Copy of Raisin in the Sun 9/25 (6/23/2025)

Last updated 6 months ago

17 questions

WHAT HAS WALTER BEEN UP TO?

ACT 2, SCENE 2
110 (The phone rings)
RUTH  I’ll get it.
MAMA  Lord, ain’t this a popular place tonight.
RUTH  (At the phone) Hello—Just a minute. (Goes to door) Walter, it’s Mrs. Arnold. (Waits. Goes back to the phone. Tense) Hello. Yes, this is his wife speaking … He’s lying down now. Yes … well, he’ll be in tomorrow. He’s been very sick. Yes—I know we should have called, but we were so sure he’d be able to come in today. Yes—yes, I’m very sorry. Yes … Thank you very much. (She hangs up. WALTER is standing in the doorway of the bedroom behind her) That was Mrs. Arnold.
WALTER  (Indifferently) Was it?
RUTH  She said if you don’t come in tomorrow that they are getting a new man …
WALTER  Ain’t that sad—ain’t that crying sad.
RUTH  She said Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days … Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where you been, Walter Lee Younger? (WALTER looks at her and starts to laugh) You’re going to lose your job.
WALTER  That’s right … (He turns on the radio)
RUTH  Oh, Walter, and with your mother working like a dog every day—
(A steamy, deep blues pours into the room)
WALTER  That’s sad too— Everything is sad.
MAMA  What you been doing for these three days, son?
WALTER  Mama—you don’t know all the things a man what got leisure can find to do in this city … What’s this—Friday night? Well—Wednesday I borrowed Willy Harris’ car and I went for a drive … just me and myself and I drove and drove … Way out … way past South Chicago, and I parked the car and I sat and looked at the steel mills all day long. I just sat in the car and looked at them big black chimneys for hours. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And Thursday—Thursday I borrowed the car again and I got in it and I pointed it the other way and I drove the other way—for hours—way, way up to Wisconsin, and I looked at the farms. I just drove and looked at the farms. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And today—today I didn’t get the car. Today I just walked. All over the Southside. And I looked at the Negroes and they looked at me and finally I just sat down on the curb at Thirty-ninth and South Parkway and I just sat there and watched the Negroes go by. And then I went to the Green Hat. You all sad? You all depressed? And you know where I am going right now—
(RUTH goes out quietly)
MAMA  Oh, Big Walter, is this the harvest of our days?
WALTER  You know what I like about the Green Hat? I like this little cat they got there who blows a sax … He blows. He talks to me. He ain’t but ’bout five feet tall and he’s got a conked head and his eyes is always closed and he’s all music—
MAMA  (Rising and getting some papers out of her handbag) Walter—
WALTER  And there’s this other guy who plays the piano … and they got a sound. I mean they can work on some music … They got the best little combo in the world in the Green Hat … You can just sit there and drink and listen to them three men play and you realize that don’t nothing matter worth a damn, but just being there—
MAMA  I’ve helped do it to you, haven’t I, son? Walter I been wrong.
WALTER  Naw—you ain’t never been wrong about nothing, Mama.

What has Walter been up to while everyone else thought he was working? Drag the three best answers to the box.
____________________________________________________ _______________________________ ______________________________________________ 

Other Answer Choices:

