The cultural message Hansberry desired to convey through her work was heavily influenced by the person and the works of W. E. B. Dubois. According to Sheri Parks, he was a frequent visitor to the Hansberry family home, and Lorraine actually later studied African culture and philosophy under him.
The influence of Du Bois is most evident in Raisin in the concepts of double and merged consciousness. In a state of double consciousness, one attempts to adopt the consciousness of the ruling people, whereas in a state of merged consciousness, one successfully mixes one’c cultural history and one’s present situation to acheive self-realization.
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others…One ever feels his twoness,–an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (Du Bois).
Double consciuosness can be observed in Hansberry’s play through George Murchison, for example. He is ready and willing to assimilate into the white business world, without trying to maintain his own Negro culture or background. He is trying to become a part of the white man’s world.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,–this longing…to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America…He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism…He simply wishes to make it possible fr a man to be both a Negro and an American” (Du Bois).
An example of merged consciousness in Raisin is the character of Asagai, who rejects integratin and defends Black nationalism. He is proud of his culture and strives to maintain it in his life, rather than change who he is to become a part of white society.
It is evident that Hansberry’s characters and work were influenced by the writings of Du Bois, and that her cultural message was strengthened by the incorporation of social criticisms of the time.
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Laughlin, Karen and Schuler, Catherine, ed. Theatre and Feminist Aesthetics. London: Associated University Presses, 1995.
-Maddie Sokal
