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A RAISIN IN THE SUN
By: Lorraine Hansberry To Mama: in gratitude for the dream What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load. Or does it explode? -Langston Hughes Act I Scene One: Friday morning. Scene Two: The following morning. Act II Scene One: Later, the same day. Scene Two : Friday night, a few weeks later. Scene Three: Moving day, one week later. Act III An hour later. ACT I SCENE ONE The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of inde- structible contradictions to this state of being. Its furnish- ings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years and they are tired. Still, we can see that at some time, a time probably no longer remembered by the family {except perhaps for MAMA), the furnishings of this room were actually selected with care and love and even hope and brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and pride. That was a long time ago. Now the once loved pattern of the couch upholstery has to fight to show itself from under acres of crocheted doilies and couch covers which have themselves finally come to be more important than the upholstery. And here a table or a chair has been moved to disguise the worn places in the carpet; but the carpet has fought back by showing its weariness, with depressing uniformity, elsewhere on its surface. Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too 24 A RAISIN IN THE SUN often. All pretenses but living itself have long since van- ished from the very atmosphere of this room. Moreover, a section of this room, for it is not really a room unto itself, though the landlord's lease would make it seem so, slopes backward to provide a small kitchen area, where the family prepares the meals that are eaten in the living room proper, which must also serve as dining room. The single window that has been provided for these "two" rooms is located in this kitchen area. The sole natural light the family may enjoy in the course of a day is only that which fights its way through this little window. At left, a door leads to a bedroom which is shared by MAMA and her daughter, BENEATHA. At right, opposite, is a second room (which in the beginning of the life of this apartment was probably a breakfast room) which serves as a bedroom for WALTER and his wife, RUTH. Time: Sometime between World War II and the present. Place: Chicago's Southside. At Rise: It is morning dark in the living room. TRAVIS is asleep on the make-down bed at center. An alarm clock sounds from within the bedroom at right, and presently RUTH enters from that room and closes the door behind her. She crosses sleepily toward the window. As she passes her sleeping son she reaches down and shakes him a little. At the window she raises the shade and a dusky Southside morning light comes in feebly. She fills a pot with water and puts it on to boil. She calls to the boy, between yawns, in a slightly muffled voice. 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. In a few years, be- fore thirty-five even, she will be known among her people as a "settled woman" She crosses to her son and gives him a good, final, rousing shake. A RAISIN IN THE SUN 25 RUTH Come on now, boy, it's seven thirty! (Her son sits up at last, in a stupor of sleepiness) I say hurry up, Travis! You ain't the only person in the world got to use a bathroom! (The child, a sturdy, handsome little boy of ten or eleven, drags himself out of the bed and almost blindly takes his towels and "today's clothes" from drawers and a closet and goes out to the bath- room, which is in an outside hall and which is shared by another family or families on the same floor. RUTH crosses to the bedroom door at right and opens it and calls in to her husband) Walter Lee!... It's after seven thirty! Lemme see you do some waking up in there
now! (She waits) You better get up from there, man! It's after seven thirty I tell you. (She waits again) All right, you just go ahead and lay there and next thing you know Travis be finished and Mr. Johnson'll be in there and yo.u'll be fussing and cussing round here like a madman! And be late too! (She waits, at the end of patience) Walter Lee it's time for you to GET UP! (She waits another second and then starts to go into the bedroom, but is apparently satisfied that her husband has begun to get up. She stops, pulls the door to, and returns to the kitchen area. She wipes her face with a moist cloth and runs her fingers through her sleep-disheveled hair in a vain effort and ties an apron around her housecoat. The bedroom door at right opens and her husband stands in the doorway in his pajamas, which are rumpled and mismated. He is a lean, intense young man in his middle thirties, inclined to quick nervous movements and erratic speech habits and always in his voice there is a quality of indictment) WALTER Is he out yet? RUTH What you mean out? He ain't hardly got in there good yet. 26 A RAISIN IN THE SUN WALTER (Wandering in, still more oriented to sleep than to a new day) Well, what was you doing all that yelling for if I can't even get in there yet? (Stopping and thinking) Check coming today? RUTH They said Saturday and this is just Friday and I hopes to God you ain't going to get up here first thing this morning and start talking to me 'bout no money 'cause I 'bout don't want to hear it. WALTER Something the matter with you this morning? RUTH No I'm just sleepy as the devil. What kind of eggs you want? WALTER Not scrambled. (RUTH starts to scramble eggs) Paper come? (RUTH points impatiently to the rolled up Tribune on the table, and he gets it and spreads it out and vaguely reads the front page) Set off another bomb yesterday. RUTH (Maximum indifference) Did they? WALTER (Looking up) What's the matter with you? RUTH Ain't nothing the matter with me. And don't keep asking me that this morning. WALTER Ain't nobody bothering you. (Reading the news of the day absently again) Say Colonel McCormick is sick. RUTH (Affecting tea-party interest) Is he now? Poor thing. WALTER (Sighing and looking at his watch) Oh, me. (He waits) Now what is that boy doing in that bathroom all this