What was the writing style of the author in A Raisin in the Sun?

Because A Raisin in the Sun is a live
play, Lorrainne Hansberry uses multiple writing styles, depending on her characters and
settings.  Overall, she uses oral/aural rhetorical conventions to appeals to her actors'
voices and her audiences' ears.  She blends everyday speech with elevated language to
show both the frustration and pathos of urban civil rights era daily
life.

Mama's style is full of symbolism as she references
her domestic life (the plant is a major symbol here).  She also makes allusions to
Booker T. Washington and the Bible.  Most interestingly, she speaks to herself a lot,
almost as if her dead husband is still there.  Even though she is uneducated, her speech
is filled with reflection and wisdom.  Ruth's style is also filled with domestic
references, although she is much less reflective.

Walter's
style is more direct and macho.  He is more concerned with his own wants (to own his own
liquor store) and less about the memory of his father or his wife's pregnancy.  For most
of the play, his speech is that of a whining child; then, he finally finds his voice
when he proudly takes a stand against Mr.
Linder.

Beneatha's style is more outspoken, because she is
the only one who has gone to college.  She represents the burgeoning feminist and Black
Nationalist rhetoric of the civil rights era, even singing and dancing wildly.  In the
end, though, her style is mostly a mouthpiece for the movements that she idealizes and
not for the actions she takes.

Taken together, Hansberry
achieves an ensemble of diverse voices and styles, deftly blending them to comment on
Civil Rights, the American dream, and gender roles within a
family.