A Raisin in the Sun Study Questions Tues 12/1 (Act 1 Scene 1) Part 1: (through 31 minutes) 1. As the movie opens with Morgan Freeman's voice-over of Langston Hughes' poem, describe the images of the pre-dawn inner city and of the Younger family. 2. Why do you think Walter gives Travis the 50 cents? Why does Ruth deny him the money? 3. How is Walter trying to pursue the American Dream? 4. Walter and Beneatha argue about Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor. The argument concludes when Beneatha calls her brother a “prophet who will lead his people into the swamps.” Then, he reenters the house asking for money. What does this scene tell us about Walter’s personality? 5. Why does Lena (Mama) leave her job? 6. In your opinion, what’s the significance of Lena’s (Mama’s) monologue in which she speaks of Big Walter’s (her husband’s) dreams which never came true? How is Beneatha’s dream of becoming a doctor possibly coming true? 7. What does Beneatha claim about God? How and why does Mama respond as she does? Thursday 12/3 (Act 1 Scene 2) Part 2: (through 59:30) 1. What is Walter hoping to do with Big Walter’s (his father’s) life insurance money? 2. How does Beneatha react to Ruth’s pregnancy? a. How does Mama? b. How does Ruth feel? 3. What gift does Asagai bring Beneatha? 4. What comes in the mail for Mama? 5. Why is Walter upset about his job? 6. What is Beneatha’s opinion on assimilating into American culture? 7. How does Mama react when she hears about Walter’s plans for the money? 8. How does she react to Ruth’s decision about the pregnancy? What does Walter say in response to Ruth’s decision? Friday 12/4 Act 2 Scenes 1 & 2 Part 3: (end at 1h,27 min) 1. When Walter returns home from drinking, how does he react to George? 2. How do Beneatha’s two suitors - George Murchison and Joseph Asagai represent distinctly different values, goals, and attitudes towards women? 3. How does Mama explain to Walter Lee her decision to spend a third of the $10,000 insurance money on a down payment for a house? a. How do Walter Lee and Ruth each react to her decision? 4. What can we assume that Ruth is deciding when she turns off the boiling water at Miss Tilly’s? 5. What prompts Mama to give the remaining $6500 to Walter Lee? a. What does she tell him to do with it? b. How does Mama's trust in him change his attitude? Monday 12/7 Act 2 Scene 3 Part 4 (through 1 hr 48 min) 1. When the family visits their new home in Clybourne Park, what gifts do they give Mama and what does the camera show about the house, neighbors, and neighborhood? 2. What proposal does Carl Linder make to the Youngers? How does he justify it? 3. What did Willie do with the money Walter gave him? 4. What is Mama’s reaction when she finds out what Willie does? Tuesday 12/8 Act 3 Part 5 (end of play) 1. What does Asagai tell Beneatha? 2. What does Mama tell Ruth and Bennie? 3. Why does Walter call Carl Linder back and what is he planning to tell him? 4. What does Mama say to Beneatha to help her and the audience realize what Walter Lee is going through? 5. What does Mama say to Travis in front of all of them, including Mr. Lindner, that prompts Walter to change his plan completely? Explain what he says and why it shows he has "come into his manhood today." 6. What does Mama's little plant represent throughout the film and what is significant about Walter retrieving it and handing it gently to Mama in the final scene. What is suggested by having the camera pan out the back door, up the stairs, to the blue skies as the film ends? Overall questions 1. The play’s title is a line from the Langston Hughes poem, “A Dream Deferred”. Explain how the poem helps to explain the play’s title and its major concerns. 2. One of the major themes is each character’s search for their vision of the American Dream. What are the “dreams deferred” by Walter, Ruth, Mama and Beneatha? 3. Hansberry skillfully illustrates through the three female protagonists how women’s ideas about their identity have changed over time. Explain how each of these women represent the changes in women’s roles and ideas over the three generations that they span. 4. At the end of the play, speaking to Ruth about Walter Lee, Mama says, “He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he?” How does Mama appear to be defining manhood? 5. Which character(s) did you find yourself relating the most with? Why?
