Culture And Identity Of The Sun By Lorraine Hasberry,...

Deeply driven by our sense of self, humans place a fundamental importance on creating and preserving individual identity. Comprised of many aspects, such as age, cultural beliefs, equality, gender, race, social class, etc., identity can be defined as â€Å"the qualities or beliefs that make one person or group different from others (www.websters.com).† In exploring Culture and Identity in the literary works, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hasberry, Everyday Use by Alice Walker and Etheridge Knight’s A Poem for Myself, several outside forces can be found shaping the identity of the respective characters. The most recurrent theme found among the aforementioned works was the impact racial divide made on their identity and how they have either evolved or failed to evolve as a result. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, explores the impact ones’ race has on the plausibility of realizing their dreams. Hansberry gives us the Younger family living in an overcrowded, run-down apartment in South Side Chicago; a notoriously poor, black area. The matriarch of the Younger family has purchased a new home in pursuit of her dream for a better life for her family. They were on the verge of moving into an all-white working class neighborhood during a time when racism was still very prevalent and many African-Americans were rejecting the assimilation ideals of Booker T. Washington and exploring their racial identity Throughout A Raisin In the Sun, the attitude of key characters towards