+

Raisin in the Sun

Ms. E

+Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sun is the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway

Hansberry’s play illustrates black America’s struggle to gain equal access to opportunity and expression of cultural identity.

Background Info…

+ACT 1 Summary We meet a poor African-American family living on the

South Side of Chicago. There are five people living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment.

They are expecting a $10,000 life insurance check which can help their situation.

They all have different plans for the money: Lena wants to buy a house, Walter wants to invest in a

liquor store, and Beneatha wants it for medical school. Ruth faints at the end of Act 1

+Act IWalter Lee likes

to blame his so-called failure in life on both the color of his skin and his unsupportive family. He doesn’t get any credit or support from them.

Sibling beefMama tries to

instill family values

Themes: Family Strength

+ACT 1 Summary Asagai is courting Beneatha and encourages her to get in touch with her “roots”. What does he mean by her “roots”?

Ruth is expecting a child and Walter is more concerned about the insurance check. Bad husband!

+Act 1Walter is obsessed with the liquor store idea. He wants to start a new life, despite the large gamble.

Mama thinks that money destroys happiness because people tend to fight over it. According to her, it is not Christian to let money destroy familial bliss and only plans to keep the money to help her family.

Themes: Money $$$

+Act I Scene I “Important Quote's” "Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has

been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room" Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 3

"Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be 'bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each... Baby, don't nothing happen for you in this world 'less you pay somebody off!" Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 14-15

"We one group of men tied to a race of women with small minds." Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 17

"In my mother's house there is still God." Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 37

+Act I Scene II “Important Quote's” "Assimilationism is so popular in your country." Act 1, Scene 2, pg. 48

"When a man goes outside his home to look for peace." Act 1, Scene 2, pg. 60

"Something has changed. You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too...Now here come you and Beneatha - talking 'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's streetcar - You my children - but how different we done become." Act 1, Scene 2, pg. 62

+ACT 2 Summary Beneatha is preparing for a date with

George (how is he different from Asagai?)Walter is frustrated that Mama has put

the down payment on a house in a White neighborhood. Everyone else is excited.

Walter is skipping work and getting drunk because he is upset about Mama’s decision. So Mama decides to give Walter the remaining $6,500. $3000 of which goes into an account for Beneatha’s med school. Now Walter is excited because Mama has entrusted him.

+ACT 2 Summary The family is excited to be moving to their

new house and Walter is juiced because he has secretly invested all the money into the liquor store idea.

Mr. Linder stops buy and tries to buy the Younger’s out. Basically stating that they are not wanted in this all White neighborhood and they would be willing to pay them to NOT move there.

Everything changes when Bobo comes to the door. The family is devastated when they find out that Walter lost all the money!

+Act 2 Asagai represents the African

family as a whole. As a Nigerian, he is different; yet, he is the same.

Mama is appalled that her son would allow his wife to terminate a life. She lectures him that her family is about love and giving children life - not taking life away. While the Younger family appears to possibly be increasing, it also seems to be falling apart.

Walter Lee tells Mama that he acts like a child because she seizes all the responsibility. She never allows him to be a man and to be the head of the household. [But Walter fails when given that responsibility.]

Themes: Family Love

+Act II Each Younger family member is

mesmerized by the power of the $10,000.

George vs. Walter: The different economic statuses divide the two men of the same race. Both characters highlight stereotypes.

Mama finally gives Walter some money symbolizing her trust in him.

Walter lost all the insurance money. This loss causes him to initially become irate & depressed and the family to become severely angry with him. [the $$ represented their father).

Theme: Money

+Act II One of the first major

allusions to any sort of racism appears with the character of George Murchison. Prior to his entrance, the play simply discusses a poor family. However, when the wealthy Black man enters the picture, the Younger family sees the differences in race and group him with snobbish white people.

Theme: Racism

+Act II Mama tells Walter the

differences of racism from her generation to now. She was worried about her personal survival from lynching and hate crimes. It seems as though her children have lost sight of the benefits of the new society.

The family has hesitates about moving to an all white neighborhood

Karl Lindner overtly states the racism present in Clybourne Park. While he initially sugar coats his words, he eventually blurts out to the Youngers that they are not wanted in the white neighborhood because of the color of their skin.

Theme: Racism

+Act II Scene I “Important Quote's” with the sociology and the psychology - but they teaching

you how to be a man? How to take over and run the world? They teaching you how to run a rubber plantation or a steel mill? Naw - just to talk proper and read books and wear white shoes..." Act 2, Scene 1, pg. 76

So what you need for me to say it was all right for? So you butchered up a dream of mine - you - who always talking 'bout your children's dreams..." Act 2, Scene 1, pg. 87

“Here I am a giant surrounded by ants! Ants who can’t even understand what it is the giant is talking about” Act 2 Scene 1, pg 85

“you glad about the house? It’s going to be yours when you get to be a man” Act 2, Scene 1, pg. 95

+Act II Scene II “Important Quote's” "And from now on any penny that come out of it or that

go in it is for you to look after. For you to decide. It ain't much, but it's all I got in the world and I'm putting in your hands. I'm telling you to be head of this family from now on like you supposed to be." Act 2, Scene 2, pg. 94

people can get awful worked up when they feel that their whole way of life and everything they've ever worked for is threatened...You just can't force people to change their hearts, son." Act 2, Scene 3, pg. 105-6

+Act II Scene III “Important Quote's” I seen him grow thin and old before he was

forty...working and working and working like somebody's old horse...killing himself...and you - you give it all away in a day..." Act 2, Scene 3, pg. 117

+ACT 3 Summary Everyone begins to lose faith in each other and the

world. Beneatha in particular thinks about giving up her dream of becoming a doctor. She realizes fate is not in her control and anyone can come in and ruin her dream. She has nothing positive to say about her brother.

