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The play A Raisin In The Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry carries on the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance by centering the different characters' experiences during and after this period and departs from or extends beyond that tradition by describing their realistic struggles and the racial injustice that they experience every day.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun a person who carries on the idea of the Harlem Renaissance is Lena’s daughter-in-law Ruth Younger. She portrays the centering of their experiences as complex and nuanced individuals, not just basic stereotypes. She does this by the way she raises her son and how she makes sure her husband doesn’t do anything stupid. She is the person in her family who always makes sure to keep them on time and budget. Even though she does this for the benefit of her family she still doesn’t want her son Travis to miss out on things or different experiences because they are poor. She makes sure to keep her husband in check and to make sure he sees the reality of the seriousness of his investment. She does so by making sure that he “Eats his eggs and go to work”.
Another was that in the play A Raisin In The Sun Lena’s son Walter carries on the tradition of the Harlem Renaissance because he brings to light the confrontation of racial injustice. When Walter gets home after being out all night drinking to see if Lena had gotten those ten thousand dollars from his father's death he brings up the idea again of signing the papers for the liquor store he wanted to invest in. Lena right away shoots down his proposal because she doesn’t think that a liquor store is a way to make money. As Lena declines Wlater’s investment idea he begins to tell her how he feels, how he feels like there is no justice for dark folks.How being a servant is not a good job. Walter describes his job as a taunt to him because he drives around rich folks and he constantly sees how the rich live and how they work. He loves the idea of making million-dollar deals and sitting in big fancy restaurants but hates the fact that there is so much racial injustice that even if he would be successful in his liquor store business he would never be accepted in places like that due to all the racism.
Continuing the idea of the Harlem Renaissance being portrayed in the play A Raisin in the Sun another person who helps is Lena. She portrays the idea of the celebration of black culture. She does so by making sure the idea of God and his power is always stuck in her family's head. For example Bennie (Lena’s Daughter) one day begins to speak about how God has nothing to do with people’s accomplishments, that people do things on their own, and that the big old man in the sky just slaps his name on everything. Lena on the other hand makes sure to remind her daughter that she and her husband did not spend all those Sunday afternoons taking them to church and putting good values in their head for her to be talking like that.
Last but not least another way that the play A Raisin in the Sun portrays the idea of the Harlem Renaissance is by referencing other art forms as part of their lives. For instance, as Lena receives the check of Big Walter’s life insurance she starts reminiscing the beautiful moments she and her husband spent together. How even in the really bad times they always managed to be together. They always managed to “dance” to a specific record. What she meant by this was they would just hold each other slowly swaying listening to this record. This is one of the things that really reminds Lena of her husband and how much she misses him.
In conclusion, there are many different ways that the play A Raisin in the Sun continues to portray the idea of the Harlem Renaissance. These were just some specific scenes that stood out to me and helped portray me the characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance.
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