Why does Mama buy a house in an all-white neighborhood? How does Walter plan to use the insurance money? Why does Lindner try to convince the Younger family not to move? How does Walter lose the insurance money? Why do the Youngers decide to go through with the move? Characters Beneatha Younger. Beneatha uses George's weak attempts to change her personality as the excuse that she needs to end their relationship.
Later, Beneatha is surprised that Mama agrees with her decision about George, which indicates a softening of the tensions that had previously plagued their relationship. The "Mrs. Johnson" character brings laughter to the scene, for she is a comical figure, but she also expresses sentiments that have always been prevalent in the black community. She compares, for example, the overt racism of the south at that time with the covert racism found in the north.
In , when this play opened, many blacks who had only recently left the south were surprised to find a different type of racism in the north. Johnson's implication is that it is easier to survive the blatant racism of a southern town than it is to be prepared for the hidden, and therefore more dangerous, racism of the urban ghettos. After Mrs. He is overwhelmed and his sudden exuberance over this financial windfall leads him to share some of his many fantasies with Travis.
Walter's already exaggerated dreams, however, suddenly turn into an avalanche of pitiful prattle. He says, for example, that one day he will come in from work, "home from my office downtown," and even Travis is incredulous as he reminds his father, "You don't work in no office, Daddy.
The bigger the dream gets, the more preposterous it sounds because Walter soon begins to talk about his future gardener, to whom he has given the first name of "Jefferson. Drop the Garbo routine When George Murchison admonishes Beneatha to "drop the Garbo routine," he is telling her to know her "place" as a woman.
Beneatha intellectualizes everything, is clearly independent, does not defer to men, and argues whatever points of chauvinism she finds in her conversation with men. George wants Beneatha to be more quiet and submissive. He implies in his speech that men do not like aggressive, independent, liberated women, and that if she ever hopes to get married and have a family, she is going to have to "drop the Garbo routine," meaning she will have to stop studying and thinking so much, and start acting "like a [submissive] woman.
George proves to be as pedantic as Beneatha, peppering his arguments with literary allusions and oftentimes esoteric references — for example, calling Walter "Prometheus. Of all the characters, Asagai appears to be the most serene, even when his is contemplating justifiable reasons for anxiety — that is, the political turmoil within his homeland and the possibility of his own death in his desire for his country's independence.
Note that Asagai calmly accepts whatever his fate might be and even becomes an inadvertent peacemaker when he diffuses Beneatha's vitriolic reaction to Walter's loss of the family's money. He's got a conked head A "conked head" refers to a hairstyle adopted by some black men during the forties and early fifties.
Because of what was defined as "self hatred" by psychologists who studied the phenomenon, oftentimes a group that believes itself to be oppressed will mimic the life-style and, sometimes, even mimic the appearance of the "dominant group. Many times though, men within the criminal element in the black community also wore their hair in this "conked" style when the style became a symbol of affluence. As a result, people within the black community often had negative perceptions about those who adopted this style.
If those men were not a part of the entertainment industry, they were either denizens of the underworld or full-fledged or potential gangsters. The person whom Walter Lee describes as having a "conked head" is a part of the entertainment world; he is a musician at the Green Hat, a bar that Walter Lee frequents.
Booker T. George Murchison arrives to pick up Beneatha. Beneatha removes her headdress to reveal that she has cut off most of her hair, leaving only an unstraightened afro. Everyone is shocked, amazed, and slightly disappointed with Beneatha, prompting a fierce discussion between Beneatha and George about the importance of their African heritage.
Beneatha goes to change for the theater, and Walter talks to George about business plans. George does not seem interested. George and Beneatha finally leave, and Ruth and Walter then begin to fight about Walter going out, spending money, and interacting with people like Willy Harris.
They do begin to make up, though, by acknowledging that a great distance has grown between them. Mama comes home and announces that she has put a down payment on a house with some of the insurance money. Ruth is elated to hear this news because she too dreams of moving out of their current apartment and into a more respectable home. Meanwhile, Walter is noticeably upset because he wants to put all the money into the liquor store venture. They all become worried when they hear that the house is in Clybourne Park, an entirely white neighborhood.
Mama asks for their understanding—it was the only house that they could afford. She feels she needs to buy the house to hold the family together. Ruth rejoices, but Walter feels betrayed, his dream swept under the table. Walter makes Mama feel guilty, saying that she has crushed his dream.
0コメント