Raisin in the Sun packet  Hamilton 2015




Examine the complex interplay between context and identity in A Raisin in the Sun.
Examine the relationship between physical and social barriers.
Examine Hansberry’s use of characterization and symbolism.
Examine the character’s use of persuasive appeals.
Essential Question
How does one’s environment influence one’s beliefs and actions?
Breakdown of thinking:
Environment
Influence
Belief
Action
Key Ideas:
 Dreams
 Gender Roles in the context of the family, race, history, society.
 Class & Classism – Poverty, Money, Wealth.
 Race, Racism, Discrimination
 Assimilation, Integration, Segregation, Isolation
 Power
POETRY
Harlem [2] BY LANGSTON HUGHES
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, “Harlem” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes.
Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
Source: Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (Random House Inc., 1990)
Dreams BY LANGSTON HUGHES
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Dream Variations BY LANGSTON HUGHES
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me –
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening. . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night comes tenderly
Black like me.
For Heidi with Blue Hair
Fleur Adcock
When you dyed your hair blue
(or, at least, ultramarine
for the clipped sides, with a crest
of jet-black spikes on top)
you were sent home from school
because, as the headmistress put it,
although dyed hair was not
specifically forbidden, yours
was, apart form anything else,
not done in school colours.
Tears in the kitchen, telephone-calls
to school from your freedom-loving father;
‘She’s not punk in her behaviour;
it’s just a style.’ (You wiped your eyes,
also not in school colour.)
‘She discussed it with me first—
we checked the rules.’ ‘And anyway, Dad,
it cost twenty-five dollars.
Tell them it won’t wash out—not even if I wanted to try.’
It would have been unfair to mention
your mother’s death, but that
shimmered behind the arguments.
The school had nothing else against you;
the teachers twittered and gave in.
Next day your black friend had hers done
In grey, white and flaxen yellow—
the school colours precisely:
an act of solidarity, a witty
tease. The battle was already won.
a song in the front yardBY GWENDOLYN BROOKS
I’ve stayed in the front yard all my life.
I want a peek at the back
Where it’s rough and untended and hungry weed grows.
A girl gets sick of a rose.
I want to go in the back yard now
And maybe down the alley,
To where the charity children play.
I want a good time today.
They do some wonderful things.
They have some wonderful fun.
My mother sneers, but I say it’s fine
How they don’t have to go in at quarter to nine.
My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae
Will grow up to be a bad woman.
That George’ll be taken to Jail soon or late
(On account of last winter he sold our back gate).
But I say it’s fine. Honest, I do.
And I’d like to be a bad woman, too,
And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace
And strut down the streets with paint on my face.
Gwendolyn Brooks, “a song in the front yard” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn
Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.
Source: Selected Poems (1963)
Quoting plays can be awkward, that's for sure. Here's some advice on making it easier.
Here's the passage you want to use.
RUTH (With a sudden flash of impatience) Why don't you all just hurry up and go into the banking
business and stop talking about it!
WALTER Why? You want to know why? 'Cause we all tied up in a race of people that don't know how
to do nothing but moan, pray and have babies!
(The line is too bitter even for him and he looks at her and sits down.
RUTH Oh, Walter . . . (Softly) Honey, why can't you stop fighting me?
WALTER (Without thinking) Who's fighting you? Who even cares about you? (71)
(97 words long)
1. Edit the passage you want to use to make it fewer than 40 words, selecting the part most pertinent
to your analysis. Turn what's important in the rest into context. You can do this two ways.
A. Using the names designating parts can sound somewhat awkward, but it is doable.
Ruth complains about Walter's jealousy of wealthier men, and Walter in turn suggests that they would be
better off if Ruth were not pregnant. "RUTH Oh, Walter . . . (Softly) Honey, why can't you stop fighting
me? WALTER (Without thinking) Who's fighting you? Who even cares about you?" (71). Walter's
phrasing is interesting because his last question can be taken two ways: either he disrespects Ruth, or he
doesn't even concern himself with her. It seems Walter has become so preoccupied with his own struggles
that he forgets to care about his own wife.
(25 word quotation)
B. Make a single CQE where you only quote the spoken parts and add your own dialogue
tags. This reads more smoothly.
Ruth complains about Walter's jealousy of wealthier men, and Walter in turn suggests that they would be
better off if Ruth were not pregnant. She says, "Oh, Walter . . . (Softly) Honey, why can't you stop
fighting me?" He replies, "Who's fighting you? Who even cares about you?" (71). Walter's phrasing is
interesting because his last question can be taken two ways: either he disrespects Ruth or he doesn't even
concern himself with her. It seems Walter has become so preoccupied with his own struggles that he
forgets to care about his own wife.
(13 + 8 word "double" quotation)
2. Keep only the most important parts, but don't cut it so severely. In this case, if the passage is
longer than 40 words, block it:
Ruth complains about Walter's jealousy of wealthier men, and Walter in turn suggests that they would be
better off if Ruth were not pregnant:
(The line is too bitter even for him and he looks at her and sits down.
RUTH Oh, Walter . . . (Softly) Honey, why can't you stop fighting me?
WALTER (Without thinking) Who's fighting you? Who even cares about you? (71)
The phrasing is interesting because his last question can be taken two ways: either he disrespects Ruth, or
he doesn't even concern himself with her. Walter has become so preoccupied with his own struggles that
he forgets to care about his own wife.
(41 word quotation)
Remember that in MS-Word you can highlight the quote and then go to Tools: Word Count!