A Raisin In The Sun…
~ Lorraine Hansberry
Another Perspective
Of
The American Dream
Inscribed on Hansberry’s
Tombstone
“I care. I care about it all. It takes too much
energy not to care…The why of why are
here is an intrigue for adolescents; the
how is what must command the living.
Which is lately why I have become an
insurgent again.
From an August 1959 article in
The Village Voice
“In an almost paradoxical fashion, it disturbs
the soul of man to truly understand what he
invariably senses: that nobody really finds
oppression and/or poverty tolerable. If we
ever destroy the image of the black people
who supposedly do find those things
tolerable in America, then the much touted
“guilt” which allegedly haunts most middleclass white Americans with regard to the
Negro question would really become
unendurable.”
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over –
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
~ Langston Hughes
Characters
~ Walter Lee Younger
~ Lena Younger (Mama)
~ Ruth Younger
~ Beneatha Younger
~ Travis Younger
~ Joseph Asagai
~ George Murchison
~ Bobo
~ Willy
~ Karl Lindner
~ Mrs. Johnson
Themes and Such…
 The
American Dream: what is “the better
life?”
 Gender Identity: Male and female
• Generationally defining a “woman”
• What is “masculinity?”
 Afrocentrism:
Does it play into Civil
Rights?
 Class tensions: racial and otherwise
 Assimilation
Symbols…

The Home (Apartment)

Beneatha’s Struggle

Mama’s Plant

The Liquor Store

Dreams
And so we begin…
“Weariness has, in fact,
won in this room.”
How does this single sentence serve to set
up the ‘metaphorical significance’ of the
play?
Mr. F’s
Fave Three Quotes
MY EGGS – DAMN ALL THE
EGGS THAT EVER WAS
 DAMN
~ Walter, Act 1, sc. I
What do EGGS have to do with the American
Dream?
Mr. F’s
Fave Three Quotes
 …The
only people in the world who are
more snobbish than rich white people are
rich colored people
~ Beneatha, Act 1, sc. I
How does George Murchison figure into the
American dream? What do you think
Beneatha means by this?
Fave quote #3
 Let’s
face it baby, your heritage is nothing
but a bunch of raggedy-assed spirituals
and grass huts!
~ George Murchison, Act II, sc. I
Huh? What’s George trying to say?
OK…just one more

By the way, what are your views on Civil
Rights?
~ Walter (to Beneatha), Act II, sc. Iii
What are the differences between Walter
and Beneatha’s views…?
Reality Check:
Quotes you may NOT use!
Oh—So now it’s life. Money is life.
Once upon a time freedom used to be
life—now it’s money. I guess the world
really do change . . .
 Walter: You wouldn’t understand yet, son,
but your daddy’s gonna make a
transaction . . . a business transaction
that’s going to change our lives. . . .
 Mama:
Still…NOT!
Then isn’t there something wrong in a
house—in a world—where all dreams, good or
bad, must depend on the death of a man?
 Mama: There is always something left to love.
And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t
learned nothing.
 Walter: We have decided to move into our
house because my father—my father—he
earned it for us brick by brick.
 Asagai:
And…Just in case…
(dripping with sarcasm)
A
Raisin in the Sun Quotes. Find the
perfect quote to float your boat.
Shmoop breaks down key quotations
from A Raisin in the Sun.

Danger. Beware. Land mines ahead.