Then three huge events happen: 1) Lena decides to buy a house for the family…in a white neighborhood, 2) Lena entrusts the rest of the money to Walter, advising him to save a good amount for Beneatha’s schooling, and 3) Walter loses all the money in the liquor store scam.
What happens in Scene 3 of a raisin in the sun?
Walter, very agitated, puts on an act, imitating the stereotype of a Black male servant. When he finally exits, Mama declares that he has died inside. Beneatha decides that he is no longer her brother, but Mama reminds her to love him, especially when he is so downtrodden.
What happens in Scene 2 of a raisin in the sun?
Beneatha and Mama are busy doing weekend housecleaning when Ruth comes in, announcing sadly that she is pregnant. Mama is upset when she realizes that Ruth is contemplating an abortion. Joseph Asagai brings Beneatha a gift of African records and some Nigerian robes.
What is the most important theme in a raisin in the sun?
The Value and Purpose of Dreams
A Raisin in the Sun is essentially about dreams, as the main characters struggle to deal with the oppressive circumstances that rule their lives.
What happens in Act 2 Scene 1 of a raisin in the sun?
Summary: Act II, scene i
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.
What scene does Walter lose the money?
Act II, scene iii.
What is the last scene in a raisin in the sun?
A Raisin in the Sun ends with the Younger family leaving their longtime apartment in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood in order to move into a house they’ve purchased in the otherwise all-white neighborhood of Clybourne Park.
What happens to Ruth at the end of Act 1 Scene 1?
Ruth prepares for her job as a cleaning woman as Mama reprimands Beneatha about her fresh talk. 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.
Why did Beneatha cut her hair?
Beneatha’s Hair
Her new, radical afro represents her embracing of her heritage. Beneatha’s cutting of her hair is a very powerful social statement, as she symbolically declares that natural is beautiful, prefiguring the 1960s cultural credo that black is beautiful.
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.
What does Mama’s plant symbolize?
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.
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
Why is Raisin in the Sun important?
Without question, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is one of the most important plays ever written about Chicago. Emotionally powerful and intellectually provocative, it vividly shows an African-American family’s struggles to escape the shackles of segregation on the city’s South Side.
How many scenes are in Act 3 of a raisin in the sun?
one scene
Your assignment for Week 4 is to read Act 3 of A Raisin in the Sun (pages 131-151). Act 3 only has one scene and it is the last scene of the play.
What happens in Act 1 Scene 1 of a raisin in the sun?
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 Beneatha doing at the beginning of Act 2 Scene 1?
What is Beneatha doing as the first scene opens? She is doing a tribal dance to welcome the men back home. Why does Walter join her in the dance? You just studied 18 terms!
What happened in Act 2 Scene 3 in A Raisin in the Sun?
Ruth and Beneatha are in good spirits; this is the day that the family will move to their new neighborhood. Ruth tells Beneatha that on the previous evening, she and Walter had gone on a date to the movies. Walter comes in and is dancing playfully with Ruth when a white man comes to the door, asking for Lena Younger.
What fault does Mama find in herself?
Answers 1. Mama comes to the conclusion that she dreamed too big, that her ideas and desires were unattainable.
What gift does Travis give to Mama?
The family gives Mama gardening tools, and Travis gives Mama a hat. They are appropriate because the house a garden that Mama can grow fruits in.
How does Walter lose the money?
How does Walter lose the insurance money? Walter loses the insurance money to Willy, a crook that he mistakes for a friend. Mama entrusts Walter with all the money that remains after the down payment on the new house.
What does Beneatha do at the end of the play?
Underneath her tough shell, Beneatha really does care about helping people, which is why she ultimately wants to become a doctor. At the end of the play, she even considers marrying Asagai and going to Africa with him to practice medicine.