Context & Setting
The city and decade of A Raisin in the Sun
What is Southside Chicago, 1950s?
Who is Walter Lee Younger and what is his main dream?
Walter Lee Younger; wants to own a business or invest in a liquor store to gain wealth/respect.
What is the central symbol of hope and deferred dreams in the play?
A raisin in the sun / deferred dreams (and also the plant Mama nurtures).
What genre is A Raisin in the Sun?
Drama / realist play.
Name one major social constraint in 1950s America that limited equal access to the American Dream.
Segregation, Jim Crow, restrictive housing policies, employment discrimination.
Name two pieces of background information about the Younger family’s situation that shape their goals
What is low income, cramped apartment, recent death of father/insurance money
What does Beneatha aspire to become, and how does that reflect changing ideas of opportunity?
Beneatha wants to be a doctor; shows expanding role models for Black women and belief in upward mobility through education.
What theme does the returning life insurance check primarily develop?
The insurance check develops themes of economic hope and conflict over priorities.
Identify one stagecraft element (dialogue, stage directions, set) and explain how it helps portray the Younger family’s struggles.
Stage directions and set (small apartment) make cramped conditions visible and amplify tension.
How did housing covenants or redlining affect the Younger family’s options in the play’s historical context?
Covenants and redlining legally and practically barred many Black families from moving into better neighborhoods, limiting wealth-building through property.
How does the geographic location (Southside Chicago) influence the family’s opportunities and choices?
What is limited jobs, segregated neighborhoods, and proximity to Black urban communities shaped choices and discrimination they face.
How does Mama (Lena Younger) prioritize family goals over individual ambitions? Give one example.
Mama uses the insurance money to buy a house, prioritizing stability and family legacy.
How does the idea of “deferred dreams” relate to Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem,” which inspired the play’s title?
Both show that postponed dreams may decay or transform; the poem asks what happens to dreams deferred.
How does dialogue reveal differences in class, education, and aspiration among family members? Provide a brief example
Walter’s more colloquial, frustrated speech vs. Beneatha’s educated aspirations reveal class/education differences.
Connect one event or movement from the mid-20th century to the play’s themes (e.g., Great Migration, Civil Rights precursors).
Great Migration increased Black urban populations; early Civil Rights activism questioned segregation — both inform the play’s tensions.
Explain how the time period (post-WWII, 1950s) affects perceptions of the American Dream for Black families.
Post-WWII optimism vs. persistent segregation and sexism; returning veterans, housing booms that often excluded Black families
Explain how Ruth’s choices reflect both economic constraints and hopes for the future.
Ruth considers a smaller abortion subplot and daily sacrifices; she focuses on practical survival and hopes for a better home for her son.
Identify and explain one symbol in the play that represents resistance to assimilation.
Examples: Beneatha’s hair and Nigerian robes as symbols of cultural pride and resistance to assimilation.
Explain how Lorraine Hansberry’s choices about point of view and focal characters shape audience sympathy and understanding of the American Dream.
Centering the family creates empathy; focusing scenes on everyday life makes the American Dream’s costs concrete.
How would economic data about wage gaps and employment in the 1950s help a reader interpret the play’s stakes? (Describe the kind of data and its interpretive effect.)
Data: wage comparisons, unemployment rates by race, home-ownership rates — showing systemic economic gaps that explain family desperation.
Describe one contemporary event (from the play’s era) that would directly shape the Younger family’s decisions and explain why.
What is restrictive housing covenants or growing suburbanization that excluded Black buyers — these constrained where they could live.
Compare Walter’s and Beneatha’s visions of the American Dream. How do their motivations differ because of gender and generation?
Walter emphasizes economic success and public respect; Beneatha emphasizes education, identity, and broader social roles
Analyze how the theme of homeownership functions as both personal aspiration and social commentary about equality.
Homeownership represents dignity, stability, and claim to citizenship; it also reveals racial exclusion in practice.
Analyze how the play’s structure (three acts/scenes of rising tension and resolution) affects the audience’s interpretation of whether the American Dream is attainable.
Rising conflict around the check and decision to move creates suspense and leads audience to weigh attainability of the Dream.
Argue whether the barriers shown in the play were primarily legal, economic, cultural, or some combination — give two historical examples to support your claim.
Combination: legal (covenants), economic (wage gaps), cultural (racist attitudes) — examples: racially restrictive covenants and unequal access to FHA loans.