ENGLISH 1302 1
Robert Parrish
Arch Mayfield
English 1302
May 13, 2017
“The Exemplification of Folklore” in Lorraine Hansberry’s
“A Raisin in the Sun”
Before we delve into why “A Raisin in the Sun” was such cultural icon in its own right, we
must first ask ourselves, what is folklore? The American Folklore Society says, “Folklore is the
traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through oral
communication and behavioral example”(AFS, par. 1). All cultures and groups of people on Earth
have their own sense of identity and with that comes their own unique blend of folk traditions,
which encompass the things they do, think, and say (AFS, par. 1). “The term “folklore” was first
coined by William J. Thoms in 1846”. Thoms, a British antiquarian, wanted a simple term to
replace various phrases floating around to discuss the same concept; phrases such as “popular
antiquities”, “the lore of the people”, and “the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads,
proverbs etc, of the olden times” (AF, par. 2). “A Raisin in the Sun” brings out these various
cultural identifiers with its vivid description of the societal struggles of an African-American family.
Lorraine Hansberry does a magnificent job of painting picture of life under the pressures of racism
and prejudice and how it affects the Younger family’s dreams.
To begin, the author gives us a visual scene of the living conditions of the Younger’s. “The
furnishings of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope—and brought to
this apartment and arranged with taste and pride” (1458). Even though the passage goes on to
describe the apartment as currently dilapidated, with all of the once nice furnishings now covered
in linens and various other things, there is still that small hope beneath the surface (1458). That
hope lies squarely in each person of the family. They are all unique in their own right. They all
have their own version of “the American dream”. What is interesting is that none of their dreams
are confined to their race. Walter’s ambition clearly outweighs his moral fortitude, but we see him
as a man that just wants to be bigger in life and provide the most he can for his family. “This
morning, I was lookin’ in the mirror and thinking about it…I’m thirty-five years old; I been married
eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room—and all I got to give him is stories about
how rich white people live…” (1463).
Throughout the play, we find many examples of folkish sayings and allusions to their plight.
“Big Walter used to say, he’s get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water
standing in his eyes and say, “Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but
dreams—but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile” (1469). The way the
author has Mama describing Walter tearing up or crying, gives us a glimpse into, not only the way
they spoke, but also the level of education predominate of the black community back then.
This excerpt from William A. Wilson’s “The Deeper Necessity: Folklore and the
Humanities”, describes the setting when everyone in the house is getting concerned with what
Mama is going to do with the insurance money, “Surely no other discipline is more concerned with
linking us to the cultural heritage from the past than is folklore; no other discipline is more
concerned with revealing the interrelationships of different cultural expressions than is folklore;
and no other discipline is so concerned …with discovering what it is to be human. It is this attempt
to discover the basis of our common humanity, the imperatives of our human existence, that puts
