A Raisin in the Sun
By Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry
• Youngest of 4 children
• Parents, prominent intellectuals
• Father purchased a house in an all-white
neighborhood
• Threatened by white mob and forced to leave
by a court order
• Hansberry took the case to the supreme court
and won.
A Dream Deferred
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?
Plot/Setting
• Chicago’s South side
• Early 1950’s
• “the living of too many people for too many
years”
• Money conflicts
• Conflicts outside the family
• Climax is a make or break moment
• Resolution reveals the strength of the family
Characters
• Lena Younger-Mama
• Walter Lee Younger-35 yr. old son, chauffeur
and father of one son. Dreams of owning his
own business. Neglects his wife
• Ruth Younger- Walter’s wife , mother of their
son, Travis
• Beneatha Younger-Mama’s college-age
daughter, dreams of becoming a doctor. She
has two boy friends; George Murchison and
Joseph Asagai
Themes
• The American Dream
• The power of prejudice
• From defeat to victory
Characterization
•
•
•
•
•
Flat
Round
Static/dynamic
Protagonists
Antagonist
Symbols
•
•
•
•
Plant
Insurance money
New house
Nigerian clothes and music
vocabulary
• Indictment-accusation
• Drily(dryly)-matter-of –factly; without
emotion
• Exasperated-irritated; annoyed
• Oppression-feeling of being greatly troubled
or harshly treated
• Ally-supporter or confederate
• Mutual-shared; held in common
vocabulary
• Anguish-pain and suffering; sorrow
• Permeated-penetrated and affected every
part
• Hereros-Bantu-speaking ethnic group in
Namibia(formerly called South West Africa)
• Unobtrusively-without attracting attention
• Furtively-thoughtful
• Reflective- thoughtful; meditative
Vocabulary
• Yoruba-in the language of the Yoruba, an
ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria and
parts of Benin and Togo
• Assimilation-policy of fully absorbing minority
groups into the dominant culture so that their
members lose their ethnic and cultural
identities
ACT II/Vocabulary
Madama Butterfly- heroine of the
opera
Ocomogosiay-coined word
combining syllables from Yoruba,
Swahili, and Zulu to represent a
shout of triumph in a battle
Pearl Baily- American entertainer,
singer, and actress. Ruth imitates
her.
• Alundi- Yoruba for “happy holiday”
• Jomo- Kenyatta, African nationalist
leader and first president of Kenya
• Owimoweh- variation of a Zulu word
for “lion”
• Chaka- great Zulu chief and military
leader
• Ashanti empires- reference is to the
powerful eighteenth and nineteenth
century Ashanti empire in present day
Ghana
• Songhay Civilizations- reference is to a
fifteenth and sixteenth century West
African empire and great trading state.
• Benin- West African country known for
its wooden masks, bronze statuettes, and
pottery
• Bantu- subgroup of languages
including Zulu and Swahili spoken in
Africa
• Sobriety- state of being sober,
clearheaded
• Resignation- passive acceptance
• Revelation- disclosure; something
made known
• Imploring- pleading
• Crackers- derogatory term for
impoverished white people
• Vigor- intense strength; vitality
• Exuberant- full of life; uninhabited
• Peckerwoods – derogatory term for
impoverished white people
• Conked- hair that has been
chemically straightened and is worn
smoothed down
• NAACP- National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. To use
legal means to end discrimination against
African Americans
• Thirty pieces …..less- allusion to the
thirty pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot
received for betraying Jesus
• Saucily- sassily; impertinently
• Taut-tense; strained
ACT III/Vocabulary
•
•
•
•
Retrogression-backward movement
Flippancy-playful impudence
Wrought- created; made
Ofay- derogatory slang for a white
person
• Gait- manner of walking
• Agitated-excited; frantic
• Epitaph- short composition
• Negotiate-bargain; arrange to conclude a
business deal
• Groping- searching uncertainly; fumbling
• Reverie- daydream; dream like attention
• Bustling- energetic activity; busyness