time? He just going to have to start getting up earlier. I can't be being late to work on account of him fooling around in there. RUTH (Turning on him) Oh, no he ain't going to be get- ting up no earlier no such thing! It ain't his fault that A RAISIN IN THE SUN 27 he can't get to bed no earlier nights 'cause he got a bunch of crazy good-for-nothing clowns sitting up run- ning their mouths in what is supposed to be his bed- room after ten o'clock at night... WALTER That's what you mad about, ain't it? The things I want to talk about .with my friends just couldn't be important in your mind, could they? (He rises and finds a cigarette in her handbag on the table and crosses to the little window and looks out, smoking and deeply enjoying this first one) RUTH (Almost matter of factly, a complaint too automatic to deserve emphasis) Why you always got to smoke before you eat in the morning? WALTER (At the window) Just look at 'em down there
... Running and racing to work... (He turns and faces his wife and watches her a moment at the stove, and then, suddenly) You look young this morning, baby. RUTH (Indifferently) Yeah? WALTER Just for a second stirring them eggs. Just for a second it was you looked real young again. (He reaches for her; she crosses away. Then, drily) It's gone now you look like yourself again! RUTH Man, if you don't shut up and leave me alone. WALTER (Looking out to the street again) First thing a man ought to learn in life is not to make love to no colored woman first thing in the morning. You all some eeeevil people at eight o'clock in the morning. (TRAVIS appears in the hall doorway, almost fully dressed and quite wide awake now, his towels and pajamas across his shoulders. He opens the door and signals for his father to make the bathroom in a hurry) 28 A RAISIN IN THE SUN TRAVIS (Watching the bathroom) Daddy, come on! (WALTER gets his bathroom utensils and flies out to the bathroom) RUTH Sit down and have your breakfast, Travis. TRAVIS Mama, this is Friday. (Gleefully) Check coming
the fifty cents... WALTER (To his wife only) Why not? RUTH (Simply, and with flavor) 'Cause we don't have it. A RAISIN IN THE SUN 31 WALTER (To RUTH only) What you tell the boy things like that for? (Reaching down into his pants with a rather important gesture) Here, son (He hands the boy the coin, but his eyes are di- rected to his wife's. TRAVIS takes the money hap- pily) TRAVIS Thanks, Daddy. (He starts out. RUTH watches both of them with murder in her eyes. WALTER stands and stares back at her with defiance, and suddenly reaches into his pocket again on an afterthought) WALTER (Without even looking at his son, still staring hard at his wife) In fact, here's another fifty cents... Buy yourself some fruit today or take a taxicab to school or something! TRAVIS Whoopee (He leaps up and clasps his father around the middle with his legs, and they face each other in mutual appreciation; slowly WALTER LEE peeks around the boy to catch the violent rays from his wife's eyes and draws his head back as if shot) WALTER You better get down now and get to school, man. TRAVIS (At the door) O.K. Good-bye. (He exits) WALTER (After him, pointing with pride) That's my boy. (She looks at him in disgust and turns back to her work) You know what I was thinking 'bout in the bath- room this morning? RUTH No. WALTER How come you always try to be so pleasant! RUTH What is there to be pleasant 'bout! 32 A RAISIN IN THE SUN WALTER You want to know what I was thinking 'bout in the bathroom or not! RUTH I know what you thinking 'bout. WALTER (Ignoring her) 'Bout what me and Willy Harris was talking about last night. RUTH (Immediately a refrain) Willy Harris is a good- for-nothing loudmouth. WALTER Anybody who talks to me has got to be a good-for-nothing loudmouth, ain't he? And what you know about who is just a good-for-nothing loudmouth? Charlie Atkins was just a "good-for-nothing loud- mouth" too, wasn't he! When he wanted me to go in the dry-cleaning business with him. And now he's grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thou- sand dollars a year! You still call him a loudmouth! RUTH (Bitterly) Oh, Walter Lee... (She folds her head on her arms over the table) WALTER (Rising and coming to her and standing over her) You tired, ain't you? Tired of everything. Me, the boy, the way we live this beat-up hole everything. Ain't you? (She doesn't look up, doesn't answer) So tired moaning and groaning all the time, but you wouldn't do nothing to help, would you? You couldn't be on my side that long for nothing, could you? RUTH Walter, please leave me alone. WALTER A man needs for a woman to back him up ,.. RUTH Walter WALTER Mama would listen to you. You know she listen to you more than she do me and Bennie. She think more of you. All you have to do is just sit down with her when you drinking your coffee one morning and talking 'bout things like you do and (He sits down be- A RAISIN IN THE SUN 33 side her and demonstrates graphically what he thinks her methods and tone should be) you just sip your coffee, see, and say easy like that you been thinking 'bout that deal Walter Lee is so interested in, 'bout the store and all, and sip some more coffee, like what you saying ain't really that important to you And the next thing you know, she be listening good and asking you questions and when I come home I can tell her the details. This ain't no fly-by-night proposition, baby. I mean we figured it out, me and Willy and Bobo. RUTH ( With a frown ) Bobo? WALTER Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be 'bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each. Course, there's 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
