Perhaps the World Ends
Here
By Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table.
So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners.
They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human.
We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children.
They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together
once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror. A
place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and
crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
"Perhaps the World Ends Here" from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo. Copyright © 1994 by Joy Harjo. Used by permission of
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., www.wwnorton.com.
Harlem
By Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
5
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?
10
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Background: Langston Hughes, a black poet in the 1930s and 40s, was born in Missouri, but
spent most of his life in New York City. This poem is named after Harlem, the NYC suburb
that is still to this day a predominantly black community.
Directions: Answer the questions below on your own paper. Make sure your responses are
written in complete sentences.
1. Using context clues, what do you think the word deferred means in line 1?
2. What words from the poem best help the reader understand the meaning of the word
fester in line 4?
3. What is the author’s purpose in using questions throughout the poem?
4. What is the overall tone of the poem? Explain your tone choice.
5. What is the overall theme of the poem?
6. Write down at least 5 words that appeal to the senses from the poem. Is this imagery
positive or negative?
7. There are several similes in the poem. Pick one simile and explain its meaning. Why did
the author include this simile in the poem?
8. What can the reader infer about Harlem from the context of the poem?
A Raisin in the Sun Excerpt
By Lorraine Hansberry
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A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an
African-American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s.
When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check
for $10,000. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life
insurance policy. Each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to
what he or she would like to do with this money. The matriarch of the family,
Mama, wants to buy a house to fulfill a dream she shared with her husband. Ruth
is Mama’s daughter-in-law; she is married to Mama’s son, Walter.
RUTH (Sincerely, but also self-righteously) Now that's your money. It ain't got nothing to do
with me. We all feel like that Walter and Bennie and me, even Travis.
MAMA (Thoughtfully, and suddenly very far away) Ten thousand dollars
RUTH Sure is wonderful.
MAMA Ten thousand dollars.
RUTH You know what you should do, Miss Lena? You should take yourself a trip somewhere.
To Europe or South America or someplace
MAMA (Throwing up her hands at the thought) Oh, child!
RUTH I'm serious. Just pack up and leave! Go on away and enjoy yourself some. Forget about
the family and have yourself a ball for once in your life
MAMA (Drily) You sound like I'm just about ready to die. Who'd go with me? What I look like
wandering 'round Europe by myself?
RUTH Shoot these here rich white women do it all the time. They don't think nothing of packing
up they suit- cases and piling on one of them big steamships and swoosh! They gone, child.
MAMA Something always told me I wasn't no rich white woman.
RUTH Well what are you going to do with it then?
MAMA I ain't rightly decided. (Thinking. She speaks now with emphasis) Some of it got to be
put away for Beneatha and her schoolin' and ain't nothing going to touch that part of it. Nothing.
(She waits several seconds, trying to make up her mind about something, and looks at RUTH a
little tentatively before going on) Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a little
old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime, if we use part
of the insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of pitch in. I could maybe take on a
little day work again, a few days a week.
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RUTH (Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concentrating on her ironing, anxious to
encourage without seeming to) Well, Lord knows, we've put enough rent into this here rat trap to
pay for four houses by now.
MAMA (Looking up at the words “rat trap" and then looking around and leaning back and
sighing in a suddenly reflective mood) "Rat trap" yes, that's all it is. (Smiling) I remember just as
well the day me and Big Walter moved in here. Hadn't been married but two weeks and wasn't
planning on living here no more than a year. (She shakes her head at the dissolved dream) We
was going to set away, little by little, don't you know, and buy a little place out in Morgan Park.
We had even picked out the house. (Chuckling a little) Looks right dumpy today, but Lord, child,
you should know all the dreams I had 'bout buying that house and fixing it up and making me a
little garden in the back (She waits and stops smiling) And didn't none of it happen. (Dropping
her hands in a futile gesture)
RUTH (Keeps her head down, ironing) Yes, life can be a barrel of disappointments, sometimes.
Directions: Answer the questions below on your own paper. Make sure your responses are
written in complete sentences.
9. Explain the relationship between Ruth and Mama. Provide two lines of dialogue that
support your conclusion.
10. What line of dialogue provides the best evidence that Mama is selfless?
11. What can the reader infer about Ruth from the following stage directions in paragraph
14?
(Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concentrating on her ironing,
anxious to encourage without seeming to)
12. What do the stage directions in paragraph 15 emphasize about Mama?
13. How does Ruth’s perception of the insurance money change throughout the excerpt?
14. What is the overall tone of the excerpt? Explain your tone choice.
15. What is the overall theme in this excerpt?