Struggle for Black Identity: A Foucauldian Reading of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Abstract

This research paper examines the mode of African Americans' struggle for their identity during the 1950s from the theoretical perspective developed by Michel Foucault on the subject of power and identity. For this, it has selected A Raisin in the Sun as a primary text. It argues that African Americans faced two major challenges in the 1950s: assimilation and identity choices. During the decade African Americans started to protest against racial discrimination through the Black Civil Rights movement and the Black Power movement. As part of these movements, African Americans rejected to accept the white power structure’s rationalization for the continued treatment of Blacks as inferior. Black people endeavored to define their identity through various aspects like having their own home, perusing education, owning their own business, and so on. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry the character Beneatha shows her social attitude and cultural practices. She shows her pride in one’s African heritage and tries to stand up and fight for her own identity. Searching for their identity is more challenging for African Americans because they are often discriminated. On the other hand, another character George Murchison shows his anti-social behavior in his own Black culture and his assimilation attitude in the dominant White culture. He is educated but an obnoxious self-hearted person who has no respect for any of the accomplishments of the Black people. Socially, politically and economically the black families try to establish the fact that they are so much capable of uplifting their social and economic status as white are. Keywords: Racism, Double Consciousness, Identity, Black Civil Rights Movement