Applying for jobs at the steel mills

Working as a driver for another family

Driving out to the country

Sitting on the curb and watching people walk by

Going to the Green Hat to listen to music

MAMA'S DECISION

131 MAMA  Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you. (She turns off the radio) Walter—(She stops and he looks up slowly at her and she meets his eyes pleadingly) What you ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing as precious to me … There ain’t nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else—if it means—if it means it’s going to destroy my boy. (She takes an envelope out of her handbag and puts it in front of him and he watches her without speaking or moving) I paid the man thirty-five hundred dollars down on the house. That leaves sixty-five hundred dollars. Monday morning I want you to take this money and take three thousand dollars and put it in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical schooling. The rest you put in a checking account—with your name on it. 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. (She drops her hands a little helplessly) It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be.
WALTER  (Stares at the money) You trust me like that, Mama?
MAMA  I ain’t never stop trusting you. Like I ain’t never stop loving you.
(She goes out, and WALTER sits looking at the money on the table. Finally, in a decisive gesture, he gets up, and, in mingled joy and desperation, picks up the money. At the same moment, TRAVIS enters for bed)
TRAVIS  What’s the matter, Daddy? You drunk?
WALTER  (Sweetly, more sweetly than we have ever known him) No, Daddy ain’t drunk. Daddy ain’t going to never be drunk again.…
TRAVIS  Well, good night, Daddy.
138 (The FATHER has come from behind the couch and leans over, embracing his son)
WALTER  Son, I feel like talking to you tonight.
TRAVIS  About what?
WALTER  Oh, about a lot of things. About you and what kind of man you going to be when you grow up. … Son—son, what do you want to be when you grow up?
TRAVIS  A bus driver.
WALTER  (Laughing a little) A what? Man, that ain’t nothing to want to be!
TRAVIS  Why not?
WALTER  ’Cause, man—it ain’t big enough—you know what I mean.
TRAVIS  I don’t know then. I can’t make up my mind. Sometimes Mama asks me that too. And sometimes when I tell her I just want to be like you—she says she don’t want me to be like that and sometimes she says she does.…
WALTER  (Gathering him up in his arms) You know what, Travis? In seven years you going to be seventeen years old. And things is going to be very different with us in seven years, Travis. … One day when you are seventeen I’ll come home—home from my office downtown somewhere—
TRAVIS  You don’t work in no office, Daddy.
WALTER  No—but after tonight. After what your daddy gonna do tonight, there’s going to be offices—a whole lot of offices.…
TRAVIS  What you gonna do tonight, Daddy?
WALTER  You wouldn’t understand yet, son, but your daddy’s gonna make a transaction … a business transaction that’s going to change our lives. … That’s how come one day when you ’bout seventeen years old I’ll come home and I’ll be pretty tired, you know what I mean, after a day of conferences and secretaries getting things wrong the way they do … ’cause an executive’s life is hell, man—(The more he talks the farther away he gets) And I’ll pull the car up on the driveway … just a plain black Chrysler, I think, with white walls—no—black tires. More elegant. Rich people don’t have to be flashy … though I’ll have to get something a little sportier for Ruth—maybe a Cadillac convertible to do her shopping in. … And I’ll come up the steps to the house and the gardener will be clipping away at the hedges and he’ll say, “Good evening, Mr. Younger.” And I’ll say, “Hello, Jefferson, how are you this evening?” And I’ll go inside and Ruth will come downstairs and meet me at the door and we’ll kiss each other and she’ll take my arm and we’ll go up to your room to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of all the great schools in America around you. … All the great schools in the world! And—and I’ll say, all right son—it’s your seventeenth birthday, what is it you’ve decided? … Just tell me where you want to go to school and you’ll go. Just tell me, what it is you want to be—and you’ll be it. … Whatever you want to be—Yessir! (He holds his arms open for TRAVIS) You just name it, son … (TRAVIS leaps into them) and I hand you the world!
(WALTER’S voice has risen in pitch and hysterical promise and on the last line he lifts TRAVIS high)
153 Blackout

What does Mama mean when she says to Walter: "I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you" (131)?

Why does Mama give Walter the money?

DEBATE: AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH MAMA

Is Mama right? Should she give Walter the money?

If yes, explain why. If no, go to the next question.

If no, who should get the money? _______ 

Explain why.

SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER

USE ACT 2, SCENE 1

Who should get the money? __________

Why should Mama give this character the money? Use evidence from the text to explain.

Why should Mama not give the other character the money? Use evidence from the text to explain.

