A Raisin in the Sun

The play is set in the Southside of Chicago, “sometime between World War II and the present” (4). The action takes place in the living room of the Youngers, a Black family. The room is clean but well-worn. At the beginning of Scene 1, it is very early morning, and Travis sleeps on the sofa’s pullout bed. His mother, Ruth, enters. Ruth “is about thirty. We can see that she was a pretty girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that life has been little that she expected, and disappointment has already begun to hang in her face” (4). Ruth shakes awake Travis, “a sturdy, handsome little boy of ten or eleven” (5). As Travis stumbles into the bathroom, Ruth calls for her husband, Walter Lee, to wake up, in this carefully-choreographed routine for sharing the family’s single bathroom. 

Walter, “a lean, intense young man in his middle thirties” (5) appears sleepily to wait for his turn in the bathroom. He asks Ruth, “Check coming today?” (6). Irked, Ruth replies, “They said Saturday and this is just Friday” (6). Ruth asks Walter how he would like his eggs, and although Walter says, “Not scrambled” (6), Ruth begins to scramble the eggs. Walter reads the Chicago Tribune, and Ruth reacts indifferently as Walter notes some of the items in the news. 

Irritated that he still can’t get into the bathroom, Walter suggests that perhaps Travis ought to wake up earlier. Ruth angrily asserts that she is not going to wake him up earlier when Walter and his friends are in the living room (which is Travis’s bedroom), talking loudly until after ten o’clock at night. Walter smokes a cigarette, which Ruth protests, and notes, “You look young this morning, baby” (7). Then he clarifies that it was only for a moment, and Ruth becomes annoyed. 

Travis enters, and Walter exits to the bathroom. Travis asks Ruth about the check, and Ruth tells him to stop thinking about money. Travis tells Ruth that he needs fifty cents for school, but Ruth doesn’t have it. Ruth shushes him as he suggests that maybe his grandmother or Walter would have money and finally asks if he can earn money after school by helping people with their groceries. Ruth doesn’t answer but sends the boy to make his bed. Ruth fixes Travis’s hair. As he is about to leave in a huff, Ruth teases him and laughs. They hug, and he asks again if he can go carry groceries. Ruth comments that it’s getting cold in the evenings. Walter enters, overhearing, and asks why Ruth won’t give Travis fifty cents. She responds, “‘Cause we don’t have it” (12). Walter asks, “What you tell the boy things like that for?” (12) and gives Travis the money. Walter adds an additional fifty cents so Travis can do something frivolous. 

Cheerfully, Travis leaves for school while Ruth glowers at her husband for undermining her. Once he is gone, Walter tells Ruth that while he was in the bathroom, he was thinking about something his friend, Willy Harris, said the previous night. Ruth dismisses Willy Harris as a “good-for-nothing loud mouth” (13). Walter points out that she called Charlie Atkins the same thing when he asked Walter to join him in a dry-cleaning business. Walter muses that although Charlie now grosses $100,000 a year, Ruth “still call[s] him a loud mouth” (13). Walter observes that Ruth is tired of everything, but “a man needs for a woman to back him up…” (14). He asks Ruth to talk to his mother about Willy’s suggestion to team up with their friend Bobo and buy a liquor store. Walter lays out the cost, which includes $10,000 plus “a couple of hundred you got to pay so’s you don’t spend your life just waiting for them clowns to let your license get approved” (15). Ruth asks pointedly, “You mean graft?” (15), and Walter takes exception to the term, asserting, “Baby, don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!” (15).

Ruth tells Walter to eat his breakfast, and Walter gets upset, exclaiming, “That’s it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby! And his woman say—Your eggs is getting cold!” (15). Ruth reminds Walter that the money isn’t theirs. But Walter continues to push. He is unhappy with a life in which his son sleeps in the living room and “all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live” (15). Walter complains that Black women “don’t understand about building their men up and making ‘em feel like they somebody. Like they can do something” (16). 

