Practical Differences In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Characterization and Practical Differences between Plays and Films as in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun When a human is subjected to trying times, it does not take long for one’s true colors to show. It was Alabama governor Bob Riley who said, “Hard times don't create heroes. It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed”. In A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family is experiencing struggles of their own. While the play conveyed this heart-wrenching story to the masses when it first came out, it has reached an even wider audience in its time off the stage. While the 2008 film adaptation uses the play as the primary basis of its story, there are some key deviations in the way characters are portrayed that change the audience’s perception of the characters in meaningful ways. Both media revolve around the Younger family, African-American citizens who live in Chicago’s Southside sometime after World War II. Every member of the family, save the 10-year-old Travis and the college …show more content…
The play, while limited to where it could show the Youngers’ experiencing this hardship, manages to show these rich characters make it through trying times to an astounding reception. While the movie adds new locations and fleshes out the setting, it does so at the expense of several important elements of the characters Hansberry so carefully crafted. Neither perspective is better than the other, but both combined provide a better overall understanding of the lives the Youngers had to live, and as a result, audiences see more clearly into the terrible past African-Americans have experienced. As providing a public eye on discrimination was Hansberry’s intent with the play, this creative difference should be something she would have greatly