Analyzing Word Choice and Theme in a Play Quiz
Read the two passages from A Raisin in the Sun. Passage 1: LINDNER: You see—in the face of all the things I have said, we are prepared to make your family a very generous offer . . . BENEATHA: Thirty pieces and not a coin less! LINDNER (putting on his glasses and drawing a form out of the briefcase): Our association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family. RUTH: Lord have mercy, ain't this the living gall! WALTER: All right, you through? LINDNER: Well, I want to give you the exact terms of the financial arrangement— WALTER: We don't want to hear no exact terms of no arrangements. I want to know if you got any more to tell us 'bout getting together? LINDNER (taking off his glasses): Well—I don't suppose that you feel . . . WALTER: Never mind how I feel—you got any more to say 'bout how people ought to sit down and talk to each other? . . . Get out of my house, man. Passage 2: WALTER: Ain't nothing the matter with us. We just telling you 'bout the gentleman who came to see you this afternoon. From the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. MAMA: What he want? RUTH (in the same mood as BENEATHA and WALTER): To welcome you, honey. WALTER: He said they can't hardly wait. He said the one thing they don't have, that they just dying to have out there is a fine family of fine colored people! (To RUTH and BENEATHA.) Ain't that right! RUTH (mockingly): Yeah! He left his card— BENEATHA (handing card to MAMA): In case. MAMA reads and throws it on the floor—understanding and looking off as she draws her chair up to the table on which she has put her plant and some sticks and some cord. MAMA: Father, give us strength. (Knowingly—and without fun.) Did he threaten us? BENEATHA: Oh—Mama—they don't do it like that anymore. He talked Brotherhood. He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship. She and WALTER shake hands to ridicule the remark. MAMA (sadly): Lord, protect us . . . RUTH: You should hear the money those folks raised to buy the house from us. All we paid and then some. BENEATHA: What they think we going to do—eat 'em? RUTH: No, honey, marry 'em. MAMA (shaking her head): Lord, Lord, Lord . . . Which lines of dialogue develop the idea that racially charged confrontations can have a sudden and unpleasant impact? Select three options.
"Ain't this the living gall!" "They don't do it like that anymore." "Lord, Lord, Lord . . ."
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. BENEATHA (with a grand and bitter gesture): This, friends, is the Welcoming Committee! WALTER (dumfounded, looking at LINDNER): Is this what you came marching all the way over here to tell us? LINDNER: Well, now we've been having a fine conversation. I hope you'll hear me all the way through— WALTER (tightly): Go ahead, man. Which words from the text best support a sarcastic tone?
"Welcoming Committee"
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. BENEATHA (with a grand and bitter gesture): This, friends, is the Welcoming Committee! WALTER (dumfounded, looking at LINDNER): Is this what you came marching all the way over here to tell us? LINDNER: Well, now we've been having a fine conversation. I hope you'll hear me all the way through— WALTER (tightly): Go ahead, man. Which words from the text best support a sarcastic tone?
*NOT* "Go Ahead"
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. RUTH (looking up at her and smiling): . . . . Lord, that man—done changed so 'round here. You know—you know what we did last night? Me and Walter Lee? BENEATHA: What? RUTH (smiling to herself): We went to the movies. (Looking at BENEATHA to see if she understands.) We went to the movies. You know the last time me and Walter went to the movies together? BENEATHA: No. RUTH: Me neither. That's how long it been. (Smiling again.) But we went last night. The picture wasn't much good, but that didn't seem to matter. We went—and we held hands. BENEATHA: Oh, Lord! RUTH: We held hands—and you know what? BENEATHA: What? RUTH: When we come out of the show it was late and dark and all the stores and things was closed up . . . and it was kind of chilly and there wasn't many people on the streets . . . and we was still holding hands, me and Walter. BENEATHA: You're killing me. How does the playwright develop the theme "It can be difficult to keep romance alive in a marriage" in this passage?
*NOT* The playwright has Ruth brag about her marriage, which upsets and angers Beneatha.
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. BENEATHA (laughingly noticing what her mother is doing): Mama, what are you doing? MAMA: Fixing my plant so it won't get hurt none on the way . . . BENEATHA: Mama, you going to take that to the new house? MAMA: Un-huh— BENEATHA: That raggedy-looking old thing? MAMA (stopping and looking at her): It expresses ME! RUTH (with delight, to BENEATHA): So there, Miss Thing! How would the tone change if the word hideous replaced the word raggedy?
Beneatha would be harshly criticizing her mother instead of gently teasing her.
