Flashcards for A Raisin in the Sun

Beneatha Younger

Beneatha Younger is the youngest adult in the Younger household and serves as the intellectual idealist in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

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Bobo

Bobo is a minor yet dramatically important character in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

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George Murchison

George Murchison is a wealthy, assimilated Black college student who is interested in Beneatha Younger and contrasts sharply with both Joseph Asagai and the Younger family's dreams.

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Joseph Asagai

Joseph Asagai is a Nigerian university student and the most intellectually significant suitor of Beneatha Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

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Karl Lindner

Karl Lindner is the only white character in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and serves as the clearest representation of systemic racism in the play.

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Lena Younger (Mama)

Lena Younger—affectionately known as Mama—is the moral and emotional heart of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.

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Ruth Younger

Ruth Younger is Walter Lee's wife and Travis's mother, serving as the emotional core of the small Younger apartment on Chicago's South Side.

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Travis Younger

Travis Younger is the ten-year-old son of Walter Lee and Ruth Younger, and the only child in their cramped Southside Chicago apartment.

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Walter Lee Younger

Walter Lee Younger is the driving force of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, a Black chauffeur in 1950s Chicago whose intense desire for dignity and financial independence fuels every major conflict in the play.

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“I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy... Mama, look at me.”

This line is spoken by Beneatha Younger to her mother, Lena (Mama) Younger, in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

Beneatha Younger

“Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it's money.”

This line is delivered by Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959), during one of his passionate debates about money, ambition, and what it means to be a man in mid-20th-century Black America.

Walter Lee Younger · Act II

“We have all thought about your offer... and we have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick.”

This powerful declaration is made by Walter Lee Younger towards the end of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959), directed at Karl Lindner, who represents the Clybourne Park Improvement Association.

Walter Lee Younger · Act III

“Seems like God didn't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams—but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.”

This line is spoken by Lena Younger (Mama), the matriarch of the Younger family, in Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

Lena Younger (Mama)

“I say I been wrong, son. That I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you.”

This line is spoken by Lena Younger (Mama), Walter Lee Younger Sr.'s mother, to her son Walter Lee in Act III of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

Lena Younger (Mama) · Act III

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

These lines aren't spoken by any character in A Raisin in the Sun but serve as the epigraph for Lorraine Hansberry's play, taken from Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem."

Langston Hughes (epigraph) · Epigraph

“I don't want nothing but for you to stop moaning 'bout your life.”

This line is delivered by Walter Lee Younger to his wife Ruth in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

Walter Lee Younger · Act I, Scene I

“I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!”

This passionate shout comes from Beneatha Younger, the ambitious younger sister in Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

Beneatha Younger

“You are a disgrace to your father's memory.”

This powerful statement is delivered by Lena Younger (Mama) to her son Walter Lee Younger in Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

Lena Younger (Mama) · Act III

“There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.”

This line is delivered by Lena Younger (Mama) to her daughter Beneatha near the end of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959), after Walter Lee has seemingly derailed the family's dreams by losing the insurance money to a con artist.

Lena Younger (Mama) · Act III

“In my mother's house there is still God.”

This line is delivered by Lena Younger (Mama) in Lorraine Hansberry's influential 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

Lena Younger (Mama) · Act Two, Scene One

“Asagai: I am a revolutionary... and I am also a human being.”

This line is spoken by Joseph Asagai, a Nigerian student and Beneatha Younger's idealistic suitor, in Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun.

Joseph Asagai · Act III

Africa and African Heritage

In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Africa and African heritage represent the quest for identity, dignity, and cultural roots that American racism has long suppressed.

Mama's Plant

In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Mama's scraggly houseplant symbolizes the Younger family's resilience, hope, and stubborn will to survive against overwhelming challenges.

The House in Clybourne Park

In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, the house in Clybourne Park represents the Younger family's dignity, self-determination, and their postponed American Dream.

The Insurance Check

In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, the $10,000 life-insurance check carries deep significance as it reflects the weight of dreams put on hold, the sacrifices made by generations, and the family's urgent desire for self-determination.

The Raisin in the Sun (Langston Hughes Epigraph)

The epigraph from Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" — "What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?" — serves as the central symbol of the play.

Symbolism

Mama's scraggly houseplant is the play's most enduring symbol.

Allusion

The title comes directly from Langston Hughes's poem 'Harlem' (1951): 'What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?'

Epigraph

Hansberry includes Langston Hughes's poem 'Harlem' in full before Act One, serving as a lens through which to view the entire play.