Walter’s sister, Beneatha, enters, interrupting their argument. Beneatha “is about twenty, as slim and intense as her brother. She is not as pretty as her sister-in-law, but her lean, almost intellectual face has a handsomeness all of its own” (17). Beneatha is educated, and speaks differently from the rest of her family. She attempts to get into the bathroom, but the family next door has taken control. Beneatha sits at the table.

Walter and Beneatha tease each other, and Walter asks Beneatha if she has decided for certain that she wants to go to medical school. When Beneatha tells him that her response hasn’t changed, Walter questions, “Have we figured out yet just exactly how much medical school is going to cost?” (18). Instead of answering, Beneatha exits and bangs on the bathroom door. Walter reminds Beneatha that the check is arriving tomorrow, and Beneatha shoots back that it belongs to their mother and she can use it how she pleases. Irritated, Walter points out that Beneatha is “such a nice girl” (19) to consider their mother’s wishes, since “she can always take a few thousand to help [her] out through school too” (19). Beneatha points out that she didn’t ask for the money, and Walter guilts Beneatha for being selfish while he and Ruth have sacrificed for the family. He suggests that if Beneatha is “so crazy about messing ‘round with sick people,” she should “be a nurse like other women—or just get married and be quiet” (20). 

Walter and Beneatha reveal that the money they are waiting for is the life insurance policy on their deceased father. Beneatha asserts, “Picking on me is not going to make her give it to you to invest in any liquor stores—and I for one say, God bless Mama for that!” (20).Ruth tells Walter to go to work, and Walter complains, “Nobody in this house is ever going to understand me” (21). He leaves, then returns, needing carfare money. Ruth teases, “Fifty cents?” (21), then gives him money for a taxi. He leaves, and Lena Younger, known as Mama, enters, having been awakened by the shouting and door slamming. 

Mama “is a woman in her early sixties, full-bodied and strong. She is one of those women of a certain grace and beauty who wear it so unobstructively that it takes a while to notice” (22). Mama moves a “feeble little plant growing doggedly in a small pot on the window sill” (22). Mama comments, “Lord, if this little old plant don’t get more sun than it’s been getting, it ain’t never going to see spring again” (22). 

Mama criticizes Ruth for feeding Travis cold cereal last week, questioning her about his breakfast that morning. As Ruth becomes irritated at her mother-in-law’s prying, Mama asks Beneatha why she was fighting with Walter. Although Beneatha demurs, Mama knows that they have been arguing about the money. Ruth confirms, bringing up Walter’s liquor store idea. Mama says, “We ain’t no business people, Ruth. We just plain working folks” (25), and Ruth replies, “Ain’t nobody business people till they go into business” (25). Ruth admits, “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” (25). However, Mama objects morally to investing in liquor. 

Noticing that Ruth is exhausted, Mama tells her to call in sick to work. Ruth declines because they need the money, and Mama reminds her that they are expecting a check for $10,000 dollars. Ruth affirms that the money belongs to Mama, suggesting she use the money to take a vacation, which Mama dismisses. When Ruth asks what she plans to use the money for, Mama tells Ruth that some of the money is for Beneatha’s education. Mama adds that they might have enough to make a down payment on a house. 

Mama and her late husband rented the apartment shortly after they were married and planned to buy a house within a year but never did. Mama and her husband, Big Walter, lived a hard life. When they lost a baby, it nearly killed Big Walter. Mama says, “I guess that’s how come that man finally worked his self to death like he done. Like he was fighting his own war with this here world that took his baby from him” (29). Beneatha reenters, complaining about the sound of the vacuum cleaner from the upstairs apartment. Ruth scolds Beneatha for taking the Lord’s name in vain, calling her “fresh as salt” (30). Beneatha tells Mama that she will be home late because she is starting guitar lessons. Mama complains that Beneatha has enrolled in a litany of activities—some of which cost money—and then abandoned them. Beneatha defends herself, claiming, “I don’t flit! I—I experiment with different forms of expression” (32). 

