1. A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry

2. Act I
“the furnishings of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope – and brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and pride.” (1.1. stage directions)
Setting – Southside of Chicago
Crowded apartment
Travis sleeps on couch
Walter & Ruth/Mama & Beneatha share rooms
Apt building shares bathroom
family struggles to maintain their pride in the face of poverty

3. Walter & Ruth’s relationship
Fight – but do love each other
Argue over dream/scheme of business
Stressed – money, space
Dream – he feels she doesn’t believe/support him
Walter’s dream – better life, power, control
“Mama, something is happening between Walter and me. I don’t know what it is – but he needs something – something I can’t give him anymore. He needs this chance, Lena.” ( ) p.17
Walter- dissatisfied with his life, taking it out on everyone around him.
She is afraid of what will happen between them if Walter doesn't get the chance to attain his dream.

4. Travis Future generation; hope Asks for 50 cents
Ruth – “don’t have it”
Walter – gives his $$
Walter wants Travis to think they have money & believe there’s a future
part of the reason he's giving Travis money is to deliberately undermine his wife.
Chases rat in street w/ friends
Graphic nature of poverty
Upsets Ruth

5. Walter & Beneatha Brother/Sister relationship
Pick on each other
WALTER “Have we figured out yet just exactly how much medical school is going to cost?” ( )
Walter resents Beneatha's wish to become a doctor because it will cost the family a significant amount of money.
The Youngers' poverty seems to often make them turn on each other.
Walter thinks her dream is unrealistic

6. Ruth
Walter is dissatisfied with his life, and he constantly takes it out on her
taking a real toll on her
seems irritable, depressed
Pregnant
Biblical allusion – Ruth = devoted wife and daughter-in-law
Mama: "When the world gets ugly enough – a woman will do anything for her family. The part that's already living" ( ). P.42
Though Ruth hates the idea of aborting her child, she feels it's the best decision for her financially-strapped family.

7. Mama’s values Family Religion Nurturing, unconditional love
struggles to instill her values in children and connect with them
worried about Walter's obsession with money
totally disapproving of Beneatha's lack of faith in God
Religion
"In my mother's house there is still God."

8. Beneatha Flits from one thing to another Wants to express herself
Cameras, horses, acting, guitar – all need $$$
Wants to express herself
Walter has some value to his argument
She’s had her share, and he’s resentful
Mama and Ruth support her ($$)
But Beneatha doesn’t make sacrifices
Alaiyo – One for whom bread – food - is not enough
Food=necessity of life
She’s not satisfied with only a basic life
Asagai understands her journey of self-expression

9. Big Walter Was good, caring, loved children, hard working
Lost child and almost didn’t get over it
MAMA (She holds the check away from her, still looking at it. Slowly her face sobers into a mask of unhappiness) Ten thousand dollars ( )
Lena realizes there is no price someone can put on a lost loved one
seems she would remain in total poverty if she could have her husband back

10. Symbolism Plant = children Eggs=dreams
Plant – scraggly/lacks sunshine but survives
Children – stunted/lacks opportunity ($$$) but survive
Eggs=dreams
New baby
“Eat your eggs” – argument is not about food
Frustration- women keep men from achieving their goals (Walter’s POV)
Momma’s maiden name
Lena Eggleston
Motif = repeating symbol or theme

11. Themes The value and purpose of dreams Generational conflict Pride
Black man POV
Women POV
Generational conflict
Walter- life is about money
Mama – life is about freedom
Pride
Clean house before Asagai arrives
African-American vs African culture
Beneatha/George vs Asagai
Identity
Assimilate- to conform with the customs of a group or nation

12. Act II Scene 1 Setting: later the same day Walter drunk
Walter/Beneatha dance to African music
Imagines himself a great chief
His need to express power & authority in his life
George – rude to Beneatha (get out of that costume)
Beneatha’s hair cropped short
Wants to be natural, back to heritage (from convers. w/ Asagai)
George not interested in heritage
“Let’s face it baby, your heritage is nothing but a bunch of raggedy spirituals and some grass huts!”

13. Allusions
Liberia – founded in 1822, Africa’s first Republic (independent state – elects own people), founded by freed slaves from America.
Ashanti – Founded in 16th C.
Songhay Civilizations – 11th C. Smelted iron.
Bantu – 2/3 of African population; language; agricultural and introduce crops; can settle down.
Uncle Tom – Comes from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin – servile/subservient to whites – yes sir, always takes a lower roll; slang/slur term, negative, not standing up for your race

14. Beneatha, George, Ruth, Walter
George – shallow, interested in looks, has money
George comes to take Beneatha to theater
does not like how she looks
makes comments about heritage
B calls G an assimilationist
Person willing to give up their own culture to submerge himself in a dominant culture
Walter talking to George about father’s business
George bored, blows him off

15. “Good night, Prometheus”
Greek God, stole sacred fire from Zeus, gave it to mankind and the Gods didn’t like it.
Fire = intelligence
Prometheus was overreaching his place in life by stealing the gods’ fire
Walter – has big ideas, but not “enlightening” George
Verbal and dramatic irony
No business knowledge, experience
Expressing his contempt for Walter
George is a snob
Verbal irony- say one thing but mean another
Dramatic irony- audience knows more about the situations

