A Raisin In The Sun Critique Essay

A Raisin in the Sun

I have never even heard of the movie or play, A Raisin in the Sun. Yet, it was an excellent story about a believable familys story in the time period that it was in. I liked the newer version of the play with Sean Combs and Sanaa Lathan because it was more interesting for me to watch and get hooked into. I did watch a little bit of the older play version of this story but I liked the newer one even more. This is really a sad story but it really shows what real people and families went through financially and emotionally during that time, especially for being an African American citizen in a white community.

This story took place in the 1950s with an poor African American family. They live in a small apartment and even have to share a bathroom with their neighbors. They do not even all have their own rooms to sleep in. They are a family though and they do get through these hard times together even though it is very hard. Everyone in the family has a different dream and very little money to fulfill all of them. It is hard enough that their father and husband, died. He did leave them with the money but really the amount that was left was really not enough for everyone to do what they wanted to do with it. Mama wants to buy a home for her family to live in because that is what her husband had wanted. It was always her dream to have her own home. Walter wanted to open up a liquor store with an untrusting friend so that they could always have money in the future after investing in the business. Ruth became pregnant from her husband Walter, and feared that, that would cause even more of a burden on the familys money problems. Beneatha had dreams of being in the medical field and was going to use the money for her schools tuition.

I liked the plot of the movie because it was realistic and it is a classic. This is a meaningful story even to some people today, not only for the money reasons but because in some places, people are still treated differently because of their race. It is very difficult to overcome your dreams if you do not have the money to do it, or if you are being put down by your society. I disliked the fact that racial problems were a huge part of the story only because it is a very touchy subject to me personally. I am white with a biracial son and am friendly to all races. Yet, I do understand that this was in a completely different time period and a major part of the story, also a reality of the opinions of some people. So even though I do not like that part, I do appreciate and understand the purpose of using it, and do not disagree with that point that the author wanted to get across.

The plot was realistic because the backgrounds, clothes, beliefs, and lifestyles were all relevant to the time period of the story. The acting was believable for the most part, and I liked that they had known and popular actors in the newer version of it. I think that my favorite character would have to be Mama because she held the family together so well. She was a strong woman in the movie and loved her family very much. Her plant in the movie symbolized a lot of things in the movie. She cared for her plant and nurtured it throughout. I think that my least favorite character was Walter because he seemed selfish to me in a way. He did want to invest for the future of his family but he did not think things through better and lost the money that he was going to use. Another character that I did not like was the man that John Stamos played. In the older version of the play, the man that played that role was a little older. I wish that they would have put an older man in this movie as well. Also he was a bad man in the story.

I really would not change anything about the play except for the ending. I wish that it would have shown the final decisions of some of the characters, for example, if Beneatha followed her heart with that African man. I would recommend this play or movie to someone else because it has meaning. It is not just another movie. I learned the difference of peoples feelings about race between that time period and now. Prejudice is still around but it is not as common as back then. It is also a lot easier for minorities to fulfill their dreams and be more outspoken now then it was back then in those days.

References

A Raisin in the Sun. Dir. Kenny Leon. Perf. Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, Sanaa Lathan, Audra McDonald. Sony Pictures, 2008. DVD.