Reading Order
A Raisin in the Sun Reading Order
A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry is the first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, and the most performed American play about race, family, and the gap between the American Dream and what American society actually offers Black families. The Younger family — grandmother Lena (Mama), her son Walter Lee, his wife Ruth, their son Travis, and her daughter Beneatha — are waiting for a $10,000 life insurance check from Mama's late husband, and the play is organized around the conflict between their different dreams for what the money should do: Walter Lee wants to invest in a liquor store; Beneatha wants to use it for medical school; Mama wants to buy a house. The house she buys is in a white neighborhood, and the Clybourne Park Improvement Association sends Karl Lindner to offer them money not to move in. Hansberry takes the title from Langston Hughes's 'Harlem' ('What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun?') and the play is her answer: a dream deferred does not just dry up; it damages the people who are made to defer it.
Where to start
A Raisin in the Sun (1959) — the complete play, ideally in the restored version (2004) which includes scenes cut from the original 1959 production that make the play's political argument more explicit. Most editions include Hansberry's foreword; the Vintage Books edition is standard
Complete A Raisin in the Sun Book List
- 1Buy
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry·1959·The definitive American play about race and the gap between the American Dream and what American society actually offers Black families — the Younger family waiting for the life insurance check. The first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway; Hansberry was the youngest American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award - 2Buy
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller·1949·The companion in the tradition of the American family play about the Dream and its costs — Willy Loman's terrible final two days. A Raisin in the Sun and Death of a Salesman are companion investigations of the American Dream: both ask whether the Dream is a lie that the society tells individuals to maintain social order, but Hansberry's play makes explicit what Miller's leaves implicit — that the Dream's denial is not just individual but racial - 3Buy
Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill·1956·The companion in the tradition of the American family play about aspiration, constraint, and the complicated love between family members who need each other and damage each other simultaneously — the Tyrones' terrible day. Both A Raisin in the Sun and Long Day's Journey into Night are organized around families confined in small spaces whose dreams exceed what their circumstances can provide - 4Buy
Native Son
Richard Wright·1940·Wright's 1940 companion in the tradition of the African American literary investigation of the systemic denial of the American Dream — Bigger Thomas's story in Chicago. A Raisin in the Sun and Native Son are companion investigations of what America does to Black aspiration: Wright's is the tragedy of what happens to a young Black man when every legitimate outlet for his desire is denied; Hansberry's is the possibility of dignity maintained in the face of the same denial - 5Buy
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison·1952·Ellison's companion in the tradition of the great Black American novel about identity and visibility — the unnamed narrator's journey from the South through Harlem. A Raisin in the Sun and Invisible Man are companion investigations of the gap between the promise of Black inclusion in the American story and the reality of that inclusion: Ellison's narrator discovers that he is invisible to the white world; the Younger family discovers that the white world will pay them to remain invisible - 6Buy
The Color Purple
Alice Walker·1982·Walker's 1982 companion in the tradition of the literary investigation of the Black family under systemic oppression — Celie's letters to God and to her sister Nettie. A Raisin in the Sun and The Color Purple are companion investigations of Black aspiration and its costs, but where Hansberry's play focuses on the external constraints of racism, Walker's novel focuses on the internal constraints of gender and domestic violence - 7Buy
Clybourne Park
Bruce Norris·2010·Norris's 2010 companion play — the white Clybourne Park neighborhood's reaction in 1959 to the Younger family's impending arrival (Act One), and the same block in 2009 when a white couple buys and plans to renovate the now-Black neighborhood (Act Two). Clybourne Park won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2011 and is the most important theatrical response to A Raisin in the Sun: it extends Hansberry's play into the present by showing how the racial dynamics she diagnosed in 1959 have persisted and mutated across sixty years - 8Buy
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates·2015·Coates's 2015 companion in the tradition of the Black American letter — Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son about the realities of being Black in America. Between the World and Me and A Raisin in the Sun are companion investigations of what America offers Black Americans and what it actually delivers: Hansberry's play shows a family trying to claim what the Dream promises; Coates's letter shows what the Dream has looked like for the generations that followed
A Raisin in the Sun — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun?
The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun is specifically the dream of upward mobility through work, family, and homeownership — the same dream that Willy Loman pursues in Death of a Salesman, but with a crucial difference: the Younger family are Black, and in 1950s Chicago, the structural barriers to the Dream are not just individual (self-deception, misplaced priorities) but systemic and racist. The play shows the Dream working in both directions: Walter Lee's dream of the liquor store investment is partly a version of the Dream (independence, financial success) and partly a way of bypassing the racial barriers that prevent access to it; Mama's dream of a house represents the most traditional form of the Dream (homeownership as security and dignity); and Beneatha's dream of medical school represents the educational form of the Dream (merit as the path to success). The play asks which dream is most worth pursuing and whether any of them can be achieved in a society that the Karl Lindners of the world are organized to maintain.
Monthly Newsletter
Never miss a big release
Get the most anticipated upcoming books delivered to your inbox once a month — no spam, no filler.
Monthly only. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, BookReleaseRadar earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.