16. Mama bought a house in a white neighborhood – Clybourne Park
Ruth is excited – sees environment as pulling them down, need to get out of there.
“Is there a whole lot of sunlight?”
Symbol = hope, light
Walter mad b/c he wanted the money
butchered his dream
Initially tells Travis – he’s the future – it’s for him
Family falling apart before her eyes, and she had to do something

17. Act II Scene 2 Friday night a few weeks later
Date- George tells Beneatha her looks are important
“I don’t go out with you to discuss the nature of “quiet desperation” or to hear about your thoughts…”
He doesn’t care about her thoughts
Beneatha told Mama earlier he is shallow
“Well - I guess you better not waste your time with no fools”
B thanks Mama – grateful for her understanding

18. Act II Scene 2 Mrs. Johnson – newspaper article
“You mean you ain’t read ‘bout them colored people that was bombed out their place out there?”
Mama does not allow the “n” word in her house
“Education has spoiled many a good plow hand”
Booker T. Washington
Mama - fool

19. Act II Scene 2
Walter – discover he has not been going to work, driving around, then to a bar (Green Hat)
Phone call
he is being an immature child
Mama realizes she is really to blame and gives him $6500
$3000 for Beneatha and rest to put in savings to decide what to do
Trust, responsibility

20. Act II Scene 3 Saturday, moving day, one week later Mood – happy
Ruth and Walter in love and getting along
Walter and Beneatha also getting along
Mr. Lindner Clybourne Park Improvement Association
“Welcoming committee” – low down on how things are done
“special community problems” (colored people moving into certain areas)
“Negro families are happier when they live in their own communities”
want to buy house back from the Youngers

21. Act II Scene 3
Mr. Lindner
Stereotypical bigot – (defies) polite, sit down, communicate
“You people” – code word shows real reason there
Assoc. wants to buy them out w/ financial gain
“This friends is the welcoming committee” – IRONY (not welcoming)
“30 pieces and not a coin less” – ALLUSION
Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (betrayal) – this is a betrayal of the American way of life, and would be of ourselves.

22. Act II Scene 3 Willy took off with the money
Beneatha’s money, too – Walter did not put it in the bank
“That money is made out of my father’s flesh” -Walter
 reflects his belief that money is the lifeblood of human existence
Mama hits him
Mama’s idealism about family falters

23. Act III Mood – dark, depressed Beneatha & Asagai Tells story
why she wants to be a doctor p.88
Incident w/ sled
She feels her future is gone
Beneatha – life is a circle – bad things keep repeating (p. 89)
Realist, fate is sealed
Asagai – life is a line – no one knows where it ends
Idealist, can change the future

24. Walter and Mama Call Lindner Wants to sell out p. 95-97
Mama – sees the death of his soul
“…We ain’t never been that dead inside.” (96)
Mama taught children to love family when they’re down
“There is always something left to love” (98)
Mama – asks Travis to stay
Walter – guilt – turns into a man – keeps house
Walter achieves independence without the money

25. Symbolism Mama’s plant
feeble plant represents her family’s deferred dreams for a better future, which have struggled to survive under the strain of life in Chicago’s South Side
“this little old plant ain’t never had enough sunshine or nothing.”
Mama takes it to new house
symbol of perseverance will accompany the family as it faces new challenges in Clybourne Park. 
“It expresses me.”
Also… represents “dream” house w/ garden
Loved gardening

26. Symbolism Beneatha’s hair
pride in her African heritage and her desire to explore her African roots
Asagai - straightened hair- “mutilated”
decides to cut her hair and wear it in its natural form
proudly marks herself as an anti-assimilationist and visibly expresses her racial identity

27. Symbolism Eggs = Dreams = motif
New baby
Younger, Eggleston
“Lord, ever since I was a little girl, I always remembers people saying, "Lena – Lena Eggleston, you aims too high all the time. You needs to slow down and see life a little more like it is. Just slow down some." (3.1.69)
migrate from the South
Lena blames herself for dreaming too big, figuring that she was wrong to buy the house
“Eat your eggs” - how women keep men from achieving their goals
“Damn these eggs…”
Walter feels Ruth is not supporting his dream

28. Symbolism
Sunlight
Ruth – “Is there – is there a whole lot of sunlight?”
hope and life, since all human life depends on warmth and energy from the sun.

29. Theme Family Dreams Everyone has the power to change his/her life
Love them, especially during difficult times
Dreams
Value and purpose of individual and collective dreams
Everyone has the power to change his/her life
Asagai- “Life is simply a straight line…one that reaches to infinity”
Asagai- we see the African struggle for independence similar to Walter’s
“A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes

30. Theme: Pride
Mama tries to instill in her children a sense of respect for their ancestors, who were Southern slaves and sharecroppers
Walter plans to accept Lindner’s humiliating offer
He can’t compromise his honor (pride) in front of his son
Walter becomes the man Mama hoped for
Reaffirms the dignity of the human spirit
Their dream of rising above their apparent limitations is realized

31. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
Mama accepts herself for whom she is
Strong, country, strong-willed (like Dee)
Dee changes her name b/c…
Wants to identify w/ African heritage
The quilts were promised to Maggie
Conflict resolved = Ultimately Mama gives Maggie the quilts b/c of her daughter’s love of family tradition
Dee’s statement about heritage = irony
Mama & Maggie appreciate their heritage by living it, while Dee wants to leave old ways behind & preserve them only as artifacts on display
ARIS connection
Identity & heritage