“A Raisin in the Sun”

Lorraine Hansberry

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. Mama’s son, Walter Lee,
would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store with his friends. He believes that the
investment will solve the family’s financial problems forever. Walter’s wife, Ruth, agrees with
Mama, however, and hopes that she and Walter can provide more space and opportunity for
their son, Travis. Finally, Beneatha, Walter’s sister and Mama’s daughter, wants to use the
money for her medical school tuition. She also wishes that her family members were not so
interested in joining the white world. Beneatha instead tries to find her identity by looking back to
the past and to Africa.

As the play progresses, the Youngers clash over their competing dreams. Ruth
discovers that she is pregnant but fears that if she has the child, she will put more financial
pressure on her family members. When Walter says nothing to Ruth’s admission that she is
considering abortion, Mama puts a down payment on a house for the whole family. She believes
that a bigger, brighter dwelling will help them all. This house is in Clybourne Park, an entirely
white neighborhood. When the Youngers’ future neighbors find out that the Youngers are
moving in, they send Mr. Lindner, from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association, to offer
the Youngers money in return for staying away. The Youngers refuse the deal, even after
Walter loses the rest of the money ($6,500) to his friend Willy Harris, who persuades Walter to
invest in the liquor store and then runs off with his cash.

In the meantime, Beneatha rejects her suitor, George Murchison, whom she believes to
be shallow and blind to the problems of race. Subsequently, she receives a marriage proposal
from her Nigerian boyfriend, Joseph Asagai, who wants Beneatha to get a medical degree and
move to Africa with him (Beneatha does not make her choice before the end of the play). The
Youngers eventually move out of the apartment, fulfilling the family’s long-held dream. Their
future seems uncertain and slightly dangerous, but they are optimistic and determined to live a
better life. They believe that they can succeed if they stick together as a family and resolve to
defer their dreams no longer.
(Extracted from: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/raisin/summary/)

ACT I, SCENE I
(in a nutshell)

It is morning at the Youngers’ apartment. Their small dwelling on the South Side of
Chicago has two bedrooms—one for Mama and Beneatha, and one for Ruth and Walter Lee.
Travis sleeps on the couch in the living room. The only window is in their small kitchen, and they
share a bathroom in the hall with their neighbors. The stage directions indicate that the furniture,
though apparently once chosen with care, is now very worn and faded. Ruth gets up first and
after some noticeable difficulty, rouses Travis and Walter as she makes breakfast. While Travis
gets ready in the communal bathroom, Ruth and Walter talk in the kitchen. They do not seem
happy, yet they engage in some light humor. They keep mentioning a check. Walter scans the
front page of the newspaper and reads that another bomb was set off, and Ruth responds with
indifference. Travis asks them for money—he is supposed to bring fifty cents to school—and
Ruth says that they do not have it. His persistent nagging quickly irritates her. Walter, however,
gives Travis an entire dollar while staring at Ruth. Travis then leaves for school, and Walter tells
Ruth that he wants to use the check to invest in a liquor store with a few of his friends. Walter
and Ruth continue to argue about their unhappy lives, a dialogue that Ruth cuts short by telling
her husband, “Eat your eggs, they gonna be cold.”

Beneatha gets up next and after discovering that the bathroom is occupied by someone
from another family, engages in a verbal joust with Walter. He thinks that she should be doing
something more womanly than studying medicine, especially since her tuition will cut into the
check, which is the insurance payment for their father’s death. Beneatha argues that the money
belongs to Mama and that Mama has the right to decide how it is spent. Walter then leaves for
his job as a chauffeur—he has to ask Ruth for money to get to work because the money he
gave Travis was his car fare. Mama enters and goes directly to a small plant that she keeps just
outside the kitchen window. She expresses sympathy for her grandson, Travis, while she
questions Ruth’s ability to care for him properly. She asks Ruth what she would do with the
money, which amounts to $10,000. For once, Ruth seems to be on Walter’s side. She thinks
that if Mama gives him some of the money he might regain his happiness and confidence, which
are two things Ruth feels she can no longer provide for Walter. Mama, though, feels morally
repulsed by the idea of getting into the liquor business. Instead, she wants to move to a house
with a lawn on which Travis can play. Owning a house had always been a dream she had
shared with her husband, and now that he is gone she nurtures this dream even more
powerfully.

Mama and Ruth begin to tease Beneatha about the many activities that she tries and
quits, including her latest attempt to learn how to play the guitar. Beneatha claims that she is
trying to “express” herself, an idea at which Ruth and Mama have a laugh. They discuss the
man that Beneatha has been dating, George Murchison. Beneatha gets angry as they praise
George because she thinks that he is “shallow.” Mama and Ruth do not understand her
ambivalence toward George, arguing that she should like him simply because he is rich.
Beneatha contends that, for that very reason, any further relationship is pointless, as George’s
family wouldn’t approve of her anyway. Beneatha makes the mistake of using the Lord’s name
in vain in front of Mama, which sparks another conversation about the extent of God’s
providence. Beneatha argues that God does not seem to help her or the family. Mama,
outraged at such a pronouncement, asserts that she is head of the household and that there will
be no such thoughts expressed in her home. Beneatha recants and leaves for school, and
Mama goes to the window to tend her plant. Ruth and Mama talk about Walter and Beneatha,
and Ruth suddenly faints.
(Extracted from: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/raisin/section1/)

ACT I, SCENE II
(In a nutshell)
 The next day, Saturday, the Youngers are cleaning their apartment and waiting for the
insurance check to arrive. Walter receives a phone call from his friend Willy Harris, who is
coordinating the potential liquor store venture. It appears that their plan is moving smoothly. The
insurance check is all Walter needs to pursue the venture. He promises to bring the money to
Willy when he receives it. Meanwhile, Beneatha is spraying the apartment with insecticide in an
attempt to rid it of cockroaches. Beneatha and Travis start fighting, and Beneatha threatens him
with the spray gun.

