Name: ________________________________
English 1
Due Date: ________
Score: ___/100 (2: Organization, 38: Questions, 60: Essay)
A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry
Reading Guide
TAKE NOTES ON THE PLAY, INCLUDING ALL ITEMS BELOW, ON LOOSELEAF PAPER. BE SURE
TO LABEL THEM CLEARLY.
Main Characters: Describe the main characters in notes format.
1.
Ruth Younger
2.
Travis Younger
3.
Walter Lee Younger
4.
Beneatha Younger
5.
Lena Younger (Mama)
6.
Joseph Asagai
7.
George Murchison
8.
Mrs. Johnson
9.
Karl Lindner
10.
Bobo
11.
Two Moving Men
12.
Walter Younger
13.
Willy
14.
Setting: Describe the setting in notes format.
Allusions, Words and Phrases: These are period expressions that may cause confusion and make the play
difficult at times to understand. While there are many allusions, especially to the Bible and African history and
culture, here are some of the major ones featured.
Define these in notes format.
Act I, Scene 1:
15.
crocheted doilies
16.
a settled woman
17.
slubbornness (also called a portmanteau word)
18.
fly-by-night proposition
19.
I don’t want that on my ledger.
20.
My girl didn’t come in today.
Act I, Scene 2
21.
Hay-lo
22.
We’ve all got acute ghetto-itis.
23.
Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity.
24.
You don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar.
Name: ________________________________
English 1
Due Date: ________
Score: ___/130 (9: Organization, 61: Questions, 60: Essay)
Act II, Scene 1
25.
The lion is waking.
26.
Owimoweh
27.
Prometheus
28.
Gimme some sugar then
29.
never been ‘fraid of no crackers
Act II, Scene 2
30.
Drop the Garbo routine.
31.
He’s got a conked head.
32.
the nature of quiet desperation (“The mass of men lead lives of quiet
33.
peckerwoods
34.
Booker T. Washington
desperation.”)
Act II, Scene 3
35.
hand-turned hems
36.
Thirty pieces and not a coin less.
37.
Scarlett O’Hara
38.
spread some money ‘round
Act III
39.
Monsieur le petit bourgeois noir
40.
peachy keen, as the ofay kids say
41.
sharecroppers
42.
You done write his epitaph too.
Literary Terms: Explain how these terms relate to the play, its characters and its main events.
43.
didactic literature
44.
propaganda
45.
protagonist
46.
hero
47.
antagonist
48.
conflict
49.
suspense, surprise and how it affects the plot
50.
unity of action
51.
significant action
52.
rising action, climax, falling action and denouement
53.
peripety or reversal
54.
portmanteau word
55.
motivation
56.
flat character
57.
round character
58.
Hamartia and hubris
59.
rhetorical question
60.
irony
61.
dramatic irony
Name: ________________________________
English 1
Due Date: ________
Score: ___/100 (2: Organization, 38: Questions, 60: Essay)
Short Answer Questions: Choose any three to answer in full details. These will require you to write your
answer in paragraphs. Be sure to include details from the play to back up your answer.
Include the number of the question you are answering. You may want to consider taking notes as we read,
using a list or chart.
62.
In literature, as in life, a character may search for a better way of life. Show how two characters from A
Raisin in the Sun are searching for a better way of life. Explain what each character is hoping to gain
through this search and discuss the ways in which each character attempts to bring about a change in his
or her life.
63.
Discuss the ways in which the setting of A Raisin in the Sun has a profound effect upon two of the
characters.
64.
If people can be divided into three groups -- those who make things happen, those who watch things
happen, and those who wonder what happened -- apply each of these to the three characters in A Raisin in
the Sun who respectively prove that this is so.
65.
Often, pressure from other people or from outside forces might compel a person to take an action that he
or she might not have taken ordinarily. Discuss a character from A Raisin in the Sun who was pressured
into taking an action that he or she might not have taken on his or her own.
66.
Show how A Raisin in the Sun deals with the generation gap -- the problems that the older generation
have in dealing with the younger generation and vice versa.
67.
Discuss the ways in which two characters in A Raisin in the Sun have made adjustments to negative
aspects of their environment. These adjustments might be to the character’s physical surroundings, to
other people, or to the customs and traditions of the society in which they live.
68.
Sometimes something as seemingly trivial as a meeting or a conversation between two people can have a
lasting effect upon the life of one or even of both of them. Discuss how either a seemingly unimportant
meeting or a casual conversation brings about a significant change in the life of one of the characters in A
Raisin in the Sun.
69.
Sometimes in one work of literature, we might find two characters who contrast markedly from one
another. Discuss two characters from A Raisin in the Sun who are the opposite of each other in their
views, beliefs and philosophy of life.
70.
Add another ending to the already existing ending of A Raisin in the Sun. Describe what you think
happens next -- after the Youngers have left their Southside Chicago apartment and have moved into their
new house. Consider using Hansberry’s style and dialogue of the characters to show your plot.