Name Period

HARLEM (1951)

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like ? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat Or crust and sugar over— Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

LANGSTON HUGHES Postmodern Period 1945 – Present

Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965)

• Hansberry grew up on .

• When she was eight, the family moved to a , in protest of restrictive covenants.

• Hansberry married Robert Nemiroff, a , but they later amicable divorced, and by the last decade of Hansberry’s short life, she .

• A Raisin in the Sun opened in and was the first play by an African American woman to be produced . It has appeared in languages and successful film adaptations, including the original version, starring almost all of the original theatrical cast members and utilizing a screenplay written by Hansberry herself.

Thoughts on the play

• from New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson: “The play . . . is likely to destroy the complacency of anyone who sees it.”

• from (1924-1987), African American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic: “Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, had so much of the truth of black peoples’ lives been seen on the stage.”

• from Lorraine Hansberry (letter to her mother): “It is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes, and life, and I think it will help a lot of people to understand how we are just as complicated as they are—and just as mixed up—but above all, that we have among our miserable and downtrodden ranks—people who are the very essence of human dignity. That is what, after all the laughter and tears, the play is supposed to say.”

Harris, English III H A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun (1959)

1961 film viewing guide

Cast Ruth Younger Travis Younger Stephen Perry Walter Lee Younger Beneatha Younger Lena Younger (Mama) Claudia McNeil Joseph Asagai Ivan Dixon George Murchison Louis Gossett Lindner Bobo Joel Fluellen

The act and scene divisions are done according to the play.

Act 1, scene 1

1. Describe the Younger family’s apartment.

2. How do the “It’s time to get up!” episode and the “Eat your eggs” conversation establish the personalities of Walter Lee and Ruth?

3. Why can’t Travis get enough sleep at night?

4. According to Walter, what does a man need?

5. What does Walter want to do with Willy and Bobo?

6. What does Walter do for a living?

7. What does Walter’s sister, Beneatha, do? What does she hope to become in the future?

8. Summarize Walter Lee’s view of women in the world.

9. What sort of tension exists between Mama and Ruth?

A Raisin in the Sun

10. What is the family anxiously awaiting?

11. Name some of the possible ways the family might spend the money.

12. What tragedy did Mama and Big Walter undergo? What did it cause him to do?

13. According to Mama, why does God give people children?

14. In what sense does Travis, through no fault of his own, create conflict in scene i?

15. List some of Beneatha’s extracurricular activities.

16. What is Beneatha’s opinion of George Murchison? Of marriage? Of God?

17. How does Mama react to Beneatha’s opinion of God?

Act 1, scene 2

18. What does Mama think is wrong with Ruth?

19. Who is Joseph Asagai? Where is he from?

20. What does Asagai bring Beneatha? What do you think he represents to her?

21. What is Beneatha looking for?

22. What is Asagai’s nickname for Beneatha? What does it mean?

Alaiyo

23. How does Mama react to the insurance check?

A Raisin in the Sun

24. Where did Ruth go instead of going to Dr. Jones?

25. What is Walter Lee’s bad habit?

26. What does Mama say is dangerous?

27. Why does Mama say that Walter Lee is a disgrace to his father’s memory?

Act 2, scene 1

28. How is Beneatha dressed? Where did she get her “outfit”?

29. Why doesn’t Ruth join Beneatha and Walter?

30. How does George Murchison react to Beneatha and Walter Lee?

31. Compare George to Asagai.

32. How does Walter Lee feel about college?

33. Who is Prometheus? Why would George compare him to Walter?

34. How does Walter react to the news that Mama spent the money on a house?

35. List some key details about the new house.

36. Why does Mama want the house?

A Raisin in the Sun Act 2, scene 2

37. How does Mama show Walter Lee that she trusts him?

gives him the remaining $ . Asks him to put $ in the bank for Beneatha’s

education and $ in a savings account with his name on it.

Act 2, scene 3

38. What do Ruth, Beneatha, and Walter give Mama as a gift? What does Travis give her?

39. Who is Lindner? What does he want?

40. Why does Beneatha say, “Thirty pieces and not a coin less”?

41. What does Mama’s plant symbolize?

42. What news does Bobo bring?

43. What do we learn about Walter’s investment?

44. Explain how the mood in Act II changes from beginning to end.

Act III

45. Whom does Beneatha blame for the loss of the money? Why?

46. What does Asagai ask Beneatha?

47. What is Ruth willing to do in order to move?

48. According to Walter, the world is made up of two kinds of people? What are they? A Raisin in the Sun

49. How does Mama react to Walter Lee’s phone call to Lindner?

50. Why does Mama scold Beneatha? (“Have you cried for that boy today?”)

51. Why does Mama make Travis stay in the room when Lindner arrives?

52. Describe Walter Lee’s speech to Lindner.

53. At the end of the film, to what does Mama compare Walter Lee? Why?