HOMEWORK

Act 2, Scene 2
110 (The phone rings)
RUTH  I’ll get it.
MAMA  Lord, ain’t this a popular place tonight.
RUTH  (At the phone) Hello—Just a minute. (Goes to door) Walter, it’s Mrs. Arnold. (Waits. Goes back to the phone. Tense) Hello. Yes, this is his wife speaking … He’s lying down now. Yes … well, he’ll be in tomorrow. He’s been very sick. Yes—I know we should have called, but we were so sure he’d be able to come in today. Yes—yes, I’m very sorry. Yes … Thank you very much. (She hangs up. WALTER is standing in the doorway of the bedroom behind her) That was Mrs. Arnold.
WALTER  (Indifferently) Was it?
RUTH  She said if you don’t come in tomorrow that they are getting a new man …
WALTER  Ain’t that sad—ain’t that crying sad.
RUTH  She said Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days … Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where you been, Walter Lee Younger? (WALTER looks at her and starts to laugh) You’re going to lose your job.
WALTER  That’s right … (He turns on the radio)
RUTH  Oh, Walter, and with your mother working like a dog every day—
(A steamy, deep blues pours into the room)
WALTER  That’s sad too— Everything is sad.
MAMA  What you been doing for these three days, son?
WALTER  Mama—you don’t know all the things a man what got leisure can find to do in this city … What’s this—Friday night? Well—Wednesday I borrowed Willy Harris’ car and I went for a drive … just me and myself and I drove and drove … Way out … way past South Chicago, and I parked the car and I sat and looked at the steel mills all day long. I just sat in the car and looked at them big black chimneys for hours. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And Thursday—Thursday I borrowed the car again and I got in it and I pointed it the other way and I drove the other way—for hours—way, way up to Wisconsin, and I looked at the farms. I just drove and looked at the farms. Then I drove back and I went to the Green Hat. (Pause) And today—today I didn’t get the car. Today I just walked. All over the Southside. And I looked at the Negroes and they looked at me and finally I just sat down on the curb at Thirty-ninth and South Parkway and I just sat there and watched the Negroes go by. And then I went to the Green Hat. You all sad? You all depressed? And you know where I am going right now—
(RUTH goes out quietly)
MAMA  Oh, Big Walter, is this the harvest of our days?
WALTER  You know what I like about the Green Hat? I like this little cat they got there who blows a sax … He blows. He talks to me. He ain’t but ’bout five feet tall and he’s got a conked head and his eyes is always closed and he’s all music—
MAMA  (Rising and getting some papers out of her handbag) Walter—
WALTER  And there’s this other guy who plays the piano … and they got a sound. I mean they can work on some music … They got the best little combo in the world in the Green Hat … You can just sit there and drink and listen to them three men play and you realize that don’t nothing matter worth a damn, but just being there—
MAMA  I’ve helped do it to you, haven’t I, son? Walter I been wrong.
WALTER  Naw—you ain’t never been wrong about nothing, Mama.
131 MAMA  Listen to me, now. I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you. (She turns off the radio) Walter—(She stops and he looks up slowly at her and she meets his eyes pleadingly) What you ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing as precious to me … There ain’t nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else—if it means—if it means it’s going to destroy my boy. (She takes an envelope out of her handbag and puts it in front of him and he watches her without speaking or moving) I paid the man thirty-five hundred dollars down on the house. That leaves sixty-five hundred dollars. Monday morning I want you to take this money and take three thousand dollars and put it in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical schooling. The rest you put in a checking account—with your name on it. 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. (She drops her hands a little helplessly) It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in the world and I’m putting it in your hands. I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be.
WALTER  (Stares at the money) You trust me like that, Mama?
MAMA  I ain’t never stop trusting you. Like I ain’t never stop loving you.
(She goes out, and WALTER sits looking at the money on the table. Finally, in a decisive gesture, he gets up, and, in mingled joy and desperation, picks up the money. At the same moment, TRAVIS enters for bed)

Required

PART 1: Think about how Walter's words and actions have impacted Mama in the scene. What is the most likely reason Mama gives Walter the money?

Required

PART 2: Which quote offers the best evidence for your answer to Part 1?

