Citation
ACT III
(Time: an hour later.)
(At rise: there is a sullen light ofgloom in the living room,
grey light not unlike that which began the first scene of
ACT I. At right we can see WALTER through scrim in
his room, alnne with himself. He is stretched out on the
bed, his shirt open, arms under his head. He does not
smoke; he r.Wes not cry out; he merely lies there, looking
up at the ceiling, much as if he were alone in the world.
Jn the living room BENEATHA sits at the kitchen table
still surrounded ll'J the now almost ominous packing
crates. She sits looking off. we feel that this is a mood
struck perhaps an hour before, and it lingers now, full
of ,the empty sound of profound disappointment. ffi! see
on a line.from her brother's bedroom the sameness of their
attitudes. Presently the doorbell rings and BENEATIIA
rises without ambition or interest to answer. It is ASAGAI,
smiling broadly, striding into the room with energy and
happy expectation and conversation.)
(ASAGAI crosses right above sofa, dawn.stage right, crosses
kft front of sofa to barre~ crosses right to BENEATHA.)
ASAGAI. I came over - I thought I might help with the
packing. 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.
BENEATHA. Africa!
ASAGAI. What kind of mood is this? Have I told you how
deeply you move me?
BENEATHA. He gave away the money, Asagai 117
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
118
ASAGAI. Who gave away what money?
BENEATIIA. The insurance money. My brother gave it away.
ASAGAI. Gave it away?
He made an investment! With a man even
Travis wouldn't have trusted!
ASAGAI. And it's gone?
BENEATHA. (sits on sofa) Gone!
BENEATHA.
(ASAGAI
sits next to BENEATIIA on so/a.
BENEATIIA
rises, crosses upstage right of so/a, sits right arm of so/a.)
ASAGAI. I'm very sorry - And you now?
BENEATIIA. Me? - Me? Me, I'm nothing - Me. When I was
very small -we used to take our sleds out in the winter
time and the only hills we had were some ice covered
stone steps down the street. And we used to fill them
with snow and make them smooth and slide down:
them. all day - and it was very dangerous, you know far too steep - and sure enough one day a kid named
Rufus came down too fast and hit the sidewalk - and
his face just split open right there in front of us And I remember standing there looking at his bloody
open face thinking that was the end of Rufus. But the
ambulance came and they took him to the hospital
and they fixed the broken bones and they sewed it all
up - and the next time I saw Rufus he just had a little
line down the middle of his face - I never got over
thatASAGAI. What?
BENEATHA. That that was what one human being could do
for another, fix him up - sew up the problem, make
him alright again. That was the most marvelous thing
in the world - I wanted to do that. I always thought it
was the one concrete thing in the world that a human
being could do. Fix up the sick, you know - and make
them whole again. This was truly being God ~
ASAGAI. You wanted to be God - ?
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
119
BENEATIIA. No- I wanted to cure. It used to be so important
to me. I wanted to cure. I used to care. I mean about
people and how their bodies hurt ASAGAI. And you've stopped caring-?
BENEATHA. Yes - I think so.
ASAGAI. (rises) Why?
BENEATHA. (passionately) Because it doesn't seem deep
enough, close enough to what ails mankind! It was a
child's way of seeing things - or an idealist's.
ASAGAI. Children see things very well sometimes - and
idealists even better.
BENEATHA. I know that's what you think. Because you
are still where I left off. You still care. You with all
your talk and dreams about Africa! You still think
you can patch up the world. Cure the Great Sore of
Colonialism - (loftily, rrwcking it) with the "penicillin of
-Independence!"
ASAGAI. Yes!
BENEATHA. Independence and then what? What about all
the crooks and thieves and just plain idiots who will
come into power to steal and plunder the same as
before, only now they will be black and do it in the
name of the new independence - WHAT ABOUT
THEM?!
ASAGAI. That will be the problem for another time. First we
must get there.
BENEATIIA. And where does it end?
ASAGAI. End? Who ever spoke of an end? To life? To living?
BENEATIJA. An end to misery! To stupidity! Don't you see
there isn't any real progress, Asagai, there is only one
large circle that we march in, around and around,
each of us with our own little picture in front of us our own little mirage that we think is the future.
ASAGAI. That is the mistake.
BENEATHA. What?
J:) '
i
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A RAISIN IN THE SUN
What you just said - about the circle. It isn't
a circle. (His gestures paint the picture as he talks.) It is
simply a long line - as in geometry, you know - one
that curves into infinity. And because we cannot see the
end, we also cannot see how it - changes. And it is very .
odd, but those who see the changes - who dream, who
will not give up - are called idealists ... and those who
see only the circle - (ironically) they call each other the
"realists!"
BENEATIIA. Asagai, while I was sleeping in that bed in
there, people went out and took the future right out
of my hands! Nobody asked me - they just went out
and changed my life!
ASAGAI. Was it your money?
BENEATHA. What?
ASAGAI. Was it your money he gave away?
BENEATHA. It belonged to all of us.
ASAGAI. But did you earn it? Would you have had it at all if
your father had not died?
BENEATHA. No.
ASAGAI. Th.en isn't ·there something wrong in a house - in
a world - where all dreams, good or bad, must depend
on the death of a man? I never thought to see you like
this, Alaiyo. You. Your brother made a mistake and you
are grateful to him so that now you can give up the
ailing human race on account of it! You talk about
what good is struggle, what good is anything! Where
are we all going and why are we bothering!
BENEATHA. AND YOU CANNOT ANSWER IT!
A.SAGAi. (shouting over her) I LNE THE ANSWER! (Long
pause, as he crosses to her and marshal'ls the words to truly
reach her.) In my village at home it is the exceptional
man who can even read a newspaper - or who ever sees
a book at all. (crosses right in to her) I will go home and
much of what I will have to say will seem strange to the
people of my village - But I will teach and work and
things will happen, slowly and swiftly. At times it will
ASAGAI.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
seem that nothing changes at all - and then again the sudden dramatic events which make history leap
into the future. And then quiet again. Retrogression,
even. Guns, murder, revolution. And I even will have
moments when I wonder if the quiet was not better
than all that death and hatred. But I will look about
my village at the illiteracy and disease and ignorance
and I will not wonder long. And perhaps - perhaps
I will be a great man -
(She woks at him oddly, turns away.)
I mean perhaps I will hold onto the substance of truth
- and perhaps for it I will be butchered in my bed some
night by the servants of empire BENEATHA. THE MAR1YR!
ASAGAI. (He smi/.es, softening.) Or perhaps I shall live to be
a very old man, respected and esteemed in my new
nation - And perhaps I shall hold office and this
is what I'm trying to tell you, Alaiyo, perhaps the
things I believe now for my country will be wrong
and outmoded, and I will do terrible things to have
things my way or merely to keep my power. Don't you
see there will be young men and women, not British
soldiers, but my own black countrymen - to step out
of the s.hadows some night and slit my then useless
throat? Don't you see, they have always been there that they always will be? And that such a thing as my
own death will be an advance - actually replenishing
all that I was.
BENEATH.A. Oh, Asagai, I know all that, (crosses away)
A.SAGAi. Good! Then stop moaning and groaning and tell
me what you plan to do.
BENEATIIA. (turning) Do?
ASAGAI. I have a bit of a suggestion.
BENEATHA. What?
ASAGAI. (rather quietly for him) That when it is all over - that
you come home with me -
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122
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
slapping herself on the forehead with
exasperatin and crossing away:)
(BENEATHA,
Oh - Asagai - at this moment you decide to be
romantic!
BENEATHA.
ASAGAI. ( quicAly
understanding the misunderstanding and
crossing after her) My dear, young creature of the New
World - I do not mean across the city- I mean across
the ocean: home - to Africa.
(slowly understanding and turning to him with
murmured amazement) To Africa?
ASAGAI. Yes! (smiling and lifting his arms playfully) Three
BENFATHA.
hundred years later the African Prince rose up out of
the seas and swept the maiden back across the middle
passage over which her ancestors had come BENEATIIA. (unabl£ to play) To - to Nigeria ASAGAI. Nigeria. Home.
(Drawing close beside her and guiding her eyes upward
and out, he raises one hand to reveal the vista that
awaits· them. With genuine romantic flippancy:)
I will show you our mountains and our stars; and give
you cool drinks from gourds and teach you the old
songs and the ways of our people - and in time - we
will pretend that - (ve1y softly) you have only been away
for a day. Say that you'll come. (
He turns her around and takes her full in his arms in a
kiss which proceeds to passion.)
