Similarities Between A Raisin In The Sun And Clybourne Park

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Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park explore themes of gentrification, race relations, and the American dream in a variety of ways. The two plays share a particular emphasis in highlighting the lack of understanding the characters have of others, demonstrated not only by the characters’ failure to communicate with each other, but also by their failure to understand one another’s goals and motivations. By displaying the communication issues and misunderstandings among the characters, Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Norris’ Clybourne Park indicate the fundamental conflict and division present among communities. Throughout Clybourne Park and A Raisin in the Sun, the lack of communication among characters ultimately…show more content…
In particular, though many of the characters uncompromisingly assert their beliefs and ideas to others, they often fail to genuinely listen to the thoughts of others. Clybourne Park especially highlights this theme of poor communication, with Russ frequently failing to listen by simply insulting others and avoiding communication. For example, when Jim begins to repeatedly question Russ about his son, Kenneth, Russ ultimately responds by saying, “what I think I might have to do is…politely ask you to uh…well, to go fuck yourself”, and subsequently attempts to leave the scene by going upstairs (Norris 19). Though Bev eventually stops Russ from leaving the scene, when the three characters begin talking again about Kenneth, and Jim mentions his military service, Russ insults him, commenting “Sat behind a desk, didn’tcha? Goddamn coward” (20). Again, Russ attempts leaving by going upstairs, but this time succeeds. Throughout the entire play, Russ seems to avoid discussing Kenneth by
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    The 1959 play “A Raisin In The Sun” written by Lorraine Hansberry and the 1961 movie “A Raisin In The Sun” also written by Lorraine Hansberry and directed by Daniel Petrie are similar and different in many ways. Both begin with an introduction of the Youngers, an African-American family of five living in a crowded rundown apartment in Chicago sometime between World War II and 1959. As a result of the recent death of Mr. Younger, a life insurance check for $10,000 is on its way to his wife Lena Younger

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