ACT 2, SCENE THREE
Time: Saturday, moving day, one week later.
Before the curtain rises, RUTH’S voice, a strident, dramatic church alto, cuts through the silence.
It is, in the darkness, a triumphant surge, a penetrating statement of expectation: “Oh, Lord, I don’t feel no ways tired! Children, oh, glory hallelujah!”
As the curtain rises we see that RUTH is alone in the living room, finishing up the family’s packing. It is moving day. She is nailing crates and tying cartons. BENEATHA enters, carrying a guitar case, and watches her exuberant sister-in-law.
RUTH  Hey!
BENEATHA  (Putting away the case) Hi.
RUTH  (Pointing at a package) Honey—look in that package there and see what I found on sale this morning at the South Center. (RUTH gets up and moves to the package and draws out some curtains) Lookahere—hand-turned hems!
BENEATHA  How do you know the window size out there?
9 RUTH  (Who hadn’t thought of that) Oh—Well, they bound to fit something in the whole house. Anyhow, they was too good a bargain to pass up. (RUTH slaps her head, suddenly remembering something) Oh, Bennie—I meant to put a special note on that carton over there. That’s your mama’s good china and she wants ’em to be very careful with it.
BENEATHA  I’ll do it.
(BENEATHA finds a piece of paper and starts to draw large letters on it)
RUTH  You know what I’m going to do soon as I get in that new house?
BENEATHA  What?
RUTH  Honey—I’m going to run me a tub of water up to here … (With her fingers practically up to her nostrils) And I’m going to get in it—and I am going to sit … and sit … and sit in that hot water and the first person who knocks to tell me to hurry up and come out—
BENEATHA  Gets shot at sunrise.
RUTH  (Laughing happily) You said it, sister! (Noticing how large BENEATHA is absent-mindedly making the note) Honey, they ain’t going to read that from no airplane.
BENEATHA  (Laughing herself) I guess I always think things have more emphasis if they are big, somehow.
RUTH  (Looking up at her and smiling) You and your brother seem to have that as a philosophy of life. Lord, that man—done changed so ’round here. You know—you know what we did last night? Me and Walter Lee?
BENEATHA  What?
RUTH  (Smiling to herself) We went to the movies. (Looking at BENEATHA to see if she understands) We went to the movies. You know the last time me and Walter went to the movies together?
BENEATHA  No.
RUTH  Me neither. That’s how long it been. (Smiling again) But we went last night. The picture wasn’t much good, but that didn’t seem to matter. We went—and we held hands.
BENEATHA  Oh, Lord!
RUTH  We held hands—and you know what?
BENEATHA  What?
26 RUTH  When we come out of the show it was late and dark and all the stores and things was closed up.… and it was kind of chilly and there wasn’t many people on the streets … and we was still holding hands, me and Walter.
BENEATHA  You’re killing me.
(WALTER enters with a large package. His happiness is deep in him; he cannot keep still with his newfound exuberance. He is singing and wiggling and snapping his fingers. He puts his package in a corner and puts a phonograph record, which he has brought in with him, on the record player. As the music, soulful and sensuous, comes up he dances over to RUTH and tries to get her to dance with him. She gives in at last to his raunchiness and in a fit of giggling allows herself to be drawn into his mood. They dip and she melts into his arms in a classic, body-melding “slow drag”)
BENEATHA  (Regarding them a long time as they dance, then drawing in her breath for a deeply exaggerated comment which she does not particularly mean) Talk about—oldddddddddd-fashioneddddddd—Negroes!
WALTER  (Stopping momentarily) What kind of Negroes? (He says this in fun. He is not angry with her today, nor with anyone. He starts to dance with his wife again)
BENEATHA  Old-fashioned.
WALTER  (As he dances with RUTH) You know, when these New Negroes have their convention—(Pointing at his sister)—that is going to be the chairman of the Committee on Unending Agitation. (He goes on dancing, then stops) Race, race, race! … Girl, I do believe you are the first person in the history of the entire human race to successfully brainwash yourself. (BENEATHA breaks up and he goes on dancing. He stops again, enjoying his tease) Damn, even the N double A C P takes a holiday sometimes! (BENEATHA and RUTH laugh. He dances with RUTH some more and starts to laugh and stops and pantomimes someone over an operating table) I can just see that chick someday looking down at some poor cat on an operating table and before she starts to slice him, she says … (Pulling his sleeves back maliciously) “By the way, what are your views on civil rights down there? …”
(He laughs at her again and starts to dance happily. The bell sounds)
BENEATHA  Sticks and stones may break my bones but … words will never hurt me!
(BENEATHA goes to the door and opens it as WALTER and RUTH go on with the clowning. BENEATHA is somewhat surprised to see a quiet-looking middle-aged white man in a business suit holding his hat and a briefcase in his hand and consulting a small piece of paper)

Required

At the beginning of the passage, what is Ruth excited about? Drag three choices. ___________ _________________________________ _____________ 

PART 1: Which room in the new house does Ruth plan to use first?

Required

PART 2: Why is the use of this room so important to Ruth?

Required

Which most closely describes how Walter is acting in this passage?

Required

In this scene, Walter doesn't seem to think Beneatha ever stops talking about __________