Challenging Slavery In Lorraine Hansberry’s The Drinking Gourd

Abstract

Many American writers have enriched world libraries with many novels, plays, and poems about slavery and the spirit of challenging. Writers like; Phillis Wheatley, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, and Hansberry, as they deal with the life circumstances and issues of African- American, who had suffered from their masters and White American in general. This study deals with Hansberry’s play Drinking Gourd, where the playwright refutes the superficial stereotypes of blacks as portrait by whites. The present study analyzes and discusses slave and racism. The Drinking Gourd’s main character, a black slave Hannibal, is characterized by a rebellious spirit against the injustice of slavery practiced by white Americans against black slaves such as the denial of the most basic human rights, including the right to learn reading and writing. Hansburry was known for her spirit of defiance and rebellion against oppression and racism. This study sheds light on the enslavement of black people. It follows an analytical- descriptive approach, as the researcher believes that this approach is suitable for the analysis of the characters, setting and theme of challenging the slavery in the play. Therefore, the researcher chooses some related extracts of the characters in the play. She also takes the related views of other writers in order to prove her claim.  One of the findings is that the protagonist successfully escaped from the tyranny of his master in spite of his blindness.