Dramatic Monologue

Walter Lee Younger's extended speeches act as dramatic monologues that reveal his inner struggles—his ambition, shame, and desperation—under pressure.

Metaphor

Hansberry shapes the emotional core of the play using metaphors of light, space, and suffocation.

Juxtaposition

Hansberry often contrasts her characters to highlight the underlying issues of race, gender, and class within the Younger household.

Irony

The play is filled with dramatic and situational irony.

Motif

Money — its presence, absence, and moral implications — serves as the play's central theme.

Personification

Hansberry gives life to the apartment through her stage directions, stating that 'weariness has, in fact, won in this room' and that the furniture 'has fought gallantly with the living.'

Pathetic Fallacy

The play's opening stage direction shows that the Younger apartment gets almost no direct sunlight, which serves both a literal and an atmospheric purpose.

Repetition

Walter's constant expressions of his desires — for himself, for Travis, for the family — create a rhythmic insistence that shifts from hope to desperation.

Apostrophe

Mama's address to the absent Big Walter acts as an apostrophe throughout the play.

frown the world into shape

To force something into order through stern disapproval or pressure, as if a scowling expression alone could reshape reality. Here it suggests God grimly molding a resistant world.

phrase · Chapter 1

holy

Acting self-righteous or morally superior, as if one is too pure to be questioned. Used here as a criticism of someone who puts on a pious, judgmental attitude.

adjective · Chapter 1

sacrifices

Things of value — comfort, money, personal ambition — given up so that someone else can have a better chance. Used to remind Beneatha of what the family has gone without for her sake.

noun · Chapter 1

support the team

To back a shared plan or goal instead of working against it; to act as a loyal partner rather than an obstacle. Used as an appeal for family unity around Walter's ambitions.

phrase · Chapter 1

fit

Willing or pleased to do something; used in the phrase 'didn't see fit,' meaning God chose not to grant something. It carries a sense of divine decision or withholding.

adjective · Chapter 2

made out of

Produced from, or representing the cost of, something deeply personal. Here it means the insurance money literally comes from the sacrifice of her father's life and labor.

phrase · Chapter 2

flesh

A person's physical body and the labor and suffering it endured. Used to say the insurance money represents the cost of Big Walter's entire working life and death.

noun · Chapter 2

appeal

To make a formal or earnest request, often by calling on someone's sense of reason or decency. Lindner uses it to sound polite while pressuring the family not to move.

verb · Chapter 3

civilized

Behaving according to the social norms of a dominant culture; reasonable and restrained. Lindner uses the word to flatter the Youngers while implying they should quietly accept segregation.

adjective · Chapter 3

wisdom

The supposed good sense or prudence of a course of action. Lindner uses it to make backing down from the move sound like a smart, calm choice rather than surrender.

noun · Chapter 3

consideration

Careful thought or attention given to something; also, in a legal or negotiating context, something offered in exchange. Lindner's phrasing blurs polite concern with a veiled financial offer.

noun · Chapter 3

damn

Used as an intensifier expressing frustration or dismissal, with no literal meaning about damnation. Here it shows Walter's contempt for book-learning as a solution to real-world problems.

adjective · Chapter 4

doing to you

Treating someone in a harmful or diminishing way, denying them respect or belief in their potential. Walter admits he has crushed Beneatha's spirit just as society has crushed his own.

phrase · Chapter 4

plain

Ordinary, without pretension or wealth; simple in background and manner. The family uses it to describe themselves honestly before asserting that simplicity does not mean inferiority.

adjective · Chapter 5

proud

Having a strong sense of self-worth and dignity that refuses to be bought or humiliated. Used here not as arrogance but as the refusal to accept a lesser place in society.

adjective · Chapter 5

brick by brick

Gradually and through hard, steady labor, piece by piece over time. It emphasizes that the father's earnings came from years of grinding work, not luck or inheritance.

phrase · Chapter 5

dignity

A person's sense of their own worth and the right to be treated with respect. Walter invokes it as the reason the family will move despite threats, choosing self-respect over money.

noun · Chapter 6

hollow

Empty of feeling or purpose; numb and defeated inside. Describes Walter's state of shock and despair after losing the family's money, as if all life has drained out of him.

adjective · Chapter 6

buyout

A payment offered to persuade someone to give up a right or property. Here it refers to Lindner's offer of money to stop the Youngers from moving into the white neighborhood.

noun · Chapter 6

depend on the death of a man

To be made possible only because someone has died and left behind insurance or inheritance money. Asagai uses it to question a system where a family's future rests on tragedy rather than justice.

phrase · Chapter 6