RUTH You mean graft? WALTER (Frowning impatiently) Don't call it that. See there, that just goes to show you what women under- stand about the world. Baby, don't nothing happen for you in this world 'less you pay somebody off! RUTH Walter, leave me alone! (She raises her head and stares at him vigorously then says, more quietly) Eat your eggs, they gonna be cold. WALTER (Straightening up from her and looking off) That's it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. (Sadly, but gaining in power) Man say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. (Passionately now) Man say: I got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby! And 34 A RAISIN IN THE SUN his woman say (In utter anguish as he brings his fists down on his thighs) Your eggs is getting cold! RUTH (Softly) Walter, that ain't none of our money. WALTER (Not listening at all or even looking at her) This morning, I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about it ... I'm thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room (Very, very quietly) and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live... RUTH Eat your eggs, Walter. WALTER (Slams the table and jumps up) DAMN MY EGGS DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS! RUTH Then go to work. WALTER (Looking up at her) See I'm trying to talk to you 'bout myself (Shaking his head with the repetition) and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work. RUTH (Wearily) Honey, you never say nothing new. I listen to you every day, every night and every morning, and you never say nothing new. (Shrugging) So you would rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So I would rather be living in Buckingham Palace. WALTER That is just what is wrong with the colored woman in this world... Don't understand about build- ing their men up and making 'em feel like they some- body. Like they can do something. RUTH (Drily, but to hurt) There are colored men who do things. WALTER No thanks to the colored woman. RUTH Well, being a colored woman, I guess I can't help myself none. (She rises and gets the ironing board and sets it A RAISIN IN THE SUN 35 up and attacks a huge pile of rough-dried clothes, sprinkling them in preparation for the ironing and then rolling them into tight fat balls) WALTER (Mumbling) We one group of men tied to a race of women with small minds! (His sister BENEATHA enters. She 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 of its own. She wears a bright-red flannel nightie, and her thick hair stands wildly about her head. Her speech is a mixture of many things; it is different from the rest of the family's insofar as education has per- meated her sense of English and perhaps the Midwest rather than the South has finally at last won out in her inflection; but not altogether, be- cause over all of it is a soft slurring and trans- formed use of vowels which is the decided influ- ence of the Southside. She passes through the room without looking at either RUTH or WALTER and goes to the outside door and looks, a little blindly, out to the bathroom. She sees that it has been lost to the Johnsons. She closes the door with a sleepy vengeance and crosses to the table and sits down a little defeated) BENEATHA I am going to start timing those people. WALTER You should get up earlier. BENEATHA (Her face in her hands. She is still fighting the urge to go back to bed) Really would you suggest dawn? Where's the paper? WALTER (Pushing the paper across the table to her as he studies her almost clinically, as though he has never seen her before) You a horrible-looking chick at this hour. 36 A RAISIN IN THE SUN BENEATHA (Drily) Good morning, everybody. WALTER (Senselessly) How is school coming? BENEATHA (In the same spirit) Lovely. Lovely. And you know, biology is the greatest. (Looking up at him) I dissected something that looked just like you yes- terday. WALTER I just wondered if you've made up your mind and everything. BENEATHA (Gaining in sharpness and impatience) And what did I answer yesterday morning and the day before that?
Finally:) WALTER (To RUTH) I need some money for carfare. RUTH (Looks at him, then warms; teasing, but tenderly) Fifty cents? (She goes to her bag and gets money) Here take a taxi! (WALTER exits. MAMA enters. She 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 unobtrusively that it takes a while to notice. Her dark-brown face is surrounded by the total whiteness of her hair, and, being a woman who has adjusted to many things in life and over- come many more, her face is full of strength. She has, we can see, wit and faith of a kind that keep her eyes lit and full of interest and expectancy. She is, in a word, a beautiful woman. Her bearing is perhaps most like the noble bearing of the women of the Hereros of Southwest Africa rather as if she imagines that as she walks she still bears a basket or a vessel upon her head. Her speech, on the other hand, is as careless as her car- riage is precise she is inclined to slur everything but her voice is perhaps not so much quiet as simply soft) MAMA Who that 'round here slamming doors at this hour? (See crosses through the room, goes to the win- dow, opens it, and brings in a feeble little plant growing doggedly in a small pot on the window sill. She feels the dirt and puts it back out) RUTH That was Walter Lee. He and Bennie was at it again. 40 A RAISIN IN THE SUN MAMA My children and they tempers. 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. (She turns from the window) What's the matter with you this morning, Ruth? You looks right peaked. You aiming to iron all them things? Leave some for me. I'll get to 'em this afternoon. Bennie honey, it's too drafty for you to be sitting 'round half dressed. Where's your robe? BENEATHA In the cleaners. MAMA Well, go get mine and put it on. BENEATHA I'm not cold, Mama, honest. MAMA I know but you so thin... BENEATHA (Irritably) Mama, I'm not cold. MAMA (Seeing the make-down bed as TRAVIS has left it) Lord have mercy, look at that poor bed. Bless his heart he tries, don't he? (She moves to the bed TRAVIS has sloppily made up) RUTH No he don't half try at all 'cause he knows you going to come along behind him and fix everything. That's just how come he don't know how to do nothing right now you done spoiled that boy so. MAMA (Folding bedding) Well he's a little boy* Ain't supposed to know 'bout housekeeping. My baby, that's what he is. What you fix for his breakfast this morning? RUTH (Angrily) I feed my son, Lena! MAMA I ain't meddling (Underbreath; busy-bodyish) I just noticed all last week he had cold cereal, and when it