A Raisin In The Sun Study Guide Essay

Part 1: Multiple Choice: Choose the best answer. (worth 1 point each) Act I Scene One 1. Why did Walter ask Ruth what was wrong with her? 2. Why was Ruth upset when Walter gave Travis the money? 3. Who are Willy and Bobo? 4. Walter said, â€Å"Damn my eggs†¦damn all the eggs that ever was! † Why? 5. Who is Beneatha? 6. Why did Beneatha say she wouldn’t marry George? 7. What was Beneatha’s attitude towards God? 8. What happened to Ruth at the end of Act I Scene One? Act I Scene Two 9. Who is Joseph Asagai? 10. What did Ruth find out in the doctor’s office? 11. Why is Asagai’s nickname for Beneatha appropriate? 12. What does Mama say is â€Å"dangerous†? 13. Why did Mama call Walter a disgrace to his father’s memory? Act II Scene One 14. What are â€Å"Assimilationist Negroes†? 15. What did Mama do with her money? Act II Scene Two 16. How did Ruth find out Walter hadn’t been going to work? 17. Where had Walter been going instead of work? 18. What did Mama do for Walter? 1 A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Study Guide Act II Scene Three 19. Who was Karl Lindner? 20. What presents did Mama get? 21. What news did Bobo bring to Walter? Act III 22. Why didn’t Beneatha want to be a doctor anymore? 23. What does Asagai ask Beneatha to do? 24. Why didn’t Walter take the money Lindner offered? 25. Did the Youngers stay of move? Important Quotations: Tell who said it and why it’s significant. Quote 1: â€Å"Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room† Quote 2: â€Å"Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ’bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each†¦ Baby, don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay somebody off! † Quote 3: â€Å"We one group of men tied to a race of women with small minds. † Quote 4: â€Å"Mama, something is happening between Walter and me. I don’t know what it is – but he needs something – something I can’t give him any more. He needs this chance, Lena. † Quote 5: â€Å"Big Walter used to say, he’d get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, ‘Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while. ‘† Quote 6: â€Å"Something has changed. You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too†¦ Now here come you and Beneatha – talking ’bout things we ain’t never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar – how different we done become. â€Å" Quote 7: â€Å"I see you all the time – with the books tucked under your arms – going to your (British A – a mimic) ‘clahsses. ‘ And for what! What the hell you learning over there? Filling up your heads – (Counting off on his fingers) – with the sociology and the psychology – but they teaching 2 A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Study Guide you how to be a man? How to take over and run the world? They teaching you how to run a rubber plantation or a steel mill? Naw – just to talk proper and read books and wear white shoes†¦ † Quote 8: â€Å"What you need me to say you done right for? You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to. It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. So what you need for me to say it was all right for? So you butchered up a dream of mine – you – who always talking ’bout your children’s dreams†¦ † Quote 9: â€Å"And from now on any penny that come out of it or that go in it is for you to look after. For you to decide. It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in the world and I’m putting in your hands. I’m telling you to be head of this family from now on like you supposed to be. â€Å" Quote 10: â€Å" I’m waiting to see you stand up and say we done give up one baby to poverty and  that we ain’t gonna give up nary another one†¦. I’m waiting. † Quote 11: â€Å"Well – I don’t understand why you people are reacting this way. What do you think you are going to gain by moving into a neighborhood where you just aren’t wanted and where some elements – well – people can get awful worked up when they feel that their whole way of life and everything they’ve ever worked for is threatened†¦ You just can’t force people to change their hearts, son. â€Å" Act 2, Scene 3, pg. 105-6 Quote 12: â€Å"I seen†¦ him†¦ night after night†¦ come in†¦ and look at that rug†¦ and then look at  me†¦ the red showing in his eyes†¦ the veins moving in his head†¦ I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty†¦ working and working and working like somebody’s old horse†¦ killing himself†¦ and you – you give it all away in a day†¦ â€Å" Act 2, Scene 3, pg. 117 Quote 13: â€Å"I live the answer! (pause) In my village at home it is the exceptional man who can even read a newspaper†¦ or who ever sees a book at all. I will go home and much of what I will have to say will seem strange to the people of my village†¦ But I will teach and work and things will happen, slowly and swiftly. At times it will seem that nothing changes at all†¦ and then again†¦ the sudden dramatic events which make history leap into the future. And then quiet again. And perhaps†¦ perhaps I will be a great man†¦ I mean perhaps I will hold on to the substance of truth and find my way always with the right course†¦ † Act 3, pg. 124 Quote 14: â€Å"There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. † Act 3, pg. 135 Quote 15: â€Å"He finally came into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain†¦ † Act 3, pg. 141. Quote 16: â€Å"What’s the matter with you all! I didn’t make this world! It was give to me this way. † Quote 17: â€Å"That was what one person could do for another—sew up the problem, make him all right again 3 A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry Study Guide Potential Short Answer 1. What is the setting of the play? 2. What is the central conflict in the play? 3. Define idealist and realist as Asagai does. Which characters fit into each category? 4. What contemporary political issue does Hansberry bring to the stage? Explain. What is the significance of this issue and how does it play a role one’s pursuit of  the American dream? 5. Who/what is the play’s protagonist? 6. Who/what is the play’s antagonist? 7. What moment in the play could be considered the climax? Explain. 8. Compare and contrast Beneatha and Walter. (You may use a chart/diagram). 9. Compare and contrast Asagai and George. (You may use a chart/diagram). 10. Explain the symbolic significance of the plant. 11. What is Asagai’s nickname for Beneatha. Discuss how it is a significant one for the play 12. To whom is Beneatha referring when she says to Lindner, â€Å"You heard that the man said? † Why is it significant?