Quest for Afro-American Cultural Identity in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun

Abstract

In this research, an attempt has been made to analyze the characters’ quest for Afro-American cultural identity in Lorraine Hansherry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. After having studied the text, I’ve tried to expose the Afro-American cultural identity in the play. The protagonist, Walter Lee Younger searches for his cultural identity. Similary, Beneath, his sister alwary talks of the African cultural heritage. She prefers African language, music, robes and even her African suitor Asagai explicitly prefers her own unique to the white culture. There is always clash between the white culture and the black culture in the novel. Despite such difficulties, the characters try their best to fight against such dominating culture and keep their own African culture in existence. Thus, their quest for the ancestral history and cultural identity is the main idea, i.e. thesis of the novel, which has ben explored in this research paper.