starts getting this chilly in the fall a child ought to have some hot grits or something when he goes out in the cold A RAISIN IN THE SUN 41 RUTH (Furious) I gave him hot oats is that all right! MAMA I ain't meddling. (Pause) Put a lot of nice butter on it? (RUTH shoots her an angry look and does not reply) He likes lots of butter. RUTH (Exasperated) Lena MAMA (To BENEATHA. MAMA is inclined to wander con- versationally sometimes) What was you and your brother fussing 'bout this morning? BENEATHA It* s not important, Mama. (She gets up and goes to look out at the bath- room, which is apparently free, and she picks up her towels and rushes out) MAMA What was they fighting about? RUTH Now you know as well as I do. MAMA (Shaking her head) Brother still worrying his- self sick about that money? RUTH You know he is. MAMA You had breakfast? RUTH Some coffee. MAMA Girl, you better start eating and looking after yourself better. You almost thin as Travis. RUTH Lena MAMA Un-hunh? RUTH What are you going to do with it? MAMA Now don't you start, child. It's too early in the morning to be talking about money. It ain't Christian. RUTH It's just that he got his heart set on that store
42 A RAISIN IN THE SUN
MAMA You mean that liquor store that Willy Harris want him to invest in? RUTH Yes MAMA We ain't no business people, Ruth. We just plain working folks. RUTH Ain't nobody business people till they go into business. Walter Lee say colored people ain't never going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on some different kinds of things in the world investments and things. MAMA What done got into you, girl? Walter Lee done finally sold you on investing. RUTH No. Mama, 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. MAMA (Frowning deeply) But liquor, honey RUTH Well like Walter say I spec people going to al- ways be drinking themselves some liquor. MAMA Well whether they drinks it or not ain't none of my business. But whether I go into business selling it to 'em is, and I don't want that on my ledger this late in life. (Stopping suddenly and studying her daughter- in-law} Ruth Younger, what's the matter with you to- day? You look like you could fall over right there. RUTH I'm tired. MAMA Then you better stay home from work today, RUTH I can't stay home. She'd be calling up the agency and screaming at them, "My girl didn't come in today send me somebody! My girl didn't come in!" Oh, she just have a fit ... A RAISIN IN THE SUN 43 MAMA Well, let her have it. I'll just call her up and say you got the flu RUTH (Laughing) Why the flu? MAMA 'Cause it sounds respectable to 'em. Something white people get, too. They know 'bout the flu. Other- wise they think you been cut up or something when you tell 'em you sick. RUTH I got to go in. We need the money. MAMA Somebody would of thought my children done all but starved to death the way they talk about money here late. Child, we got a great big old check coming tomorrow. RUTH (Sincerely, but also self-righteously) Now that's your money. It ain't got nothing to do with me. We all feel like that Walter and Bennie and me even Travis. MAMA (Thoughtfully, and suddenly very far away) Ten thousand dollars RUTH Sure is wonderful. MAMA Ten thousand dollars. RUTH You know what you should do, Miss Lena? You should take yourself a trip somewhere. To Europe or South America or someplace MAMA (Throwing up her hands at the thought) Oh, child! RUTH I'm serious. Just pack up and leave! Go on away and enjoy yourself some. Forget about the family and have yourself a ball for once in your life MAMA (Drily) You sound like I'm just about ready to die. Who'd go with me? What I look like wandering 'round Europe by myself? 44 A RAISIN IN THE SUN RUTH Shoot these here rich white women do it all the time. They don't think nothing of packing up they suit- cases and piling on one of them big steamships and swoosh! they gone, child. MAMA Something always told me I wasn't no rich white woman. RUTH Well what are you going to do with it then? MAMA I ain't rightly decided. (Thinking. She speaks now with emphasis) Some of it got to be put away for Beneatha and her schoolin' and ain't nothing going to touch that part of it. Nothing. (She waits several sec- onds, trying to make up her mind about something, and looks at RUTH a little tentatively before going on) Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis could play in the summertime, if we use part of the insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of pitch in. I could maybe take on a little day work again, few days a week RUTH (Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concen- trating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without seeming to) Well, Lord knows, we've put enough rent into this here rat trap to pay for four houses by now MAMA (Looking up at the words t( rat trap" and then looking around and leaning back and sighing in a
RUTH The horseback-riding club for which she bought that fifty-five-dollar riding habit that's been hanging in the closet ever since! MAMA (To BENEATHA) Why you got to flit so from one thing to another, baby? BENEATHA (Sharply) I just want to learn to play the guitar. Is there anything wrong with that? MAMA Ain't nobody trying to stop you. I just wonders sometimes why you has to flit so from one thing to an- other all the time. You ain't never done nothing with all that camera equipment you brought home 48 A RAISIN IN THE SUN BENEATHA I don't flit! I I experiment with different forms of expression RUTH Like riding a horse? BENEATHA People have to express themselves one way or another. MAMA What is it you want to express? BENEATHA (Angrily) Me! (MAMA and RUTH look at each other and burst into raucous laughter) Don't worry I don't expect you to understand. MAMA (To change the subject) Who you going out with tomorrow night? BENEATHA (With displeasure) George Murchison again. MAMA (Pleased) Oh you getting a little sweet on him? RUTH You ask me, this child ain't sweet on nobody but herself (Vnderbreath) Express herself! (They laugh) BENEATHA Oh I like George all right, Mama. I mean I like him enough to go out with him and stuff, but RUTH (For