Review: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

[kderse]

In Lorraine Hansberry’s screenplay A Raisin in the Sun opens our eyes to see into the truth of an african americans life. In the play we see the life of a working class family living on the south side of Chicago.

I wouldn’t recommend this. I felt like the play was all over the place not location wise but story wise. Maybe if I saw the play in person I would have a different perspective but when it ended I found myself more confused then anything. Again, this was something I read for my 2015 reading challenge. This one was to complete reading A Play, which I had never done before and I do not think I will be doing again anytime soon.

Although I wouldn’t recommend this book, it wasn’t horrible. I wasn’t falling asleep but I wasn’t in awe either. I am used to reading novels where we see more depths in the characters and this was really missing for me. I wanted to see more depth and feeling in the characters. To be honest I finished this book a couple weeks ago and I had to skim through the book to write the review. The characters do not stick with you after you finish reading it. Is it just me or are a lot of books/plays you were made to read in high school like that?

One lesson or theme if you will, that I noticed in this play was the struggle to decide what was more important. Family or money? I believe this is a struggle we all face at one point in our life. Some face it earlier than others. In the play they struggle with many aspects of this. To have a baby when the can’t afford it and many other situations that I won’t say as I do not want to include any spoilers. Most of this play is this family arguing over money. This could be why I did not care for this book. Those of you know me personally know that I do not like discussing money. It puts me to sleep to be honest. Thankfully this book did not.

One thing I didn’t like in this play that it all took place in one room. How boring for the audience in my opinion. It makes for an affordable play to produce but not very entertaining.

Overall I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars.