Name:
A Raisin in the Sun Questions
Act I
1. The stage directions say that the living room in the Younger apartment might he
comfortable and well-ordered, but ''weariness" has "won in this room." What physical
details of the living room set show these qualities?
2. What details of the setting show that the apartment is crowded?
3. How does the apartment building itself create problems for the Younger family as they
begin the day?
4. When is the check coming?
5. Walter tells Ruth that she looks young this morning and calls her "baby." What do his
remarks and Ruth's responses reveal about their relationship?
6. Walter and Ruth react differently when Travis asks for money for school. What are
Walter's and Ruth's attitudes about money?
7. Ruth tells Walter she doesn't want to know what he has been thinking about Why? What
has Walter been thinking about?
8. How does Walter think women should treat their men?
9. How does Ruth react to Walter's desire for her support?
10. Describe the immediate exchange of words between Walter and his sister, Beneatha,
when she comes into the living room.
11. What are Beneatha's hopes for her own future? Why is Walter concerned about
Beneatha's plans?
12. What sacrifices does Walter say have been made for Beneatha's sake? How does
Beneatha react when she hears this? How does their conversation end?
13. Why does Walter return to the apartment? What does he do?
14. How is Mama described in the stage directions?
15. What does Mama retrieve when she opens the window? What is unique about this object?
16. How does Mama interfere in Ruth's life?
17. In conversations with Ruth and Beneatha in this scene, Mama's values become more
clear. How does Mama feel about money?
18. What kind of man was Big Walter? Why does Mama claim he worked himself to death?
19. How much does Mama value religion? How does she react to Beneatha's denial of God?
20. Mama compares her plant to her children. How are the plant and the children alike? What
does the plant symbolize to Mama?
21. What does Mama ask Ruth to do at the end of this scene? What happens to Ruth?
22. When does Scene II begin? What are Mama and Beneatha doing as this scene begins?
What is Walter doing?
23. Who does Beneatha invite to the apartment? How does she tell Mama to act around this
person?
24. What is revealed about Ruth and where she has been? What is she thinking about doing,
and why might she be considering such a thing?
25. What does Asagai represent to Beneatha? What does Asagai say and do to encourage
Beneatha's search for her identity?
26. Soon after Asagai leaves, the mail carrier delivers the insurance check. How much is the
check worth? Why does Mama's expression become sober and then unhappy when she
holds the check?
27. Walter rushes in demanding to know whether the check has arrived. How does he show
his insensitivity to the situation at home?
28. What evidence shows that Walter is not entirely selfish in wanting to have the in-surance
money?
29. How do Walter's and Mama's views of the meaning of life conflict?
30. How does Mama try to influence Walter at the end of the scene? What does she reveal to
him?
Act II
31. When does Act II begin? What is Beneatha doing as the first scene opens? What is she
wearing?
32. How does the arrival of George Murchison change the mood of the scene?
33. Beneatha calls George an "assimilationist." What does she mean by that?
34. What is Walter's attitude toward George?
35. What is George's attitude toward Walter?
36. Who is Prometheus, and why does George call Walter by that name?
37. What evidence is there that Walter and Ruth still love each other, despite their problems?
38. What news does Mama break to the family in this scene?
39. How do Ruth and Walter react to Mama's news? What does Walter accuse Mama of?
40. When does Scene II begin? In what condition is the apartment when Beneatha arrives
home from a date with George?
41. What sort of woman does George say he wants Beneatha to be? And why doesn't George
want to listen to Beneatha's ideas?
42. When Beneatha asks George why he goes to college, what is his reply?
43. After George leaves, Mama asks Beneatha if she had a good time on her date. Beneatha
replies that George is a fool. Why does she say this?
44. Why does Beneatha thank her mother?
45. How does Ruth find out that Walter has not been to work for three days? What has
Walter been doing instead of going to work?
46. How does Mama react to Walter's explanation of where he's been? What does she give
Walter, and how does Walter react to being entrusted with it?
47. When Walter tells Travis that he wants to hand him the world, what sort of life is Waiter
envisioning for his family?
48. Beneatha and Ruth are busy packing when Ruth tells Beneatha how happy she is with the
change in Walter. What are three examples that show Walter has changed in the past
week?
49. Why does Mr. Lindner come to the Youngers' apartment?
50. Why don't the residents of Clybourne Park want the Youngers in their neighborhood?
51. How does Waiter react to Lindner's offer?
52. What is significant about Mama's preparing her plant for the move as she listens to the
details of the encounter with Lindner?
53. How does Walter respond to Mama's determination?
54. What gifts does the family give Mama? Why are the gifts appropriate?
55. Why doesn't Walter answer the door immediately when the bell rings?
56. Who is at the door? What news does this person bring, and how does Walter react to the
news?
57. How does Mama react, and to whom does she turn to in this time of trouble?
Act III
58. When does Act III begin? What are Walter and Beneatha doing? When Asagai ar-rives at
the apartment, how does his mood contrast with Walter's and Beneatha's?
59. How has the loss of the money changed Beneatha's optimism? What does she tell
Asagai? What is Asagai's response?
60. Throughout this scene, the stage directions say Walter is listening to Beneatha JIK Asagai
talk. What is Walter's reaction to their conversation?
61. How does Asagai define idealists and realists? Which group does he prefer to be
associated with?
62. What alternative view of the future does Asagai offer to put Beneatha's depression in
perspective?
63. Asagai leaves, and Walter comes into the living room. How does Beneatha attack
Walter? What does Walter do?
64. How is Mama's resignation evident in her changed physical appearance? Why does
Mama put her plant back on the windowsill?
65. Who does Mama blame for the current situation, and how does she plan to deal with it?
66. Up until now, Ruth has been the practical one. How does she react to Mama's
resignation?
67. When Walter arrives back home, what does he say he has done? And what does Walter
plan to do?
68. Describe Walter's new view of life as being divided between the "takers" and the
"tooken."
69. What does Mama mean when she tells Waller that if he takes Lindner's money he will
have nothing left inside?
70. Beneatha says Walter is no brother of hers. What lesson does Mama have to re-mind
Beneatha about?
71. When Lindner arrives, why does Mama insist that Travis stay in the room? What does
she believe about Walter?
72. What does Walter tell Lindner? Why? Why does Lindner decide to appeal to Mama?
What is her response?
73. Even though they love one another and have just acted heroically, the play ends with
Walter and Beneatha arguing again. What do their actions now say about them as
"heroes"?
74. What change do both Mama and Ruth find in Walter?
75. What is the importance of having Mama return to the empty apartment to grab her plant?
Post-Viewing Questions:
76. Describe the main conflict of the play from the standpoint of Walter and then from
Mama's standpoint. How are their concerns different?
77. Irony is often used in Drama. What are three examples of moments when Irony is used in
“A Raisin in the Sun”?
78. What do the Motifs of Money and Clothing symbolize?
79. What are three examples of moments when Tension is created?
80. What do you think is the most effective technique used in “A Raisin in the Sun” in order
to set the Mood? How/why is that effective?
81. Are any Stock Characters used in this play? If so, how?
82. Who was your favorite character and why?
83. How do power and authority change hands over the course of the play?
84. How does the idea of assimilationism become important?
85. How does Lorraine Hansberry use Diction to help her characterization?
86. Choose one scene from the play that you found significant. Explain the scene and tell me
why you feel that way. How does it advance the film?
87. Why do you think all the scenes take place in the family’s house?
88. How does Walter change from the beginning of the play?
89. Look closely at Karl Lindner’s speech when he talks to the Youngers. What do you
notice about the way he uses language?
90. Some assert that the ideas and images shown in "A Raisin in the Sun" may be interesting
in terms of history, but are no longer applicable to modern society. What is your opinion
on this issue?
91. In an earlier version of the script, Hansberry ended the play by showing the Youngers
sitting in their new home, armed and awaiting an attack from their white neighbors.
Should this scene have been kept in? What’s the effect of deleting it? Would the presence
of this scene have changed the overall message of the play, or not?
92. 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?
93. What other
possible definitions of manhood come up directly or indirectly in the play?
94. To what extent do you think Hansberry is critiquing traditional gender roles in the play?
95. Would you say that the issue of gender is at least as important in this play as race is?
Why or why not?
Lorraine Hansberry borrowed the title of her play from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.
Use the poem below to answer the questions that follow:
Harlem
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?
96. What does a dream deferred mean?
97. Why do you think Hansberry utilized this line as the title of her play?
98. What connections do you find between the poem and the play?
The working title of the play was originally “The Crystal Stair,” a phrase taken from another
Langston Hughes poem, “Mother to Son”
Use the poem below to answer the questions that follow:
Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
.
99. Why would Hansberry have originally used this phrase as the title of her play?
100.
What might have caused her to change it to “A Raisin in the Sun”?