devilment) What does and stuff mean? BENEATHA Mind your own business. MAMA Stop picking at her now, Ruth. (She chuckles then a suspicious sudden look at her daughter as she turns in her chair for emphasis) What DOES it mean? BENEATHA (Wearily) Oh, I just mean I couldn't ever really be serious about George. He's he's so shallow. RUTH Shallow what do you mean he's shallow? He's Rich! MAMA Hush, Ruth. BENEATHA I know he's rich. He knows he's rich, too. A RAISIN IN THE SUN 49 RUTH Well what other qualities a man got to have to satisfy you, little girl? BENEATHA You wouldn't even begin to understand. Any- body who married Walter could not possibly under- stand. MAMA (Outraged) What kind of way is that to talk about your brother? BENEATHA Brother is a flip let's face it. MAMA (To RUTH, helplessly) What's a flip? RUTH (Glad to add kindling) She's saying he's crazy. BENEATHA Not crazy. Brother isn't really crazy yet he he's an elaborate neurotic. MAMA Hush your mouth! BENEATHA As for George. Well. George looks good he's got a beautiful car and he takes me to nice places and, as my sister-in-law says, he is probably the rich- est boy I will ever get to know and I even like him sometimes but if the Youngers are sitting around waiting to see if their little Bennie is going to tie up the family with the Murchisons, they are wasting their time. RUTH You mean you wouldn't marry George Murchison if he asked you someday? That pretty, rich thing? Honey, I knew you was odd BENEATHA No I would not marry him if all I felt for him was what I feel now. Besides, George's family wouldn't really like it MAMA Why not? BENEATHA Oh, Mama The Murchisons are honest-to- God-real-Kve-rich colored people, and the only people in the world who are more snobbish than rich white 50 A RAISIN IN THE SUN people are rich colored people. I thought everybody knew that. I've met Mrs. Murchison. She's a scene! MAMA You must not dislike people 'cause they well off, honey. BENEATHA Why not? It makes just as much sense as disliking people 'cause they are poor, and lots of people do that. RUTH (A wisdom-of-the-ages manner. To MAMA) Well, she'll get over some of this BENEATHA Get over it? What are you talking about, Ruth? Listen, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm not wor-
ried about who I'm going to marry yet if I ever get married. MAMA and RUTH If! MAMA Now, Bennie BENEATHA Oh, I probably will ... but first I'm going to be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that's pretty funny. I couldn't be bothered with that. I am going to be a doctor and everybody around here better understand that! MAMA (Kindly) 'Course you going to be a doctor, honey, God willing. BENEATHA (Drily) God hasn't got a thing to do with it. MAMA Beneatha that just wasn't necessary. BENEATHA Well neither is God. I get sick of hearing about God. MAMA Beneatha! BENEATHA I mean it! I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He-got to do with anything? Does he pay tuition? A RAISIN IN THE SUN 51 MAMA You 'bout to get your fresh little jaw slapped! RUTH That's just what she needs, all right! BENEATHA Why? Why can't I say what I want to around here, like everybody else? MAMA It don't sound nice for a young girl to say things like that you wasn't brought up that way. Me and your father went to trouble to get you and Brother to church every Sunday. BENEATHA Mama, you don't understand. It's all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don't accept. It's not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe in God. I don't even think about it. It's just that I get tired of Him get- ting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no blasted God there is only man and it is he who makes miracles! (MAMA absorbs this speech, studies her daughter and rises slowly and crosses to BENEATHA and slaps her powerfully across the face. After, there is only silence and the daughter drops her eyes from her mother's face, and MAMA is very tall before her) MAMA Now you say after me, in my mother's house there is still God. (There is a long pause and BENEATHA stares at the floor wordlessly. MAMA repeats the phrase with precision and cool emotion) In my mother's house there is still God. BENEATHA In my mother's house there is still God. (A long pause) MAMA (Walking away from BENEATHA, too disturbed for triumphant posture. Stopping and turning back to her daughter) There are some ideas we ain't going to have in this house. Not long as I am at the head of this family. 52 A RAISIN IN THE SUN BENEATHA Yes, ma'am. (MAMA walks out of the room) RUTH (Almost gently, with profound understanding) You think you a woman, Bennie but you still a little girl. What you did was childish so you got treated like a child. BENEATHA I see. (Quietly) I also see that everybody thinks it's all right for Mama to be a tyrant. But all the tyranny in the world will never put a God in the heavens! (She picks up her books and goes out. Pause) RUTH (Goes to MAMA'S door) She said she was sorry. MAMA (Coming out, going to her plant) They frightens me, Ruth. My children. RUTH You got good children, Lena. They just a little off sometimes but they're good. MAMA No there's something come down between me and them that don't let us understand each other and I don't know what it is. One done almost lost his mind thinking 'bout money all the time and the other done commence to talk about things I can't seem to under- stand in no form or fashion. What is it that's changing, Ruth. RUTH (Soothingly, older than her years) Now... you taking it all too seriously. You just got strong-willed children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep 'em in hand. MAMA (Looking at her plant and sprinkling a little water on it) They spirited all right, my children. Got to ad- mit they got spirit Bennie and Walter. Like this little old plant that ain't never had enough sunshine or noth- ing and look at it ... A RAISIN IN THE SUN 53 {She has her back to RUTH, who has had to stop ironing and lean against something and put the back of her hand to her forehead) RUTH (Trying to keep MAMA from noticing) You... sure... loves that little old thing, don't you?...
