Raisin In The Sun Analytical Essay

This semester, we have spent a large portion of our time focusing on essays, poems and fiction relating to the Black Power and Black Arts movements starting in the 1960s. The first and only play we read together as a class was A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, but because I am already a drama major, this is a text I had already had the pleasure of reading and thoroughly analyzing in my theatrical training. This work was clearly a defining text in the Black Arts Movement, as this play was the first written by a Black woman and directed by a Black director to premiere on Broadway, however, there are even more artists who help define the Black experience in America that we did not have the opportunity to read during this class. One area …show more content…
One of those influential artists was Ntozake Shange. Despite being an important catalyst in Black culture, playwrights during the Black Arts Movement were overwhelmingly male and because of this their works could occasionally feature sexism and misogyny. Shange’s most famous play is, without a doubt, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf, which first opened on Broadway in 1976. This was just the second play to perform on Broadway that was written by a black women, the first one being Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. The unique work features seven unnamed women, identified by the colors they are wearing, telling stories of oppression through monologues, dances and music as a “choreopoem”. Shange was able to combine events from her real life to create the inspiring story of hope and sisterhood even in the face of the struggles felt by African-American women. The seven unnamed women eventually come together at the end of the play to form a circle and symbolize the unity they have in sharing their stories with one another. “i found god in myself & i loved her/ i loved her fiercely/ & this is for colored girls who have considered suicide/ but are movin to the ends of their own rainbows” (Shange, 25 –

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A Raisin In The Sun Analytical Essay