Thursday B day; Friday A Day; May 12 and 13

This video is not great quality. Feel free to watch from some other source, or see teacher and watch after school, before school, during lunch, or maybe try netflix.



We watched Act 1 scene 2. Questions about the play are being completed for each scene. These are graded. Keep character charts.





Name___________________¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬____________ Period____________
Questions: A Raisin in the Sun (Act 1, Scene 2)
1. Who does Beneatha invite to the apartment? How does she tell Mama to act around this person?

2. What does Asagai say and do to encourage Beneatha's search for her identity?

3. Soon after Asagai leaves, the mail carrier delivers the insurance check. Why does Mama's expression become sober and then unhappy when she holds the check?

4. Walter rushes in demanding to know whether the check has arrived. How does he show his insensitivity to the situation at home?

5. After learning that Ruth was considering an abortion, Mama tells Walter, “I’m waiting to hear how you be your father’s son.” What is she trying to tell him, and how does it relate to what we know about Big Walter’s view of the family?




Use the following character blurbs to fill out a character worksheet grid:
Walter Lee Younger - The protagonist of the play. Walter is a dreamer. He wants to be rich and devises plans to acquire wealth with his friends, particularly Willy Harris. When the play opens, he wants to invest his father’s insurance money in a new liquor store venture. He spends the rest of the play endlessly preoccupied with discovering a quick solution to his family’s various problems. He does not seem to understand that he must pay attention to his family members’ concerns in order to help them. In his middle thirties, he is the husband of Ruth, father of Travis, brother of Beneatha, and son of Lena (Mama) Younger. Walter works as a chauffeur and drinks a bit too much at times. When he discovers that his mother will receive a $10,000 check from his father's insurance, he becomes obsessed with his dreams of a business venture which will give him financial independence and, in his mind, will make him a more valuable human being.

Beneatha Younger (“Bennie”) - The twentyish sister of Walter Lee and the daughter of Lena Younger. She is a college student planning to go to medical school. The only family member privileged to have the opportunity for a higher education, she is sometimes a little overbearing in the pride she takes in being 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. She dreams of being a doctor and struggles to determine her identity as a well-educated black woman. She is at her happiest with Asagai, her Nigerian boyfriend, who has nicknamed her “Alaiyo,” which means “One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.” She is at her most depressed and angry with George, her pompous, affluent African-American boyfriend. She identifies much more with Asagai’s interest in rediscovering his African roots than with George’s interest in assimilating into white culture.

Lena Younger (“Mama”) - Walter and Beneatha’s mother. The matriarch of the family, Mama is religious, moral, and maternal. She wants to use her husband’s insurance money as a down payment on a house with a backyard to fulfill her dream for her family to move up in the world. Money is only a means to an end for Mama; dreams are more important to her than material wealth, and her dream is to own a house with a garden and yard in which Travis can play.

Ruth Younger - Walter’s wife and Travis’s mother. Ruth takes care of the Youngers’ small apartment. Her marriage to Walter has problems, but she hopes to rekindle their love. She is about thirty, but her weariness makes her seem older. Constantly fighting poverty and domestic troubles, she continues to be an emotionally strong woman. Her almost pessimistic pragmatism helps her to survive. The thirtyish wife of Walter Lee Younger and the mother of Travis, their ten-year-old son. Ruth acts as peacemaker in most of the explosive family situations. Very low-key, Ruth reveals her strongest emotions only when she learns of the possibility of their moving to a better neighborhood.

Travis Younger - The ten-year-old son of Walter and Ruth Younger. Living in a household with three generations in conflict, Travis skillfully plays each adult against the other and is, as a result, somewhat "spoiled." In spite of this, he is a likeable child.. Travis earns some money by carrying grocery bags and likes to play outside with other neighborhood children, but he has no bedroom and sleeps on the living-room sofa.

Joseph Asagai - A Nigerian student in love with Beneatha (Bennie). Asagai, as he is often called, is very proud of his African heritage, and Beneatha hopes to learn about her African heritage from him. He eventually proposes marriage to Beneatha and hopes she will return to Nigeria with him. Mannerly, good looking, and personable, he is well liked by all members of the Younger household.

George Murchison - A wealthy, African-American man who courts Beneatha. The Youngers approve of George, but Beneatha dislikes his willingness to submit to white culture and forget his African heritage. He challenges the thoughts and feelings of other black people through his arrogance and flair for intellectual competition. Beneatha's other boyfriend, he too is a college student. His wealthy background alienates him from the poverty of the Youngers. Easily impressed, Ruth is the only member of the Younger household who naively overlooks George's offensive snobbishness

Mr. Karl Lindner - The only white character in the play. Mr. Lindner arrives at the Youngers’ apartment from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. A weak and ineffectual middle-aged white man, Lindner is the spokesman for the white community into which the Youngers plan to move. He has been sent to persuade the Youngers not to move into the white neighborhood. In fact, he has been authorized by the white community to offer the Youngers a monetary incentive not to move in.

Bobo - The somewhat dimwitted friend of Walter Lee who, along with another friend, Willy, plans to invest in Walter Lee's business scheme.. Bobo appears to be as mentally slow as his name indicates.

Willy Harris - The unscrupulous "friend" of Walter Lee and Bobo who absconds with all the money for the prospective business venture. Although the audience never meets him, Willy's character is assessed through the dialogue of others. Since Willy never appears onstage, which helps keep the focus of the story on the dynamics of the Younger family.

Mrs. Johnson - Brash and abrasive neighbor of the Youngers, she insensitively points out to the Youngers all the negative repercussions that await them should they decide to move into the white neighborhood.