Many Times, Playwrights Use Historical and Cultural Events as the Basis

Essay

Many times, playwrights use historical and cultural events as the basis for their plays. Discuss how the playwright's personal viewpoint might affect the way he or she presents the story. For instance, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during the McCarthy era, when he and many of his friends were being accused of being communist sympathizers. LeRoi Jones wrote about race relations in Dutchman, Larry Kramer about the advent of the AIDS crisis in New York City in The Normal Heart, David Henry Hwang asks what race really means in Yellow Face, and Lorraine Hansberry wrote about the aspirations of the Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun. How do the playwright's personal viewpoints appear in their plays?