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Amna Kazmi

Ms. Jaweria Farooqi

New Approach to Literary theories

30 September 2019

A Raisin in the Sun and Marxist Theory

Keywords: Marxism, Proletariats, Capitalists, Discrimination, Concept of Class levels and

Ideology

Racism is a major social and cultural problem in which blacks are marginalized, suppressed

and discriminated based on their skin color. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry lifts the

crisis that black people faced to achieve a social position. In her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, she

brought local individual struggles of African Americans against segregation, ghettoization and

capitalist exploitation to the national stage. This short play tells us another story of rejection by

capitalists of society. Proletariats work as the labor to the American people or bourgeois. They get

minorities, and the Native American inhabitant people being conqueror.

Marxist theory views that the social structure determines how an individual has to work.

These social structures develop its functionality according to the capitalist's needs. Capitalist feels

insecure when a proletarian tries to reach their status. For capitalists, proletarians are their property.

The drawbacks of society have effected many young minds. As a young playwright, Lorraine

Hansberry shaped her aesthetic practices to respond to the urban segregation her family had fought
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for so long and amid in Cold War, Jim Crow laws, the capitalist systems, industrial revolution and

institutions from which segregation grew.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In the field of literature, several researchers have already used Lorrain Hansberry's A Raisin

in the Sun as the subject of the research. This research presents four researchers that use

Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun as their primary source. There is a researcher who studies on A

Raisin in the Sun with the entitled The Ideas of American Dream as the Main Character's Motive of

Life. It was written by Danita Irianti Malute (2008: Sanata Dharma University). This study focuses

on the ideas of the American dream that characters struggle to achieve. The result of this study is

that African American people have a dream to get a better life. His dream is of a better life not only

for himself but also for his family.

In Ultimo's Racism and Women Liberation in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun

(2003). In his research, he tries to reveal the practice of racism and sexism and the impact of those

as portrayed in the play. In analyzing the play, he uses the socio-culture historical approach as the

theory.

Firdaus is third researcher and Firdaus' The Guidance of a Mother in Achieving the

American Dream of the Main Characters in A Raisin in the Sun Movie (2012). In his research, he

focuses on the role of Lena Younger as the mother and the main character in achieving her dream.

In analyzing the character, he uses the psychology of literature as the theory approach.

The last research that I study is Rizal's The Younger Family as the Victim of Racial

Discrimination in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. He focuses on the aspects of racism
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that is appeared in the play and the result that is caused by racism as seen in the play. I will study

how racial discrimination and class conflict are reflected in A Raisin in the Sun especially from the

Marxist point of view so my work is different from others as I am using Marxist theory.

I would like to analyze the racial discrimination and class conflict by the Marxist

perspective in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. My primary source is the play A Raisin

in the Sun. I will employ Karl Marx's system of thoughts to analyze this work qualitatively. I will

use journals, books, articles and other web sources as my secondary sources.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN FROM MARXIST PERSPECTIVE

According to Karl Marx's theories, class conflict arises due to the ongoing contradictions

between the proletariat and the bourgeois (Marx 148-232). In this play, Lorraine Hansberry

attempts to shed light on some of the major class conflicts. A Raisin in the Sun play tells about the

conflict of African American families with the black ghetto with their racism. They seek a better

life by moving into a new house that happens to be located in the white family community. Whites

are getting benefits from the force of blacks and by their work production that shows the economic

aspect of Marxism. From this economic aspect of Marxism comes the idea of alienation. The

proletariats are servants of bourgeoisies so they are not only alienated by the price of their work but

also by themselves. They have to sell their work so they become nothing more than a ‘commodity'

of the bourgeoisie. The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the ‘color line’ (Du Bois

41). The color line is the race line that causes suffering. Blacks are helpless and powerless. They

are at the margins of discriminated society and are squeezed by constant humiliation.
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For Marx, the laborers or "reserve army of the proletariat" are marginalized to the level that

they lose their individuality too. This humiliation has effected the psychological conditions of

people. W. E Du Bios writes in his book The Soul of Black Folk,

For the first time' he sought to analyze the burden he bore upon his back, that

dead-weight of social degradation partially masked behind a half-named Negro

problem. He felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home, without land,

tools, or savings, he had entered into competition with rich, landed, skilled

neighbors. To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is

the very bottom of hardships. ( Du Bios 8)

Social theory of Marxism focuses on the importance of social relationships and symbolic

boundaries. These symbolic boundaries stop the proletariat from moving up. Blacks are also at the

bottom of society so the poor social conditions causes the sense of " insecurity" and distrust in

individual. Mama's distrust towards Walter's plan of business show her inferiority complex as for

her blacks cannot become business people.

Act I starts with strong evidence of the placement of this family into the bottom of the class

level; the low class. Ruth wakes her husband up by saying ‘ you better get up from there… Travis

(using the only bathroom in the building) be finished and Mr.Johnson 'll be in there, and you'll be

fussing and cussing 'round here like a mad man! And be late, too!". The bathroom is shared by

multiple families of building sheds light on the financial struggles these families are dealing with.

Furthermore, the economic condition of the family is shown by the dialogue between Ruth and

Travis.

Travis: we supposed to bring the fifty cents to school.

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Ruth: I ain't got fifty cents this morning.

