In 1903, W.E.B Du Bois, an African-American writer and activist said, “The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife…He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American...” Du Bois is describing a part of the African-American’s battle for freedom which takes place throughout most of the twentieth century. Throughout the poem, “Let America Be America Again,” Langston Hughes colorfully depicts the lack of freedom for black Americans in the land of the free. These same themes are explored yet again in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun published 30 years after Hughes’ poem. In both “Let America Be America Again” and A Raisin In The Sun the trials, history, and inequalities black Americans
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While wallowing in his frustration over failing to escape poverty, Walter reveals his resentment that he works hard at his job and still cannot provide his son with a bed or his own room. He later confesses how upsetting it is to him that he cannot get ahead and that he is always “tooken” (Hansberry 141). In a fit of rage after he squandered away the family’s money, Walter declares that he has learned a valuable lesson from the conman who stole his money: the world is divided into two types of people the “takers” and the “tooken,” and it does not matter how you get the money as long as you are the one who ends up with it (Hansberry 141). Like Hughes says, all Walter can see is “the same old stupid plan.” This same old stupid plan that consists of getting money and losing it, of “the mighty crushing the weak,” and of oppressing of black men. Coupled with “Let America Be America Again,” A Raisin In The Sun clearly conveys the emotional toll racially fueled economic injustice can inflict on a …show more content…
Mama represents the resilience and strength of spirit African Americans possess. They were the first people, survivors of slavery, and the marchers on Washington. Her children, especially Walter, cannot understand the world Mama comes from. Although they know hardship and discrimination, neither Beneatha nor Walter can empathise with the desperation and despair of the world Mama grew up. She paints her old world for her son saying, “Once upon a time freedom used to be life now it's money… In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too . . .” (Hansberry 73, 74). She goes on to explain the dignity their family has kept through their tribulations: “Son I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers but ain't nobody in my family never let nobody pay 'em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn't fit to walk the earth” (Hansberry 143). The strength and dignity it takes for an entire culture to survive such horrors is more noble than any kingship. Mama is the quintessence of dignity, hope, and strength that Langston Hughes is referencing when he
While wallowing in his frustration over failing to escape poverty, Walter reveals his resentment that he works hard at his job and still cannot provide his son with a bed or his own room. He later confesses how upsetting it is to him that he cannot get ahead and that he is always “tooken” (Hansberry 141). In a fit of rage after he squandered away the family’s money, Walter declares that he has learned a valuable lesson from the conman who stole his money: the world is divided into two types of people the “takers” and the “tooken,” and it does not matter how you get the money as long as you are the one who ends up with it (Hansberry 141). Like Hughes says, all Walter can see is “the same old stupid plan.” This same old stupid plan that consists of getting money and losing it, of “the mighty crushing the weak,” and of oppressing of black men. Coupled with “Let America Be America Again,” A Raisin In The Sun clearly conveys the emotional toll racially fueled economic injustice can inflict on a …show more content…
Mama represents the resilience and strength of spirit African Americans possess. They were the first people, survivors of slavery, and the marchers on Washington. Her children, especially Walter, cannot understand the world Mama comes from. Although they know hardship and discrimination, neither Beneatha nor Walter can empathise with the desperation and despair of the world Mama grew up. She paints her old world for her son saying, “Once upon a time freedom used to be life now it's money… In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too . . .” (Hansberry 73, 74). She goes on to explain the dignity their family has kept through their tribulations: “Son I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers but ain't nobody in my family never let nobody pay 'em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn't fit to walk the earth” (Hansberry 143). The strength and dignity it takes for an entire culture to survive such horrors is more noble than any kingship. Mama is the quintessence of dignity, hope, and strength that Langston Hughes is referencing when he