The phone rings, and Beneatha answers. She invites the person on the phone over to
the still-dirty apartment, much to Mama’s chagrin. After hanging up, Beneatha explains to Mama
that the man she has spoken to on the phone is Joseph Asagai, an African intellectual whom
Beneatha has met at school. She and Mama discuss Beneatha’s worries about her family’s
ignorance about Africa and African people. Mama believes that Africans need religious salvation
from “heathenism,” while Beneatha believes that they are in greater need of political and civil
salvation from French and British colonialism.

Ruth returns from seeing a doctor, who has told her that she is two months pregnant.
She reveals this information to Mama and Beneatha. Ruth and Beneatha are worried and
uncertain, while Mama simply expresses her hope that the baby will be a girl. Ruth calls the
doctor “she,” which arouses Mama’s suspicion because their family doctor is a man. Ruth feels
ill and anxious about her pregnancy. Mama tries to help her relax.

Asagai visits Beneatha, and they spend some time together by themselves. He brings
her some Nigerian clothing and music as gifts. As Beneatha tries on one of the robes, Asagai
asks about her straightened hair. He implies that her hairstyle is too American and unnatural,
and he wonders how it got that way. Beneatha says that her hair was once like his, but that she
finds it too “raw” that way. He teases her a bit about being very serious about finding her
identity, particularly her African identity, through him. Asagai obviously cares for Beneatha very
much, and he wonders why Beneatha does not have the same feeling for him. She explains that
she is looking for more than storybook love. She wants to become an independent and liberated
woman. Asagai scorns her wish, much to Beneatha’s disappointment.
Mama comes into the room, and Beneatha introduces her to Asagai. Mama then recites
Beneatha’s views on Africa and African people as best she can. When Asagai says goodbye, he
calls Beneatha by a nickname, “Alaiyo.” He explains that it is a word from his African tribal
language, roughly translated to mean “One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.” He
leaves, having charmed both women. Finally, the check arrives.

Walter returns home and wants to talk about his liquor store plans. Ruth wants to
discuss her pregnancy with him and becomes upset when he will not listen. She shuts herself
into their bedroom. Mama sits down with Walter who is upset by—and ashamed of—his poverty,
his job as a chauffeur, and his lack of upward mobility. Finally, Mama tells him that Ruth is
pregnant and that she fears that Ruth is considering having an abortion. Walter does not believe
that Ruth would do such a thing until Ruth comes out of the bedroom to confirm that she has
made a down payment on the service.

ACT II, SCENE I

(in a nutshell)
 Later on the same, Saturday, Beneatha emerges from her room cloaked in the Nigerian
clothes that Asagai has brought her. She dances around the apartment, claiming to be
performing a tribal dance while shouting “OCOMOGOSIAY” and singing. Ruth finds Beneatha’s
pageantry silly and questions her about it. Meanwhile, Walter returns home drunk. He sees
Beneatha all dressed up and acts out some made-up tribal rituals with her, at one point standing
on a table and pronouncing himself “Flaming Spear.” Ruth looks on wearily.

George Murchison arrives to pick up Beneatha. Beneatha removes her headdress to

reveal that she has cut off most of her hair, leaving only an unstraightened afro. Everyone is
shocked, amazed, and slightly disappointed with Beneatha, prompting a fierce discussion
between Beneatha and George about the importance of their African heritage. Beneatha goes
to change for the theater, and Walter talks to George about business plans. George does not
seem interested. Walter then becomes belligerent as he makes fun of George’s white shoes.
Embarrassed, Ruth explains that the white shoes are part of the “college style.” George
obviously looks down on Walter—calling him “Prometheus”—and Walter gets even angrier at
him. George and Beneatha finally leave, and Ruth and Walter then begin to fight about Walter
going out, spending money, and interacting with people like Willy Harris. They do begin to make
up, though, by acknowledging that a great distance has grown between them.

Mama comes home and announces that she has put a down payment on a house with
some of the insurance money. Ruth is elated to hear this news because she too dreams of
moving out of their current apartment and into a more respectable home. Meanwhile, Walter is
noticeably upset because he wants to put all the money into the liquor store venture. They all
become worried when they hear that the house is in Clybourne Park, an entirely white
neighborhood. Mama asks for their understanding—it was the only house that they could afford.
She feels she needs to buy the house to hold the family together. Ruth regains her pleasure and
rejoices, but Walter feels betrayed, his dream swept under the table. Walter makes Mama feel
guilty, saying that she has crushed his dream. He goes quickly to his bedroom, and Mama
remains sitting and worrying.
(Extracted from: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/raisin/section3/)