Travis is required by his school to bring in fifty cents but the mother has nothing to give him. If we

consider the amount that he needs since the time this play was set in, it is alright to assume that the

funds required by Travis' school were not much and not having such petty change available shows

the tight budget this family. Although Walter gives money to his son, this point conflicts with the

upper and lower class. Not giving money to Travis shows Ruth's acceptance of the lower class and

Walter's dialogue regarding the situation shows his dream to move in upper class.

Every society has a superstructure that determines the primary factors of social relations.

Marxism names these superstructures as ideology and this ideology is a set of ideas that exist

almost in every culture. These ideas shape the thoughts of people so in simple words ideology is

how society thinks about itself ( Klages 128). Walter believes that growing up thinking you are

middle-class could somehow make you belong to the middle-class. This mentality, however, is not

shared by all family members. Mama, for example, believes that Walter's dreams about becoming a

businessman is not something meant for people of their class. As at a point, Mama says that they

are no business people. Her ideology about class shows another Marxist ideology. For Marx,

ideologies presented in a capitalist society will explain, justify and support the capitalist mode of

production. In an article "Somewhat like War": The Aesthetics of Segregation, Black Liberation,

and "A Raisin in the Sun" Michelle Gordon states,

Weighing the dangers of the ghetto against those posed by anti-black terrorism,

Ruth determines that she will "scrub all the floors in America ... if I have to but

we got to MOVE! We got to get OUT OF HERE! (3.1). The imperative to

move refers to both the Younger family's physical departure from Chicago's
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ghetto and to what Hansberry saw as necessary mass movement to reconstruct

the social order. When Beneatha suggests that the "only" way to rid themselves

of the roaches and rats they battle in their apartment is to "Set fire to this

building," Hansberry rejects not only superficial remedies to inadequate

housing conditions, but any form of exceptionalism that allows only a small

percentage of black families to escape American ghettos". ( Michelle 127)

The concept that people should stick with their kind and their class is a concept widely

believed by not just upper-class people of those times but all other classes as well. This concept is

also brought back later in Act II when Mrs. Johnson visits the Youngers and exclaims: "I'm telling

you the Youngers is really getting ready to ‘move on up a little higher!' - Bless God!". The entire

dialogue is a bitter satire as if Youngers are going to do something that is supposed to be

impossible.This mentality is yet another reason why many families or individuals at that time did

not pursue methods of changing their economic situations or changing class. As the community can

be viewed as a microcosm of the larger socio-cultural milieu that existed in the American colony at

the time in terms of its racial composition (Barron 39). They were excluded from the process of

nationhood.

At another point in the play, the newspaper statement says "NEGROES INVADE

CLYBOURNE PARK - BOMBED!" (2.2.102). In this particular statement, the word ‘negro'

depicts the life value of blacks and their social position. Blacks are considered a big threat to the

capitalist society. As Marxism says class with the means of material production also controls

mental production so everything is in the hands of man as capitalist makes the rules of society and

these rules are for the interest of the bourgeoisie. Fanon Omer Frantz illustrated the same concept

in Black Skin, White Masks by writing man is what brings society into being. The prognosis is in
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the hand of those who are willing to get rid of the worm-eaten roots of the structure( Frantz 13).

One needs great force and power to get rid of the worn-out structure of society especially, if society

is materialistic one then it becomes more difficult to ‘raise'. Dr. C. N. Baby Maheswari & Dr.

Katyayani Sangam writes in their article Exploring the Struggle for Survival and Clashes of

Generation Gap and Racial Pride in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun,

The powerful people exercise their power over others and they do it

effortlessly, putting an end to the aspirations of powerless. The play also

touches … hardships of black lower middle class… the black panthers are

reality to be concerned about. ( Maheswari & Sangam 51)

The exercise of power can be seen at the end of the play where a white man comes to meet

Youngers and brings to focus the unease experienced by some people in the middle class when

lower-class people attempt to join their neighborhood. So, the proletariat is not allowed to attain

good social status even from the earnings of their labor work. It is clear evidence of the uneasy

feeling people get when changes around them occur that could impact their socioeconomic status.

Conclusion

Karl Marx believed that an individual's social class had dictated the individual's social life

so that different interests would inevitably cause class conflict and Lorraine Hansberry's play puts it

all in perspective and allows the readers to emphasis on a journey of self-discovery and

understanding of class conflict.

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Works Cited

Barron, Agnel. From Slave Ship To Citizenship: Re-Imagined Communities and The

Counterculture of Modernity in the Historical Novel of Slavery,2013.Web September 22,

2019.

Fanon, F. Black Skin, White Masks translated by Charles Lam Markman, Pluto Press,1986.Web.

September 22, 2019.

Gordon, Michelle. ‘Somewhat like War': The Aesthetics of Segregation, Black Liberation, and ‘A

Raisin in the Sun.'African American Review, vol. 42, no. 1, 2008, pp. 121–133. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/40301308. September 22, 2019

Klages M. Literary Theory: A Guide For The Perplexed , Continuum International Publishing

Group. 2006. September 29, 2019.

Maheswari, C.N. & Sangam, K. Exploring the Struggle for Survival and Clashes of

Generation Gap and Racial Pride in Lorraine Hansberry's ‘A Raisin in the Sun'.

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 2(1), 2014, 45-53.

September 22, 2019.