A Raisin In The Sun and Sonny’s Blues

A Raisin In The Sun and Sonnys Blues A Raisin in the Sun, authored by Lorraine Hansberry and Sonny’s Blues, authored by James Baldwin are two masterpieces that have an array of comparisons and contrasts. Lorraine Hansberry’s play is a depiction of an African American family, the Youngers living in a racially segregated neighborhood. Although the family lives together, conflicts arise on what to do with the $10000 insurance policy money paid after the death of the Mama’s husband. Each member has different aspirations and the story focuses on how the family uses the money and integrates their individual dreams to fit the family. On the other hand, Sonny’s Blues is a depiction of the struggles two brothers face in segregated Harlem. It is about Sonny and his brother the narrator, both who are living separate lives after the death of their parents. After the narrator loses his daughter to Polio, he remembers the promise he made to his mother of taking care of Sonny and he decides to try to fulfi ll this promise and try to get Sonny back to normal life after drugs nearly destroy him. Each story depicts the lives of African American families in a time of racial injustice. Both families encounter obstacles during their quest to move forward to find happiness. In her journal, Lipari points out that the setting of A Raisin in the Sun, was at a time when the â€Å"fundamental structures of political, social and economic oppression of African Amewricans were in the foreground of public life† (Lipari, 97). This journal points out that during this period African American families’ encountered obstacle in economic, social and political in trying to make it in life and finding happiness. Likewise, Martinez comment regarding racism in Sonny’s Blues is a phenomenon having â€Å"festered and thrived in American unconscious psyche while it has been and continues to be acted out in myriad forms of injustice in the society† (Martinez, 1). This clearly illustrates that families in Harlem faced numerous challenges especially with the issue of racial segregation and injustice. He points out that Baldwin â€Å"claims that the narrator’s and Sonny’s lives are representative of the collective suffering of racism experienced by young black males growing up in the Harlem of mid-twentieth-century America† (Martinez, 2). In both stories, a common theme that stands out is that of racial segregation and injustices. In Hansberry’s story, racial segregation reveals its ugly head when Mr. Linder attempts to persuade the Younger family from moving to their new home, mostly inhabited by whites. He even attempts to pay them off to keep them from moving in the mostly white neighborhood. This action is nearly successful since Walter is willing to accept the bribe but Mama stands her ground and at last thy move to their new home. Likewise, in Sonny’s blues, racial issues and injustices are prevalent in the community and the au thor effectively uses recurring images of darkness to bring to light these themes. Sonny and his brother lived in a predominantly black neighborhood and even their father gave up trying to move them away from Harlem, â€Å"Safe! My father grunted, whenever Mama suggested trying to move to a neighborhood which might be safer for children† (Feinstein and Rife, 26). The narrator who is a teacher also illustrates how racial issues and segregation were part of Harlem by describing the students he taught, â€Å"All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them and the darkness of movies which had blinded them to that other darkness† (Feinstein and Rife, 26). Both stories highlight the hopelessness that existed in these racially segregated neighborhoods in both stories where whites had opportunities in contrast to blacks who had to endure difficult situations.