1. A Raisin in the Sun
Unit Test Review Game

2. What is the setting of the play?
A small, cramped, run-down apartment in Southside Chicago; “sometime between World War II and the present” (1950s)

3. Who wrote A Raisin in the Sun?
Lorraine Hansberry

4. What does the description of the setting reveal about the lives of the characters?
They are poor, but proud. Their furnishings are worn and old, but the apartment is clean and “scrubbed too often.”

5. What does sunlight likely symbolize within the play?
Hope; there is very little light in the beginning of the play; the family longs for light in the new house

6. How does the audience learn how strong Mama’s religious beliefs are?
She yells at Beneatha for using the Lord’s name in vain, and she slaps Beneatha when she says there is no God.

7. What is Walter’s dream?
To buy a liquor store

8. What is Beneatha’s dream?
To become a doctor

9. What is Mama’s dream?
To buy a house for her family

10. What is an assimilationist?
Someone who conforms to the dominant culture

11. What is Ruth considering because of the family’s economic situation?
Aborting her child

12. Name a pair of character foils from the play.
Beneatha and Ruth
George and Asagai

13. What does George Murchison call Walter and what does it mean?
Prometheus; he is saying that Walter’s ambitions are unreachable or he might find trouble reaching for his goals

14. Who does Mama reveal her news to first?
Travis; he is the family’s legacy

15. What news does Mrs. Johnson bring the Youngers?
A newspaper article about a house owned by a black family in a white neighborhood that was bombed

16. Who is Karl Lindner? Why is he visiting the Youngers?
A representative from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association that is offering to buy their house from them if they agree to not move to the neighborhood

17. Explain what Mama’s plans for the money were.
$3,000 down payment for the house
$3,000 for Beneatha’s medical school
$3,500 to Walter

18. What happens to the $10,000? Mama spends $3,000 on the house
Walter uses the remaining $6,500 to invest in the liquor store
Willy Harris steals Walter’s money

19. What does Mama’s plant symbolize?
The family

20. What is a possible theme for the play?
A truly mature individual chooses their pride over possible financial gain.

21. What is Karl Lindner symbolically?
The devil

22. The common motif where a devil-like figure offers a character a deal is known as a what?
Faustian Bargain

23. Explain how Walter feels about Beneatha becoming a doctor.
He feels she should just become a nurse; this is reflective of how most of 1950s society felt about women

24. Name and label a conflict from the play.
Answers will vary; one response would be Walter’s internal man vs man struggle to decide whether or not to take Linder’s money

25. Where does the title for the play come from?
Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem”

26. How is Walter similar to John Proctor from The Crucible?
Answers will vary; they are both the protagonists of the their play, they both face a Faustian Bargain, they both struggle with internal conflicts, they both are adult males, fathers and husbands, they both have marriage difficulties, they are both unsatisfied with their societies, they both are partly responsible for their problems
They are different because they are in starkly different settings, Walter is an African American male in the 1950s, Proctor is a Puritan man in the 1600’s.

27. What could George Murchison represent symbolically?
Assimilationsim

28. What could Joseph Asagai represent symbolically?
Holding onto one’s heritage

29. Describe Walter and Ruth’s relationship.
They love each other and they are passionate at times, but Walter’s sometimes allows his struggles to come between them. Ruth is very nurturing and she cares for Walter, like when she offers him “hot milk.” Walter’s dismissiveness of Ruth and their financial stuggles almost leads her to have an abortion.

30. What does Asagai’s nickname for Beneatha mean?
One for whom bread is not enough

31. How is the poem “Harlem” relate to the play?
The poem discusses possible outcomes when some people’s dreams are deferred. The play deals with a family with various dreams that are in jeopardy throughout the play.