Asagai tries to encourage Beneatha to keep the faith and asks her to go with him to Nigeria to practice medicine.

Mama also wants to give up. She wonders if they should even continue with this move.

+ACT 3 Summary Walter has another bright idea. He thinks he can

compensate for his mistake by allowing Mr. Linder to buy him out.

The family believes Walter isn’t living up to his fathers dream and encourage him not to give in. Walter changes his mind when his son is watching him.

He decides to say no to Mr. Linder and the family rejoices.

+Act III Walter sinks to a new low and

begs Lindner for money in exchange for his dignity. Here family is needed the most when people are down.

Walter Lee eventually grows into a mature man by saying no to Linder and the family becomes closer than ever.

Theme: Family Unity

+Act III

Walter Lee tells the family that he has called Mr. Lindner back to accept his proposal and take money from him, to restore the money he lost. Outraged, Mama explains to Walter Lee that her family and her race cannot be bought with any amount of money. Pride and honor is more important than the almighty dollar.

Theme: Money

+Act III

When Lindner does in fact arrive at the Younger's home, Walter Lee has digested Mama's words. He tells Lindner that his family has pride and cannot be bought by money or color. It is through these words that Walter emerges a mature man.

Theme: Racism

+Act III “Important Quote's”

"He finally come into his manhood today, didn't he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain..." Act 3, pg. 141

+Themes: Man Pride

Pride corrupts Walter Lee Walter wants to be the one

who take the family out of poverty even if he does use money that wasn’t his.

He gives up his pride when he is willing to take money from Linder. (eventually his fatherly instincts kick in)

“Manly Pride” Exemplified by Walter Lee

+Themes: Cultural Pride

Beneatha’s connection to her homeland roots

Pride in heritage as Walter takes a stand after remembering the struggles his parents went through

“Cultural Pride”

+Themes: Family Pride

The Youngers struggle socially and economically throughout the play but unite in the end to realize their dream of buying a house.

Mama strongly believes in the importance of family, and she tries to teach this value to her family as she struggles to keep them together and functioning.

Walter and Beneatha learn this lesson about family at the end of the play.

“Family Pride” Family

+Themes: Dreams A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main

characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives.

Every member of the Younger family has a separate, individual dream—Beneatha wants to become a doctor, for example, and Walter wants to have money so that he can afford things for his family.

The Youngers struggle to attain these dreams throughout the play, and much of their happiness and depression is directly related to their attainment of, or failure to attain, these dreams.

By the end of the play, they learn that the dream of a house is the most important dream because it unites the family.

+Themes: Fighting Discrimination The character of Mr. Lindner makes the theme of racial

discrimination prominent in the plot as an issue that the Youngers cannot avoid.

Mr. Lindner and the people he represents can only see the color of the Younger family’s skin,

Ultimately, the Youngers respond to this discrimination with defiance and strength

+Themes: Home The Younger apartment is

the only setting throughout the play, emphasizing the centrality of the home.

The home is a galvanizing force for the family, one that Mama sees as crucial to the family’s unity.

The play ends, fittingly, when Mama, lagging behind, finally leaves the apartment.

+Symbols: Mama’s Plant

The most overt symbol in the play, Mama’s plant represents both Mama’s care and her dream for her family.

The plant also symbolizes her dream to own a house and, more specifically, to have a garden and a yard

+Symbols: Beneatha’s Hair When the play begins, Beneatha has straightened hair.

Midway through the play, after Asagai visits her and questions her hairstyle, she cuts her Caucasian-seeming hair. Her new, radical afro represents her embracing of her heritage.

This prefigures the 1960s cultural credo that black is beautiful.

+Walter LeeWalter Lee

Younger -  The protagonist of the play. He wants to be rich; wants to invest his father’s insurance money in a new liquor store venture.  

+Beneatha Beneatha Younger

(“Bennie”) -  Beneatha is twenty years old, she attends college, and is better educated than the rest of the Younger family. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well-educated black woman.

+Mama aka “Lena”Lena Younger

(“Mama”) -  religious, moral, and maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to fulfill her dream for her family to move up in the world.

+RuthRuth Younger - 

Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother. She has a baby on the way. Ruth takes care of the Youngers’ small apartment. She is about thirty, but her weariness makes her seem older..

+Travis Travis Younger - 

Walter and Ruth’s sheltered young son. Travis earns some money by carrying grocery bags and likes to play outside with other neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and sleeps on the living-room sofa.

+Asagai

Joseph Asagai -  A Nigerian student in love with Beneatha. Asagai, as he is often called, is very proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to learn about her African heritage from him.

+GeorgeGeorge Murchison - 

A wealthy, African-American man who dates Beneatha. The Youngers approve of George, but Beneatha dislikes his willingness to submit to white culture and forget his African heritage.

+LinderMr. Karl Lindner - 

The only white character in the play. He offers the Youngers a deal to reconsider moving into his (all-white) neighborhood.

+Mrs. Johnson

Mrs. Johnson -  The Youngers’ neighbor; warns them about moving into a predominately white neighborhood.