A Raisin and the Sun and a House on Mango street, comparative essay.

Essay by cdmakenoiseHigh School, 10th gradeB, December 2013

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Lee

Theme shared by "Raisin in the Sun" and The House on Mango Street

The play "Raisin in the Sun" was written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959. Over twenty years later Sandra Cisneros wrote the novella The House on Mango Street. "Raisin in the Sun" is written in a style portraying realistic speech and the reality of the way characters express their feelings. Whereas in The House on Mango Street, the style is very poetic and often uses figurative language to describe the character's feelings. Although "Raisin in the Sun" and The House on Mango Street are two distinct pieces of literature, a theme they both share is that struggles faced as a minority influences the character's dreams.

Dreams being influenced by struggles from being a minority can be seen as Ruth from "Raisin in the Sun" talks of Walter Lee's dreams, Ruth says, "Walter Lee say colored people ain't never going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on some different kinds of the things in the world- investments and things"(Hansberry 450).

Walter Lee believes that if colored people want to succeed then they must risk and put forth the effort. Most black people were seen as minorities and people of low to middle class. Since the family has been struggling with poverty, Walter Lee feels that he must begin a business to succeed, in order to get out of the low class society. From the stereotype that colored people don't get ahead, he wants to break that stereotype, and prove that colored people could also achieve success.

Following from Walter Lee's dreams, Esperanza, the main character from The House on Mango Street, also has dreams that are influenced from the struggles that she faces...