The Youngers are the main characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. In Scene 1, the family is obsessed with a $10,000 insurance check that is set to arrive any day. Each person in the family wants to escape poverty by using the money to fulfill their own dreams.
What is the conflict in Act 1 Scene 1 of a raisin in the sun?
Walter’s defiance of Ruth’s decision provokes further conflict between husband and wife. In particular, Ruth criticizes Walter’s friend Willy Harris and his business schemes, the latest being a liquor store that Harris has asked Walter to invest in.
What is Act 2 Scene 1 about in a raisin in the sun?
Later that Saturday, dressed in her new Nigerian robes and headdress, Beneatha dances to African music while simultaneously giving Ruth an impromptu lesson in its significance. Walter comes in, after having had a few too many drinks, and joins in Beneatha’s ritualistic dance.
What do the stage directions at the very beginning of Act 1 Scene 1 reveal about Ruth?
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.
What is the climax of Act 1 in a raisin in the sun?
Climax Bobo tells the Youngers that Willy has run off with all of Walter’s invested insurance money; Asagai makes Beneatha realize that she is not as independent as she thinks.
What happened to Ruth at the end of Scene 1?
At the end of the scene, Mama discovers that Ruth has fainted and fallen to the floor. Lorraine Hansberry’s debt to Richard Wright can be noted in the similarities between Hansberry’s Walter Lee and Wright’s Bigger Thomas.
What is the theme of A Raisin in the Sun Act 1?
What is the major theme in A Raisin in the Sun? Dreams and dreams deferred are the central themes in the play. Each character has a dream of their own and in some way, each of their dreams conflicts with someone else’s dream.
What does Walter and Ruth argue about in Act 2 Scene 1?
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.
What happens in Act 2 Scene 2 of raisin in the sun?
Analysis: Act II, scene ii. In Beneatha and George’s conversation, Hansberry reveals two sets of values regarding education. Beneatha believes in education as a means to understanding and self-fulfillment, while George sees education as a means to get a good job.
What is Beneatha doing as the first scene opens?
What is Beneatha doing as the first scene opens? What is she wearing? She is wearing ceremonial clothing from Africa and doing a tribal dance to welcome the men back home.
What is the setting of Raisin in the Sun Act 1 Scene 1?
The play opens in an apartment worn down from generations of ownership. It’s in the South Side of Chicago, and it’s a three-room apartment – there’s a bedroom for Mama and Beneatha, a bedroom for Ruth and Walter Lee, and their son Travis sleeps on a couch in a living room. Ruth Younger is preparing for the day.
Who revealed Walter’s pregnancy?
8. Walter finds out about Ruth’s pregnancy from his mother who realizes that Ruth is considering an abortion, illegal during that time, and knows that Walter Lee needs to be aware of this and to provide support for his wife.
Why is Mama’s Little plant so important to her?
Mama’s Plant
Her care for her plant is similar to her care for her children, unconditional and unending despite a less-than-perfect environment for growth. The plant also symbolizes her dream to own a house and, more specifically, to have a garden and a yard. With her plant, she practices her gardening skills.
Why did Ruth collapse at the end of Act I sc i?
Answer and Explanation: Ruth collapses after her exhaustion, stress, and new pregnancy gets the best of her. She knows that they cannot afford another child, nor can they take the stress that comes with pregnancy, as their situation is bad enough already.
What are 3 conflicts in a raisin in the sun?
Examples of Literary Conflict in A Raisin in the Sun
- MAN vs. MAN. Beneatha is vehemently against acknowledging her mother’s faith, and denies God’s existence.
- MAN vs. SELF. Walter feels like no one understands him or his dream, and he feels stuck.
- MAN vs. SOCIETY.
How old is Beneatha in a raisin in the sun?
Twenty years old
Beneatha Younger (“Bennie”)
Beneatha is an intellectual. Twenty years old, she attends college and is better educated than the rest of the Younger family. Some of her personal beliefs and views have distanced her from conservative Mama.
Why does Ruth want an abortion?
She contemplates an abortion, for example, not because she wants to, but because she is worried about the additional burden she would bring to the family that she already has. Still, Ruth is not an “emotional weakling.” She never raises her voice (as Walter does quite often), but she exhibits a remarkable strength.
Who said you pregnant in a raisin in the sun?
Bennie warns Mama not to ask her friend ignorant questions about Africa. Ruth returns and the mood is somber after she announces that she is two months pregnant. Mama and Bennie ask her if she planned the pregnancy, and if so, where is the baby going to live? Ruth suggests that she did not go to a traditional doctor.
Does Ruth betray Marty?
And so, Ruth took a bullet to the chest and died, remaining loyal to Marty until the very end. Ozark had previously showed that she and Wendy had patched things up, not to mention Ruth deeply cared for their children Jonah and Charlotte.
Why is it called raisin in the sun?
The play’s title is taken from “Harlem,” a poem by Langston Hughes, which examines the question “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?” This penetrating psychological study of a working-class black family on the south side of Chicago in the late 1940s reflected Hansberry’s own
What is the main message of A Raisin in the Sun?
At the heart of Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ is the universal message of the desire for social progress amid the differing opinions on how to achieve it. A Raisin in the Sun is a play about an African American family aspiring to move beyond segregation and disenfranchisement in 1950s Chicago.