SCENE Two It is the following morning; a Saturday morning, and house cleaning is in progress at the YOUNGERS. Furniture has been shoved hither and yon and MAMA is giving the kitchen-area walls a washing down. BENEATHA, in dun- garees, with a handkerchief tied around her face, is spraying insecticide into the cracks in the walls. As they work, the radio is on and a Southside disk-jockey pro- gram is inappropriately filling the house with a rather exotic saxophone blues. TRAVIS, the sole idle one, is lean- ing on his arms, looking out of the window. TRAVIS Grandmama, that stuff Bennie is using smells awful. Can I go downstairs, please? MAMA Did you get all them chores done already? I ain't seen you doing much. TRAVIS Yes'm finished early. Where did Mama go this morning? MAMA (Looking at BENEATHA) She had to go on a little errand. (The phone rings. BENEATHA runs to answer it and reaches it before WALTER, who has entered from bedroom) TRAVIS Where? MAMA To tend to her business. BENEATHA Haylo... (Disappointed) Yes, he is. (She tosses the phone to WALTER, who barely catches it) It's Willie Harris again. WALTER (As privately as possible under MAMA'S gaze) Hello, Willie. Did you get the papers from the lawyer? A RAISIN IN THE SUN 55
... No, not yet. I told you the mailman doesn't get here till ten-thirty... No, I'll come there... Yeah! Right away. (He hangs up and goes for his coat) BENEATHA Brother, where did Ruth go? WALTER (As he exits) How should I know! TRAVIS Aw come on, Grandma. Can I go outside? MAMA Oh, I guess so. You stay right in front of the house, though, and keep a good lookout for the post- man. TRAVIS Yes'm. (He darts into bedroom for stickball and bat, reenters, and sees BENEATHA on her knees spraying under sofa with behind upraised. He edges closer to the target, takes aim, and lets her have it. She screams) Leave them poor little cockroaches alone, they ain't bothering you none! (He runs as she swings the spray- gun at h ; m viciously and playfully) Grandma! Grandma! MAMA Look out there, girl, before you be spilling some of that stuff on that child! TRAVIS (Safely behind the bastion of MAMA) That's right look out, now! (He exits) BENEATHA (Drily) I can't imagine that it would hurt him it has never hurt the roaches. MAMA Well, little boys' hides ain't as tough as Southside roaches. You better get over there behind the bureau. I seen one marching out of there like Napoleon yesterday. BENEATHA There's really only one way to get rid of them, Mama MAMA HOW? BENEATHA Set fire to this building! Mama, where did Ruth go? 56 A RAISIN IN THE SUN MAMA (Looking at her with meaning) To the doctor, I think. BENEATHA The doctor? What's the matter? (They ex- change glances) You don't think MAMA (With her sense of drama) Now I ain't saying what I think. But I ain't never been wrong 'bout a woman neither. (The phone rings') BENEATHA (At the phone) Hay-lo... (Pause, and a moment of recognition) Well when did you get back! ... And how was it? ... Of course I've missed you in my way... This morning? No... house cleaning and all that and Mama hates it if I let people come over when the house is like this... You have? Well, that's different... What is it Oh, what the hell, come on over... Right, see you then. Arrividerci. (She hangs up) MAMA (Who has listened vigorously, as is her habit) Who is that you inviting over here with this house looking like this? You ain't got the pride you was born with! BENEATHA Asagai doesn't care how houses look, Mama he's an intellectual. MAMA Who? BENEATHA Asagai Joseph Asagai. He's an African boy I met on campus. He's been studying in Canada all summer. MAMA What's his name? BENEATHA Asagai, Joseph. Ah-sah-guy... He's from
Nigeria. MAMA Oh, that's the little country that was founded by slaves way back. ,. A RAISIN IN THE SUN 57 BENEATHA No, Mama that* s Liberia. MAMA I don't think I never met no African before. BENEATHA Well, do me a favor and don't ask him a whole lot of ignorant questions about Africans. I mean, do they wear clothes and all that MAMA Well, now, I guess if you think we so ignorant 'round here maybe you shouldn't bring your friends here BENEATHA It's just that people ask such crazy things. All anyone seems to know about when it comes to Africa is Tarzan MAMA (Indignantly) Why should I know anything about Africa? BENEATHA Why do you give money at church for the missionary work? MAMA Well, that's to help save people. BENEATHA You mean save them from heathenism MAMA (Innocently) Yes. BENEATHA I'm afraid they need more salvation from the British and the French. (RUTH comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her) RUTH (Dispiritedly) Well, I guess from all the happy f aces everybody knows. BENEATHA You pregnant? MAMA Lord have mercy, I sure hope it's a little old girl. Travis ought to have a sister. (BENEATHA and RUTH give her a hopeless look for this grandmotherly enthusiasm) 58 A RAISIN IN THE SUN BENEATHA How far along are you? RUTH Two months. BENEATHA Did you mean to? I mean did you plan it or was it an accident? MAMA What do you know about planning or not plan- ning? BENEATHA Oh, Mama. RUTH ( Wearily) She's twenty years old, Lena. BENEATHA Did you plan it, Ruth? RUTH Mind your own business. BENEATHA It is my business where is he going to live, on the roof? (There is silence following the remark as the three women react to the sense of it) Gee I didn't mean that, Ruth, honest. Gee, I don't feel like that at all. I I think it is wonderful. RUTH (Dully) Wonderful. BENEATHA Yes really. MAMA (Looking at RUTH, worried) Doctor say every- thing going to be all right? RUTH (Far away) Yes she says everything is going to be fine... MAMA (Immediately suspicious) "She" What doctor you went to? (RUTH folds over, near hysteria) MAMA (Worriedly hovering over RUTH) Ruth honey what's the matter with you you sick? (RUTH has her fists clenched on her thighs and is fighting hard to suppress a scream that seems to be rising in her) A RAISIN IN THE SUN 59 BENEATHA What's the matter with her, Mama? MAMA (Working her fingers in RUTH'S shoulders to relax her) She be all right. Women gets right depressed sometimes when they get her way. (Speaking softly, expertly, rapidly) Now you just relax. That's right... just lean back, don't think 'bout nothing at all ... nothing at all RUTH I'm all right... (The glassy-eyed look melts and then she col- lapses into a fit of heavy sobbing. The bell rings) BENEATHA Oh, my God that must be Asagai. MAMA (To RUTH) Come on now, honey. You need to lie down and rest awhile... then have some nice hot food. (They exit, RUTH'S weight on her mother-in-law. BENEATHA, herself profoundly disturbed, opens the door to admit a rather dramatic-looking young
BENEATHA (With incredulity) You you sent all the way home for me? ASAGAI (With charm) For you I would do much more
