americans are being judged based on their race rather than as the profession on which they exceed in. Weales compares her to Jackie Robinson, who was an extraordinary baseball player, but will be remembered not because he was good at baseball, but because he was an African American who was good at baseball. This is an interesting argument that critics have made and it helps to understand the time period the play deals with and what sort of people were Lorraine Hansberry’s audience.
Overall, this source did a very reasonable job in revealing to its readers a thorough and clarifying review on not just the written copy of A Raisin in the Sun, but also the stage performance on which the critical essay revolves around. It shows, in full detail, both sides of an argument that has been debated by theater critics and helps with better understanding of the play, brings to light key characters and situations that occur in the play, such as that Walter Lee wanted his mother to invest in a liquor store so they could become rich, but the money gets stolen.
The critical essay also does a wonderful job, having been written in the time the play was produced, at giving its reader a thorough understanding of the time period it existed in and how it relates to how people see African Americans solely based on their achievements as an African American, not a whole. This is a very interesting and insightful piece of information that has led to a better understanding of the time period and the story that Lorraine Hansberry has written. It takes a naturalistic story and turns it into a piece of history that defines and characterizes a large group of people, not just one family, and turns it into something timeless.