On Summer (1960). Summary and Description

Lorraine Hansberry drew on her life growing up in South Side Chicago as inspiration for much of her writing. “On Summer” is an autobiographical essay in which Hansberry reminisces about her childhood, recalling in particular her dislike of summer. She remembers waking from a nap in a dark, stifling room and feeling very hot as the root of her bias against the season. From that moment on, she harbored a dislike for all things summer, “the too- grainy texture of sand; the too-cold coldness of the various waters we constantly try to escape into, and the icky-perspiry feeling of bathing caps” (416).

Sections of this essay are included in To Be Young Gifted and Black, a compilation of selections of her plays, poetry, and writing. Assembled as a play by Robert Nemiroff, To Be Young Gifted and Black represents 20 episodes in Hansberry’s life. The play toured nationally and was also filmed for television. It inspired a song, of the same title, in 1969 by Nina Simone and Weldon Irvine, Jr. In 1971, Aretha Franklin used the song as the cover for her album “Young Gifted and Black.”

In “On Summer,” Hansberry recalls the urban summers of her youth—days full of street games and jump rope songs like “Mary Mack” and nights spent on screened-in porches. When nights were especially hot, she and her family would go to the park and sleep under the stars. It may have been there that she learned the art of storytelling. “Those were, of course, the best times of all because the grown-ups were invariably reminded of having been children in rural parts of the country and told the best stories then” (416-417).

Hansberry also describes a summer visit at age seven or eight to her elderly grandmother’s house in Tennessee. On the drive down, her mother told her and her siblings how her father had hidden from his master in the very Kentucky hills through which they drove. She recalls wondering about “masters” and what they might be like. She reminisces about meeting her aging grandmother, “She was born in slavery and had memories of it and they didn’t sound anything like Gone With the Wind” (417).

Despite these memories, it was not until she was an adult that Hansberry gained respect for summer. She met a cancer patient at a lodge in Maine whose tenacity, courage, and fighting spirit she very much admired. In speaking of her, she could be describing herself: “She had also been of [the] radical viewpoint all her life; one of those people who energetically believe that the world can be changed and for the better and spend their lives doing just that” (418).

Hansberry found herself desperately wishing that the woman would live to see one more summer: “Through her eyes I finally gained the sense of what it might mean . . . the gift of another summer with its stark and intimate assertion of neither birth nor death but life at the apex; with the gentlest nights and, above all, the longest days” (419).

For Discussion or Writing
1. While “On Summer” is an autobiographical essay, Hansberry’s plays also contain biographical elements. Read “On Summer,” noting the many biographical details it supplies. Then read one of her plays. How does Hansberry use her own life in her dramas? With that in mind, write a well-developed essay on the relationship between history and fiction in the works of Lorraine Hansberry.

2. On the basis of what you know about Hansberry’s family life, why do you think that Hansberry was confused about who and what a master might be?

3. What is the effect of Hanberry’s colloquial language in the essay, such as icky-perspiry and artsily-craftsily? Does such language convey important aspects of Hansberry’s cultural experiences? Why or why not? With that in mind, why is it significant that Hansberry weaves such creative expressions in her analytical writings? What does this language suggest about Hansberry’s view of truth and understanding?

4. How do the abundant anecdotes and memories within the essay add to your understanding of the author’s childhood? How do they influence your understanding of her work as an adult?