Characters
This character works as a chauffeur but dreams of becoming a businessman.
Who is Walter Younger, Jr.?
This character reflects, "that was what one person could do for another, fix him up—sew up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvelous thing in the world … I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one concrete thing in the world that a human being could do. Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again."
Who is Beneatha?
The arrival of a $10,000 insurance check after Walter Younger, Sr.'s death creates this central conflict.
What is, how to spend the money?
In the mid-20th century, a federal government agency called the Home Owners' Loan Corporation created these maps to "grade" areas according to their population, which they then used as justification to withhold mortgages for properties in areas with the worst ratings.
What are redlining maps?
Lorraine Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play produced here.
What is on Broadway?
This character always dreamed of having a house with a garden.
This character repeats, "Eat your eggs" to the consternation of her husband, who wants more out of his life than his current day-to-day.
Who is Ruth?
This object symbolizes the struggles in a life "that ain’t never had enough sunshine or nothing."
What is Mama's plant?
Lindner perpetuates this myth when he states, "it is a matter of the people of Clybourne Park believing, rightly or wrongly, as I say, that for the happiness of all concerned that our [Black] families are happier when they live in their own communities."
What is the myth of self-segregation?
Hansberry said her family was most like this character's family in the play.
Who is George Murchinson?
This character dreams of becoming a doctor because she sees it as a chance to be able to fix what is wrong in the world.
Who is Beneatha Younger?
This character asserts, "Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? [...] It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in hisself ’cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is."
Who is Mama?
What is the setting (time + place) of "A Raisin in the Sun?"
What is the 1950s in the south side of Chicago?
Many of the racially discriminatory housing practices of the mid-20th century became illegal with the passage of this law.
What is the Fair Housing Act of 1968?
Hansberry's family moved into a house in a white neighborhood when she was a child, and one neighbor threw this missile through the window, narrowly missing Lorraine's head.
What is a brick?
This character is pregnant.
Who is Ruth Younger?
This character says, "So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon time freedom used to be life–now it’s money. I guess the world really do change . . .”
Who is Mama?
According to the set description in the stage directions, the Youngers' apartment has this number of windows.
What is one?
What are racially restrictive covenants?
Jazz legend Nina Simone wrote this song after being inspired by something her friend Lorraine Hansberry said.
What is "Young, Gifted, and Black"?
This character is dating Beneatha and asks her to move to Nigeria with him.
Who is Joseph Asagai?
This character tells his aunt to "leave them poor little cockroaches alone, they ain’t bothering you none!" and later exclaims to his mother, "you should of seen the rat … Big as a cat, honest!"
Who is Travis Younger?
The title of Hansberry's plan is an allusion to the poem "Harlem" by this poet.
Who is Langston Hughes?
According to Blair McClendon in "The Many Visions of Lorraine Hansberry," Hansberry's father also participated in this real estate practice that played upon racial fears to get white homeowners to sell their houses below market value, then subdivided them to rent them to Black families at exorbitant rates.
What is blockbusting?
Hansberry passed away from cancer at this young age.
What is 34?