... Well, that is what I came for. I must go. BENEATHA Will you call me Monday? ASAGAI Yes... We have a great deal to talk about. I mean about identity and time and all that. BENEATHA Time? ASAGAI Yes. About how much time one needs to know what one feels. BENEATHA You see! You never understood that there is more than one kind of feeling which can exist between a man and a woman or, at least, there should be. ASAGAI (Shaking his head negatively but gently) No. Between a man and a woman there need be only one kind of feeling. I have that for you... Now even... right this moment ... A RAISIN IN THE SUN 63 BENEATHA I know and by itself it won't do. I can find that anywhere. ASAGAI For a woman it should be enough. BENEATHA I know because that's what it says in all the novels that men write. But it isn't. Go ahead and laugh but I'm not interested in being someone's little episode in America or (With feminine vengeance) one of them! (ASAGAI has burst into laughter again) That's funny as hell, huh! ASAGAI It's just that every American girl I have known has said that to me. White black in this you are all the same. And the same speech, too! BENEATHA (Angrily) Yuk, yuk, yuk! ASAGAI It's how you can be sure that the world's most liberated women are not liberated at all. You all talk about it too much! (MAMA enters and is immediately all social charm because of the presence of a guest) BENEATHA Oh Mama this is Mr. Asagai. MAMA How do you do? ASAGAI (Total politeness to an elder) How do you do, Mrs. Younger. Please forgive me for coming at such an outrageous hour on a Saturday. MAMA Well, you are quite welcome. I just hope you understand that our house don't always look like this. (Chatterish) You must come again. I would love to here all about (Not sure of the name) your country. I think it's so sad the way our American Negroes don't know nothing about Africa 'cept Tarzan and all that. And all that money they pour into these churches when they ought to be helping you people over there drive out 64 A RAISIN IN THE SUN them French and Englishmen done taken away your land. (The mother flashes a slightly superior look at her daughter upon completion of the recitation) ASAGAI (Taken aback by this sudden and acutely unre- lated expression of sympathy) Yes ... yes ... MAMA (Smiling at him suddenly and relaxing and look- ing him over) How many miles is it from here to where you come from? ASAGAI Many thousands. MAMA (Looking at him as she would WALTER) I bet you don't half look after yourself, being away from your mama either. I spec you better come 'round here from time to time to get yourself some decent home- cooked meals... ASAGAI (Moved) Thank you. Thank you very much. (They are all quiet, then ) Well ... I must go. I will call you Monday, Alaiyo. MAMA What's that he call you? ASAGAI Oh "Alaiyo." I hope you don't mind. It is what you would call a nickname, I think. It is a Yoruba word. I am a Yoruba. MAMA (Looking at BENEATHA) I I thought he was from (Uncertain) ASAGAI (Understanding) Nigeria is my country. Yoruba is my tribal origin BENEATHA You didn't tell us what Alaiyo means... for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something... A RAISIN IN THE SUN 65 ASAGAI Well... let me see ... I do not know how just to explain it ... The sense of a thing can be so different when it changes languages. BENEATHA You're evading. ASAGAI No really it is difficult... (Thinking) It means ... it means One for Whom Bread Food Is Not Enough. {He looks at her) Is that all right?
BENEATHA ( Understanding, softly) Thank you. MAMA (Looking from one to the other and not under- standing any of it) Well ,.. that's nice... You must come see us again Mr. ASAGAI Ah-sah-guy * *. MAMA Yes... Do come again. ASAGAI Good-bye, (He exits) MAMA (After him) Lord, that's a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa 'round here. Missionaries my aunt Jenny! (She exits) BENEATHA Oh, Mama!... (She picks up the Nigerian dress and holds it up to her in front of the mirror again. She sets the headdress on haphazardly and then notices her hair again and clutches at it and then replaces the headdress and frowns at herself. Then she starts to wriggle in front of the mirror as she thinks a Nigerian woman might. TRAVIS enters and stands regarding her) TRAVIS What's the matter, girl, you cracking up? 66 A RAISIN IN THE SUN BENEATHA Shut Up. (She pulls the headdress off and looks at herself in the mirror and clutches at her hair again and squinches her eyes as if trying to imagine some- thing. Then, suddenly, she gets her raincoat and kerchief and hurriedly prepares for going out) MAMA (Coming back into the room) She's resting now. Travis, baby, run next door and ask Miss Johnson to please let me have a little kitchen cleanser. This here can is empty as Jacob's kettle. TRAVIS I just came in. MAMA Do as you told. (He exits and she looks at her daughter) Where you going? BENEATHA (Halting at the door) To become a queen of the Nile! (She exits in a breathless blaze of glory. RUTH ap- pears in the bedroom doorway) MAMA Who told you to get up? RUTH Ain't nothing wrong with me to be lying in no bed for. Where did Bennie go? MAMA (Drumming her fingers) Far as I could make out to Egypt. (RUTH just looks at her) What time is it getting to? RUTH Ten twenty. And the mailman going to ring that bell this morning just like he done every morning for the last umpteen years. (TRAVIS comes in with the cleanser can) TRAVIS She say to tell you that she don't have much. MAMA (Angrily) Lord, some people I could name sure is tight-fisted! (Directing her grandson) Mark two cans of cleanser down on the list there. If she that hard up A RAISIN IN THE SUN 67 for kitchen cleanser, I sure don't want to forget to get her none! RUTH Lena maybe the woman is just short on cleans- er MAMA (Not listening) Much baking powder as she done borrowed from me all these years, she could of done gone into the baking business! (The bell sounds suddenly and sharply and all three are stunned serious and silent mid-speech. In spite of all the other conversations and dis- tractions of the morning, this is what they have been waiting for, even TRAVIS, who looks help- lessly from his mother to his grandmother. RUTH is the first to come to life again) RUTH (To TRAVIS) Get down them steps, boy! (TRAVIS snaps to life and flies out to get the mail) MAMA (Her eyes wide, her hand to her breast) You mean it done really come? RUTH (Excited) Oh, Miss Lena! MAMA (Collecting herself) Well ... I don't know what we all so excited about 'round here for. We known it was coming for months. RUTH That's a whole lot different from having it come and being able to hold it in your hands ... a piece of paper worth ten thousand dollars... (TRAVIS bursts back into the room. He holds the envelope high above his head, like a little dancer, his face is radiant and he is breathless. He moves to his grandmother with sud- den slow ceremony and puts the envelope into her hands. She accepts it, and then merely holds it and looks at it) Come on! Open it ... Lord have mercy, I wish Walter Lee was here! TRAVIS Open it, Grandmama!