Beneatha plans to go out with George Murchison tomorrow night but deflects Mama’s pleased reaction to the news by claiming, “I couldn’t ever really be serious about George. He’s—he’s so shallow” (33). Ruth exclaims that George is rich, demanding, “What other qualities a man got to have to satisfy you, little girl?” (33).Beneatha responds, “You wouldn’t even begin to understand. Anybody who married Walter could not possibly understand” (33). Ruth is shocked to learn that Beneatha has no intention of marrying George. Beneatha points out that George’s family wouldn’t approve anyway. Beneatha asserts, “Listen, I’m going to be a doctor. I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet—if I ever get married” (35). Mama and Ruth seize on the word “if,” and Beneatha reassures them that she probably will marry eventually, but she is definitely going to be a doctor. Mama says that she will, “God willing” (35), and Beneatha admits that she doesn’t believe in God. Mama slaps her, forcing her to repeat, “In my mother’s house there is still God” (37). Mama exits. Beneatha calls her mother a tyrant, claiming, “But all the tyranny in the world will never put a God in the heavens” (37). Beneatha gathers her books and leaves.

At the door to Mama’s room, Ruth lies, telling Mama that Beneatha apologized. Mama reenters, telling Ruth that her children scare her. One is obsessed with money, and the other, she “can’t seem to understand in no form or fashion” (37). Ruth comforts her, saying, “You just got strong-willed children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep ‘em in hand” (38). Mama tends her little plant, telling Ruth, “I always wanted me a garden like I used to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home. This plant is close as I ever got to having one” (38). She asks Ruth to sing her song, but Ruth has collapsed into the chair. Alarmed, Mama calls Ruth’s name as the scene ends. 

Scene 2 takes place the next morning. The family is scrubbing the apartment. Beneatha is attempting to kill cockroaches. Everyone except Travis is working. Travis complains about the fumes from the cleaning chemicals and requests to go downstairs, as he has finished his chores early. When he asks where his mother has gone, Mama looks at Beneatha before telling him vaguely, “She had to go on a little errand” (39). Mama sends Travis to play outside. Walter enters and makes a call, asking for Willy Harris. He tells Willy that the check hasn’t arrived but will shortly and inquires, “Did the lawyer give you the papers?” (40).

Beneatha asks Mama about Ruth, and Mama tells her that she believes she went to the doctor. Ambiguously, Mama implies that Ruth might be pregnant. The phone rings, and Beneatha answers, inviting the person on the other end to come over. Mama, who has been listening, asks who she is expecting to come over while the house is in such disarray, and Beneatha tells her that her friend Joseph Asagai (she pronounces it “Ah-sah-guy” (42) for her mother) is a scholar from Nigeria and “doesn’t care how houses look” (42). 

Mama has never met an African person, and Beneatha begs her not to ask “a whole lot of ignorant questions about Africans” (42). Ruth returns. She confirms what they have already guessed: she is two months pregnant. Beneatha asks if she planned to get pregnant, and Ruth tells her to “mind [her] own business” (44). Beneatha shoots back, “It is my business—where is he going to live, on the roof?” (44). Apologetically, Beneatha takes it back, claiming, “I—I think it is wonderful” (44). Mama is suspicious when Ruth slips and refers to the doctor as “she” (44). Ruth becomes anxious, holding back a scream as Mama leads her off to lie down. 

The doorbell sounds, and Asagai enters. He is “a rather dramatic-looking man” (45) and is holding a package. He greets Beneatha as “Alaiyo” and observes that she looks upset, and Beneatha says, “Yes, we’ve got acute ghetto-itus” (46). Asagai has been in Canada, which he describes as “Canadian” (46). Beneatha is happy to see Asagai, although Asagai points out that she was glad when he left. Beneatha opens the package, which contains “some records and the colorful robes of a Nigerian woman” (46). Asagai compliments her in Yoruba, commenting on her “mutilated hair” (47). He criticizes her for not wearing her hair naturally. She becomes upset, and he says, “I am only teasing you because you are so very serious about these things” (48). 

Asagai remembers meeting Beneatha at school, laughing, “You came up to me and I thought you were the most serious little thing I had ever seen—you said: ‘Mr. Asagai—I want very much to talk with you. About Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity!’” (48). Beneatha is not laughing and becomes offended when Asagai suggests that “assimilation is so popular in your country” (48). Asagai calls her serious again and tells her that the robes belong to his sister. Beneatha is touched that Asagai went to the effort of having her send them from Africa, and Asagai says, “For you—I would do much more” (49). 

