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...yelling out ^Hot Damn!^ ^Flaming Spear!^ as Beneatha walks out in her Nigerian robes (Cheney 60). Africa becomes a symbol of heritage and a troublesome but hopeful future (Cheney 56). With the help of Paul Robeson, W.E.B Dubois and Frederick Douglass she created the play A Raisin in the Sun. Paul Robeson was a famous baritone singer. He inspired her to write A Raisin in the Sun. She loved his voice and the songs he sang. Hansberry learned from him ^...the way that most blacks lived, and the dangers of being an artist^ (Cheney 45-46). W.E.B Dubois was an original thinker and a sociologist. Hansberry ^...gained admiration for black intellectual, socialism, and black leadership^ (Cheney 40). Frederick Douglass was a another writer. Hansberry learned about slavery and its psychology. She also learned a ^...invaluable lesson that the sufferings of a people may be presented truthfully in ways that rise above propaganda to the level of art^ (Cheney 36-37). A Raisin in the Sun is a very interesting play about the Younger^s, a family that lives in the Chicago south side ghetto. The characters in the play are Ruth her husband Walter, their son Travis, also Beneatha and Lena. The family is poor and very much so hopeless in finding a new home. Lena is lucky though she found a very nice home in Clyborne Park in a white neighborhood. In the beginning of the play the family is waiting for a 10,000 dollar check. Each family member has there own thoughts on what they should do with the money. Lena wants a new home and so she could support the family, Walter wants to invest the money in a liquor store, and Beneatha wants the money so she could pay for medical school. According to Lorraine Hansberry, Joseph Asagai was her favorite character to create. He is a Nigerian student who is Beneatha^s confidant. Mama is a very good example of a black matriarch trying to keep her family in line. Mama is a very religious women. She is up set and smacks Beneatha when Beneatha tells her that she does not believe in God. Mama tells her that if she lives in her house she must believe in God. Henry Hewes opinion was that ^the play contained dramaturgical implications which were brought out by Walter^ (Hewes 212). Theophilus Lewis notion was ^the drama had a great sense of spiritual conflict in the area of Walter Younger^s soul with an obbligato of social awareness^ (Lewis 216). According to James Baldwin he thought this play was ^excellent and never before in the entire history of the American theater had so much of the truth of Black peoples lives been on stage^ (Baldwin 55). Many critics thought that the characters had most to do with the play an how the play was perceived. Jordan Y. Miller thought ^A Raisin in the Sun is one of the greatly enhanced by well ordered revelation of the events which are so important in the lives of the characters^ (Miller). Also Lorraine Hansberry kept our interest by developing the characters through out the play. The characters are people who collaborated with other people and confronting there confusion and anger. Gerald Weales thought the play was old fashion and had almost no serious playwright. However he thought ^the plays strength lied in the characters and the problem of Walter Lee^ (Weales). If the play was to be written differently it would have had no real significant meaning. Amari Baraka another dramatist ^liked the play and thought that the characters ha...

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