Basic Facts
What is one important fact about the SETTING of the play?
Chicago - Northern, but still segregated.
All takes place in a run-down apartment they want to escape.
1940s/1950s, so before the Civil-Rights movement.
Who said: "I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about it...I'm thirty-five years old, I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room--and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live"
Walter
What is ONE difference between this play and the other play we read this semester (Macbeth)?
Answers may vary.
Far more detailed stage directions, written in more modern English, 3 acts instead of 5, does not end in the deaths of the main characters, so it's not technically a tragedy.
Choose two adjectives that describe Beneatha.
Answers may vary. Educated, determined, hot-headed, atheistic, independent, dreamer
Whose dream is deferred (postponed) the MOST, by the end of the play?
Walter's and/or Bennie's, because the $$ is still gone. (On the other hand, Mama and Ruth's come true, because they do get to move into their new home).
Name one conflict WITHIN the family. (Which family member conflicts with which family member, and how?)
Beneatha and Walter (compete as siblings)
Walter and Ruth (marriage problems, disagreements)
Mama and Walter/Bennie (age and generational gap)
Which character said the following quote: "No--there's something come down between me and them that don't let us understand each other and I don't know what it is. One done almost lost his mind thinking 'bout money all the time..."
Mama
Answers may vary. Probably Walter (for giving away ALL the money, including Beneatha's, for his own goals).
How does Ruth react to the news of the new house?
Joy, excitement
Who does Walter accuse of ruining his dreams?
How would you describe the Youngers' current apartment?
Overcrowded, infested with rats and cockroaches, worn down. Described as "tired" in the stage directions at the beginning of the play (this is personification, by the way !!!)
Which TWO characters had this conversation:
(1) Was it your money he gave away? ...did you earn it? Would you have had it at all if your father had not died?
(2) No.
Asagai and Beneatha
Gatsby - obsessed with repeating the past, and with Daisy living up to the image he has always had of her.
How does Walter react to Mr. Lindner's offer on his FIRST visit?
He rejects it, tells Mr. Lindner to get out of his house, and then laughs at it.
The little plant growing in the tiny window - HOW does this symbolize the Youngers' dreams?
They're doing the best they can with the little they have (little sunlight, little room to grow).
They'll wither if their dreams aren't fulfilled.
Fitting into the mainstream (oppressive) culture.
Who said: "Because [money] is life, Mama!"
Walter
When Asagai tells Beneatha that one day he might hypothetically "do terrible things to have things my way or merely to keep my power." Explain ONE connection to a previous book we've read.
Answers may vary.
Macbeth (kills for power), Frankenstein (keeps secret to keep himself safe), Tom/Daisy (throw Gatsby under the bus to keep THEMSELVES safe)
Choose two adjectives that best describe Walter.
Answers may vary. Intense, jumpy, strong, hot-tempered, secretive, caring (as a father), ambitious, dreamer
What does Mama do to show that she has FAITH in Walter, and his dreams?
She gives him the $6500.
“One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.” What does this nickname for Bennie imply/mean?
That she needs more to survive than just basic necessities like food/water. She needs LEARNING and a PURPOSE, or something more that can help her grow on a personal level.
This character said the following quote: "And at the moment the overwhelming majority of our people out there feel that people get along better, take more of a common interest in the life of the community, when they share a common background."
Mr. Lindner
How does the play connect to Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem" (the poem the play title comes from)?
The family must defer (put off) many of their dreams, and those dreams (for some) seem to dry up and wither away like a raisin in the sun after time. And at some point, the pressure explodes (like the last line in the poem).
What causes the difference between Beneatha's speech and the speech of her family members? Example:
Walter: Now ain't that fine! You just got your mother's interest at heart, ain't you, girl?
Beneatha: I have never asked anyone around here to do anything for me!
Her college education (she uses fewer contractions and more standard grammar in her speech)
When Travis tells Walter that he wants to grow up and be a bus driver, how does Walter react?
He tells Travis to dream bigger (think about colleges, think about other careers where he won't have to just serve other people)