A Raisin in the Sun

An hour after Act II ends, Walter is lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, “much as if he were alone in the world” (121). Beneatha “sits at the table, still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates” (121). The doorbell rings, and Asagai enters, full of joy. He has come to help the family pack, declaring, “Ah, I like the look of packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey! It depresses some people…but for me…it is another feeling. Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress… It makes me think of Africa!” (121).

Asagai asks why she seems so unhappy, and Beneatha explains how Walter lost their insurance money. Dejected, Beneatha tells Asagai about the day she realized that she wanted to be a doctor. As a child, a neighborhood boy badly injured his face while sledding and returned from the doctor with only a “little line down the middle of his face” (122). Beneatha says, “That was what one person could do for another, fix him up—sew up the problem, make him all right again. […] Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again. This was truly being God…” (123).

Beneatha adds that she didn’t want to be God, but she wanted to cure people. She no longer seems to care about that “because it doesn’t seem deep enough, close enough to the truth” (123). Asagai accuses her of being grateful to her brother for making the mistake that allows her to “give up the ailing human race on account of it” (123). He adds, “You talk about what good is struggle; what good is anything? Where are we all going? And why are we bothering?” (123). They argue. Beneatha tells Asagai that he cannot answer her questions, and he shouts, “I live the answer!” (124). Asagai describes his village, in which very few people are literate. He asserts that change comes slowly and sometimes all at once, and then not at all, or even goes backward. However, he will continue educating and working to improve his country, even though he might never see the benefit or might die at the hands of his own countrymen. Finally, Asagai offers a suggestion: “That when it is all over—that you come home with me” (125). Beneatha rebukes him, exasperated at the poor timing of his romantic proposition.

Asagai illuminates that he is asking her to go back to Africa with him. Overwhelmed, Beneatha tells Asagai that she is confused by all that has occurred in the last few hours, and Asagai tells her, “Just sit awhile and think…Never be afraid to sit awhile and think” (126). He leaves, and Walter enters, feverishly searching for something. Beneatha attacks him, mocking his dreams of wealth and advancement. Walter finds a small piece of paper and exits the apartment, ignoring Beneatha as she shouts, “I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in the world!” (127). Ruth enters, asking where Walter went, and Beneatha responds bitterly. 

Mama comes into the living room, crestfallen and lost, and picks up her plant. She opens the window and places it on the sill outside. Pulling herself together, Mama tells Beneatha and Ruth to start unpacking and cancel the moving men. She says, “Lord, ever since I was a little girl, I remembers people saying, ‘Lena—Lena Eggleston, you aims too high all the time. You needs to slow down and see life a little more like it is’” (129).

Ruth prods Mama, protesting that they can still move and afford the rent among the four of them. She begs, promising to work twenty hours a day if necessary. Mama tells Ruth that they will improve the apartment instead, saying, “Sometimes you just got to know when to give up some things…and hold on to what you got” (130). 

Walter reenters, out of breath. He tells the others that he called Karl Lindner because “we going to do business with him” (131). Walter tells Mama that life is “divided up” by “the takers and the ‘tooken’” (131) and that people like Willy Harris are never taken because they aren’t worrying so much about right and wrong. Walter says that they will “put on a show” (132) for Lindner and convince him to pay even more to keep them out of Clybourne Park. Mama is appalled, stating, “Son—I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers—but ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody pay ‘em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to walk the earth. We ain’t never been that poor” (133). 

Walter argues that he didn’t make the world the way it is, but as a man, he wants his piece of it, even if it means humiliating himself. He performs an exaggerated impression of a deferent enslaved person before breaking down in tears and exiting to the bedroom. Beneatha says, “That is not a man. That is nothing but a toothless rat” (134). Mama reprimands Beneatha for her lack of compassion for her brother. She asks, “Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning—because that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in his self ‘cause the world done whipped him so” (136). 

Suddenly, Travis enters and announces that the moving men have arrived. Lindner appears, knocking on the open door. He is pleased that the family contacted him, as “life can really be so much simpler than people let it be most of the time” (137). Lindner asks who is going to negotiate with him. As Walter approaches, Ruth tells Travis to go outside. But Mama stops him, ordering, “No. Travis, you stay right here. And you make him understand what you doing, Walter Lee. You teach him good. Like Willy Harris taught you. You show where our five generations done come to” (137). Walter puts his arm around Travis’s shoulders and begins to speak, looking down and shuffling his feet. He tells Lindner that the family has always been simple laborers. Walter becomes emboldened as he explains that they are also proud. He tells Lindner that his sister plans to be a doctor and his son is “the sixth generation of our family in this country” (138). 

Walter adds, “We have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it. We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes—but we will try to be good neighbors” (138). Lindner looks to Mama, appealing, “You are older and wiser and understand things better I am sure…” (139). But Mama emphasizes that Walter has spoken, and she has nothing to add. Shaking his head, Lindner leaves. 

Ruth cheers, and Mama directs the family to prepare for the move. Beneatha tells Mama that Asagai asked her to marry him and return to Africa to become a doctor. Mama tells her that she’s too young to marry, and Walter suggests that she marry someone like George, who has money. They argue passionately as they leave the apartment. Alone with Ruth, Mama says, “He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain…” (141). Ruth agrees proudly and leaves. Mama takes one last look at the apartment, “and suddenly, despite herself, while the children call below, a great heaving thing rises in her and she puts her fist to her mouth” (142). Mama puts on her coat and hat, picks up her plant, and exits.