The ideas and images shown in the movie A Raisin in the Sun are still applicable to modern society.
There is always the conflict between ideal and reality; there are always people who struggled to achieve their dream who are constrained by all kinds of obstacles; there is still racism exists in society;
Different generations of people may come and go; the time and place may change, but the stage is always there and the drama remained and repeated.
Take China for example. The flood of African Americans from the south to North in the U.S. history is similar to the ongoing flood of farmers and workers from suburban areas of China to big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Others look them down upon not because of their skin color but their lack of education and low quality lifestyle. But the core is the same – discrimination. Due to the fast development of China, these people come to seek opportunities and a better life in the big city like Walter’s mother Lena once did when she was young. But once they arrived, they realize the reality is not as dreamy as they thought it would be. They end up doing low-tech jobs and earn little money. Live in small rentals with shared bathroom. Their living condition is no better than Walter’s family, sometimes even worse. And they are unlikely to change this situation in a very long time because not every family will get a large amount of insurance money over one night.
There’s a saying in China, that “if families are happy, they much be happy in a similar way; if families are unhappy, their struggles must be completely different.” I partly agree with this saying, I believe every family has its own struggle, but only at its surface it seems different, at the very core, these conflicts and struggles all come down to one simple thing – not getting what one wants in life.
A Raisin in the Sun detailed portraits Walter Young’s family’s struggles and conflicts. It seems personal that each and everyone in the family are struggling with different things. But I think what the movie depicted can applied to all families in the modern society. It’s the drama of desire not being fulfilled and how different people cope with this reality and make compromise along the way.
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