Read the two passages from A Raisin in the Sun. Passage 1: RUTH: You know what I'm going to do soon as I get in that new house? BENEATHA: What? RUTH: Honey—I'm going to run me a tub of water up to here . . . (With her fingers practically up to her nostrils.) And I'm going to get in it—and I am going to sit . . . and sit . . . and sit in that hot water and the first person who knocks to tell me to hurry up and come out— BENEATHA: Gets shot at sunrise. RUTH (laughing happily): You said it, sister! Passage 2: MAMA (eying the box, which is obviously a gift): What is that? WALTER (taking it from RUTH and putting it on the table in front of MAMA): Well—what you all think? Should we give it to her? RUTH: Oh—she was pretty good today. MAMA: I'll good you— She turns her eyes to the box again. BENEATHA: Open it, Mama She stands up, looks at it, turns and looks at all of them, and then presses her hands together and does not open the package. WALTER (sweetly): Open it, Mama. It's for you. (MAMA looks in his eyes. It is the first present in her life without its being Christmas. Slowly she opens her package and lifts out, one by one, a brand-new sparkling set of gardening tools. WALTER continues, prodding.) Ruth made up the note—read it . . . MAMA (picking up the card and adjusting her glasses): "To our own Mrs. Miniver—Love from Brother, Ruth, and Beneatha." Ain't that lovely . . . TRAVIS (tugging at his father's sleeve): Daddy, can I give her mine now? WALTER: All right, son. (TRAVIS flies to get his gift.) MAMA: Now I don't have to use my knives and forks no more . . . Which statement best compares the two passages?
Both passages show that the family members enjoy celebrating life's simple pleasures.
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. MAMA (sensing their facetiousness): What's the matter with you all? WALTER: Ain't nothing the matter with us. We just telling you 'bout the gentleman who came to see you this afternoon. From the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. MAMA: What he want? RUTH (in the same mood as BENEATHA and WALTER): To welcome you, honey. WALTER: He said they can't hardly wait. He said the one thing they don't have, that they just dying to have out there is a fine family of fine colored people! (To RUTH and BENEATHA.) Ain't that right! RUTH (mockingly): Yeah! He left his card— BENEATHA (handing card to MAMA): In case. MAMA reads and throws it on the floor—understanding and looking off as she draws her chair up to the table on which she has put her plant and some sticks and some cord. MAMA: Father, give us strength. (Knowingly—and without fun.) Did he threaten us? BENEATHA: Oh—Mama—they don't do it like that anymore. He talked Brotherhood. He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship. Which statement best summarizes the theme in this passage?
Racism exists even when racists do not talk openly about their views.
Read the two passages from A Raisin in the Sun. Passage 1: MAN (coming in): Thank you. BENEATHA: My mother isn't here just now. Is it business? MAN: Yes . . . well, of a sort. WALTER (freely, the Man of the House): Have a seat. I'm Mrs. Younger's son. I look after most of her business matters. RUTH and BENEATHA exchange amused glances. Passage 2: MAMA (to WALTER): Son—(She goes to him, bends down to him, talks to his bent head.) Son . . . Is it gone? Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it gone? All of it? Beneatha's money too? WALTER (lifting his head slowly): Mama . . . I never . . . went to the bank at all . . . MAMA (not wanting to believe him): You mean . . . your sister's school money . . . you used that too . . . Walter? . . . WALTER: Yessss! All of it . . . It's all gone . . . There is total silence. RUTH stands with her face covered with her hands; BENEATHA leans forlornly against a wall, fingering a piece of red ribbon from the mother's gift. MAMA stops and looks at her son without recognition and then, quite without thinking about it, starts to beat him senselessly in the face. BENEATHA goes to them and stops it. BENEATHA: Mama! MAMA stops and looks at both of her children and rises slowly and wanders vaguely, aimlessly away from them. Which statement best compares the two passages?
The first passage hints that the family should not trust Walter with money or business matters, and the second passage confirms it.
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. MAMA: Father, give us strength. (Knowingly—and without fun.) Did he threaten us? · BENEATHA: Oh—Mama—they don't do it like that anymore. He talked Brotherhood. He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship, She and WALTER shake hands to ridicule the remark. MAMA (sadly): Lord, protect us . . . Which statement best explains how word choice affects the tone of this passage?
The word threaten creates a somber tone.
Which elements should a reader consider when summarizing a theme? Select four options.
conflicts word choice tone characters' responses
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. [LINDNER:] But you've got to admit that a man, right or wrong, has the right to want to have the neighborhood he lives in a certain kind of way. And at the moment the overwhelming majority of our people out there feel that people get along better, take more of a common interest in the life of the community, when they share a common background. Which words best describe Lindner's tone, based on his use of the phrase "in a certain kind of way"?
disdainful and demeaning
Read the passage from A Raisin in the Sun. WALTER (amiably, as he sits himself easily on a chair, leaning forward on his knees with interest and looking expectantly into the newcomer's face): What can we do for you, Mr. Lindner! LINDNER (some minor shuffling of the hat and briefcase on his knees): Well—I am a representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association— WALTER (pointing): Why don't you sit your things on the floor? LINDNER: Oh—yes. Thank you. (He slides the briefcase and hat under the chair.) And as I was saying—I am from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association and we have had it brought to our attention at the last meeting that you people—or at least your mother—has bought a piece of residential property at—(He digs for the slip of paper again.)—four o six Clybourne Street . . . WALTER: That's right. Care for something to drink? Ruth, get Mr. Lindner a beer. LINDNER (upset for some reason): Oh—no, really. I mean thank you very much, but no thank you. Which connotations are associated with the word representative as it is used in this passage? Select two options.
official authoritative
