tyMarisa PollockMrs. MarkwoodEnglish IV AP24 February 2014AP Research Paper on Literature and CompositionAs Carl Schurz once said “From equality of rights comes the identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert the rights of your neighbor without dealing a dangerous blow to your own.” Of course, human self-esteem is tied to the idea of ​​what others think of us, and writers of this time emphasize the idea of ​​liberation from society's standards. In both the inspiring literary works “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry and “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, both authors illustrate how the lack of civil equality leads to self-discovery. First Comparison Similarity: Suffering across social divides and low social standards reveal what is truly important in life. Some people wouldn't really know what's important until they've suffered a lot. A dream is blinded by the thought of not being able to adapt it; during the civil rights era it is nearly impossible. In the late 1950s the play A Raisin in the Sun presents the solution to this problem. The Youngers are a working-class American family living on the South Side of Chicago. They spend their days in their tiny "mousetrap" of an apartment where the bleak future reflects the atmosphere and dying hope. This novel symbolizes the surrender of the human spirit to what the rest of black society has accepted as normal. The man of the house, Walter Younger, is your average idealist. Compared to his father "Big Walter", Walter Younger aims very high in hopes of earning a lot of money. Walter's mother, Lena Younger, sees the clear difference in value for her son's and her husband's motivation and tells her daughter-in-law how "Big Walter said he would... middle of paper..." .so don't support him. He feels alone, exhausted, trying to get his family to see things. As she kneels next to her mother, she states, “sometimes when I'm downtown and I pass those quiet, trendy restaurants where those white kids are sitting and talking about things. . . sitting there making deals worth millions of dollars. . . sometimes I see that kids don't look much older than me. (Hansberry 74-75). Hansberry presents the internal struggle of African Americans with each other and how they must eliminate their differences to advance in the realms of American society. To the extent that the work reveals racism, it “considers racism in the context of a particular family's dreams. Mom makes her decisions, in other words, based on love for her family rather than primarily on ideological opposition to segregation.” (Dominate 1).