RUTH Where? WALTER Just out of this house somewhere RUTH (Getting her coat) I'll come too. A RAISIN IN THE SUN 71 WALTER I don't want you to come! RUTH I got something to talk to you about, Walter. WALTER That's too bad. MAMA (Still quietly) Walter Lee (She waits and he finally turns and looks at her) Sit down. WALTER I'm a grown man, Mama. MAMA Ain't nobody said you wasn't grown. But you still in my house and my presence. And as long as you are you'll talk to your wife civil. Now sit down. RUTH (Suddenly) Oh, let him go on out and drink him- self to death! He makes me sick to my stomach! (She flings her coat against him and exits to bedroom) WALTER (Violently flinging the coat after her) And you turn mine too, baby! (The door slams behind her) That was my biggest mistake MAMA (Still quietly) Walter, what is the matter with you? WALTER Matter with me? Ain't nothing the matter with me! MAMA Yes there is. Something eating you up like a crazy man. Something more than me not giving you this money. The past few years I been watching it happen to you. You get all nervous acting and kind of wild in the eyes (WALTER jumps up impatiently at her words) I said sit there now, I'm talking to you! WALTER Mama I don't need no nagging at me today. MAMA Seem like you getting to a place where you al- ways tied up in some kind of knot about something. But if anybody ask you 'bout it you just yell at 'em and bust out the house and go out and drink some- wheres. Walter Lee, people can't live with that. Ruth's 72 A RAISIN IN THE SUN a good, patient girl in her way but you getting to be too much. Boy, don't make the mistake of driving that girl away from you. WALTER Why what she do for me? MAMA She loves you. WALTER Mama I'm going out. I want to go off some- where and be by myself for a while. MAMA I'm sorry 'bout your liquor store, son. It just wasn't the thing for us to do. That's what I want to tell you about WALTER I got to go out, Mama {He rises) MAMA It's dangerous, son. WALTER What's dangerous? MAMA When a man goes outside his home to look for peace. WALTER (Beseechingly) Then why can't there never be no peace in this house then? MAMA You done found it in some other house? WALTER No there ain't no woman! Why do women always think there's a woman somewhere when a man gets restless. (Picks up the check) Do you know what this money means to me? Do you know what this money can do for us? (Puts it back) Mama Mama I want so many things MAMA Yes, son WALTER I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy... Mama look at me. MAMA I'm looking at you. You 1 a good-looking boy. You got a job, a nice wife, a fine boy and A RAISIN IN THE SUN 73 WALTER A job. (Looks at her) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, "Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I take the Drive, sir?" Mama, that ain't no kind of job... that ain't nothing at all. (Very quietly) Mama, I don't know if I can make you under- stand. MAMA Understand what, baby? WALTER (Quietly) Sometimes it's like I can see the fu- ture stretched out in front of me just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me a big, looming blank space full of nothing. Just waiting for me. But it don't have to be. (Pause. Kneeling beside her chair) Mama sometimes when I'm downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking 'bout things... sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars... sometimes I see guys don't look much older than me MAMA Son how come you talk so much *bout money? WALTER (With immense passion) Because it is life,
Mama! MAMA (Quietly) Oh (Very quietly) So now it's life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life now it's money. I guess the world really do change... WALTER No it was always money, Mama. We just didn't know about it. MAMA No ... something has changed. (She looks at him) You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too... Now here come you and 74 A RAISIN IN THE SUN Beneatha talking 'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's streetcar You my children but how different we done become. WALTER (A long beat. He pats her hand and gets up) You just don't understand, Mama, you just don't under- stand. MAMA Son do you know your wife is expecting an- other baby? (WALTER stands, stunned, and absorbs what his mother has said) That's what she wanted to talk to you about. (WALTER sinks down into a chair) This ain't for me to be telling but you ought to know. (She waits) I think Ruth is thinking 'bout getting rid of that child. WALTER (Slowly understanding) No no Ruth wouldn't do that. MAMA When the world gets ugly enough a woman will do anything for her family. The part thafs already living. WALTER You don't know Ruth, Mama, if you think she would do that, (RUTH opens the bedroom door and stands there a little limp) RUTH (Beaten) Yes I would too, Walter. (Pause) I gave her a five-dollar down payment. (There is total silence as the man stares at his wife and the mother stares at her son) MAMA (Presently) Well (Tightly) Well son, I'm waiting to hear you say something... (She waits) I'm waiting to hear how you be your father's son. Be the man he was... (Pause. The silence shouts) Your wife A RAISIN IN THE SUN 75 say she going to destroy your child. And I'm waiting to hear you talk like him and say we a people who give children life, not who destroys them (She rises) I'm waiting to see you stand up and look like your daddy and say we done give up one baby to poverty and that we ain't going to give up nary another one... I'm waiting. WALTER Ruth (He can say nothing) MAMA If you a son of mine, tell her! (WALTER picks up his keys and his coat and walks out. She continues, bit- terly) You... you are a disgrace to your father's memory. Somebody get me my hat! Curtain