Asagai prepares to leave, promising, at Beneatha’s urging, to call her Monday. They have a lot to talk about, including how much time she needs to figure out how she feels about him. Beneatha chides, “You never understood that there is more than one kind of feeling which can exist between a man and a woman” (49). Asagai disagrees, claiming, “Between a man and a woman there need only be one kind of feeling. I have that for you” (49). Mama enters, and Asagai apologizes for visiting “at such an outrageous hour on a Saturday” (50). Mama tells Asagai that she would love to hear about his country, surprising him by repeating what Beneatha had told Mama earlier. Mama offers for Asagai to come over for “some decent home-cooked meals” (51), since he is so far from his mother. 

Asagai thanks her sincerely and calls Beneatha “Alaiyo” again, explaining to Mama that it’s a Yoruba word that means “One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough” (52). Beneatha is moved to learn what her nickname means. Asagai leaves. Mama calls him “a pretty thing” (52) and understands why Beneatha is suddenly so interested in Africa. After Mama exits, Beneatha tries on the Nigerian dress, attempting to “wriggle in front of the mirror as she thinks a Nigerian woman might” (52). Travis enters, catching her. Mama returns, asking Travis to go to the neighbors to ask to borrow some kitchen cleanser. Beneatha begins to run off, and Mama stops her to ask where she is going. Beneatha responds, “To become a queen of the Nile!” (53).Ruth enters, claiming that she doesn’t need to lie down. Travis returns with cleanser, relaying the message that the neighbors don’t have much. Mama becomes angry, and as they argue whether the neighbors legitimately are low on cleanser or if they are simply being stingy, the bell rings. The mailman has arrived.

Excitedly, Ruth sends Travis to get the mail. He returns with the envelope. Mama tells them, “be quiet. It’s just a check” (55), and one that they have been expecting. They open the envelope, staring in awe. Mama looks at it unhappily, telling Ruth to put it away and murmuring, “Ten thousand dollars they give you. Ten thousand dollars” (55). Ruth sends a confused Travis out to play. She comments that Mama has made herself upset. Mama claims that if it weren’t for the rest of the family, she probably would have put the money in savings or donated it to the church. 

Suddenly, Mama asks Ruth where she went that day. Ruth repeats that she went to the doctor, but Mama points out that Ruth said “she” earlier. Mama demands, “You went to see that woman, didn’t you?” (56). Ruth defends herself, but Walter enters, asking if the money arrived. Mama scolds him for asking about money without so much as a “Christian greeting” (57). Ruth affirms that it did come, and Walter tells his mother that Willy Harris has laid out the liquor store agreement on paper. Mama tells Walter to talk to Ruth, offering to leave them to speak privately. Frustrated, Walter yells, “WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!” (57).

Mama rebukes him for yelling, adding that she will not be investing in a liquor store. Angrily, Walter starts to leave. Ruth asks where he is going, insisting that she will join him because she needs to talk to him. Mama orders him to sit and speak civilly to his wife. Ruth exclaims, “Oh, let him go out and drink himself to death! He makes me sick to my stomach!” (59). Walter responds, “And you turn mine too, baby!” (59).

Ruth goes into their bedroom and slams the door. Mama warns Walter that he has been acting “like a crazy man” (59) lately and that Ruth has been patient. Walter asserts that Ruth doesn’t do anything for him. He insists that he is going out. Mama tells him that it’s dangerous “when a man goes outside his home to look for peace” (60). Walter is tired of driving a limousine and opening doors for people. Mama asks why he talks about money so much, and he says, “Because it is life, Mama!” (61). She replies, “So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life” (61). Mama insists that he should be happy with the progress that they have made. She tells Walter that Ruth is pregnant and that she thinks Ruth is considering an abortion. Walter is incredulous, but Ruth reenters, admitting that she gave the woman a down payment for the procedure. When Walter fails to argue with Ruth for his child, Mama calls him “a disgrace to [his] father’s memory” (63).