BENEATHA.
(pulling away suddenly) You're getting me all
mixed upASAGAI. Why - ?
BENFATHA. Too many things - too much has happened
today. I don't know what I feel about anything. I'm just
going to sit down and think.
(crosses downstage center; sits on sofa and props her head
on her hand)
ASAGAI. Alright, I shall leave you.
(crosses fiJ center above table.)
l
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
(BENEATHA starts to rise.)
No - don't get up. Just sit a while and think - Never be
afraid to sit a while and think, (goes to the center door and
turns) How often. I have looked at you and said, "Ah . .,.
so this is what the New World hath finally wrought - "
(He exits. BENEATHA sits on awne. Presently WALTER
enters from his room and starts to rummage through
things, feverishly looking for something. She looks up
and turns in her seat.)
(hissingly, punctuating each word) Yes - just look
at what the "New World Hath Wrought!" Just look!
(She gestures with bitter disgust.)
BENEATHA.
(business ofWALTER searchingforUNDNER s card)
There he isl Monsieur le petit bourgeois noir himself!
There he is - Symbol of a Rising Class! Entrepreneur!
Titan of the system!
(WALTER ignores her completely and picks up his coat
from chair downstage right, frantically looking and
hurling things to the floor and tearing things out of their
place in his search. BENEATHA ignores the eccentricity
of his actions and goes on with the monowgue of insult.
Rises, crosses upstage center attacks him back of so/a.)
Did you dream of yachts on Lake Michigan, Brother!
Did you see yourself on that Great Day sitting down at
the Conference -
(WALTER finds it back of sofa by crate. Pushes it in his
pocket and puts on his coat and rushes out without ever
having woked at her. As he exits, she shouts after him the
end of the foUowing speech:)
- table, surrounded by all the mighty bald-headed
men in America? All halted, waiting, breathless, for
your pronouncements on industry? Waiting for you Chairman of the Board!
(WALTER slams the door. RUTII comes out quickly from
MAMA '.s
room left.)
us
124
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
Who was that?
BENEATIIA. Your husband. (crosses right above sofa)
RUTH. Where did he go - ?
BENEATIIA. (crosses downstage right) How do I know - Maybe
he had an appointment at U.S. Steel. (sits on sofa)
RUTH. (anxiously, with .frightened eyes) You didn't say nothing
·
bad to him, did you?
BENEATHA. (increduwus) Bad - ? To him? No - I told him
he was a sweet boy and full of dreams and everything is
strictly peachy keen!
RUTH.
crosses to ckJset far her coat to go after WALTER,
pauses as MAMA enters left from her bedroom. MAMA is
lost, vague, trying to catch hold - to make some sense
of her former command of the world, but it still eludes
her. A sense of waste overwhelms her gait,· a measure of
apok>gy rides on her shoulders.)
(RUTH
(MAMA goes to her plant which has remained on the
table, woks at it; picks it up and takes it to the window
sill and sets it outside and stands and k>oks at it a k>ng
moment. Then she ckJses the window, straightens her
body with effort and turns around to her children.)
MAMA. Well - ain't it a mess in here, though?
(RU1H crosses downstage le.ft to icebox. MAMA starts
unpacking barrel nght of sink.)
(a false cheerfulness, a beginning of something:) I guess
we all better stop moping around and get some work
done. All this unpacking and everything we got to do.
(RUTH raises her head sk>wly in response to the sense of
the line; and BENEATIIA in similar manner turns very
sk>wly to k>ok at her mother.)
One of you all better call the moving people and tell
'em not to come.
RUTH. Tell 'em not to come? (crosses to MAMA)
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
,, MAMA Of course, baby. Ain't no need in 'em coming all
the way here and having to go back. They charges for
that, too.
RUTII. Lena, no! We gotta go. Bennie - Bennie - tell
her - (She crosses to BENEATHA.) Tell her we can still
move. The notes ain't but a hundred and twenty-five a
. month. (She begins frantically to pack things.) We got four
grown people in this house - we can work MAMA. This just ain't our time to be trying to take on
something like that.
(RUIH. turning and going to MAMA fast - the wurds
pouring out with urgency and desperation as she
summons up all the strength that is in her: at this
moment when all has collapsed, when BENEATHA and
WALTER and even MAMA have given up, she will not
/,et go:)
RUTII. Lena - I'll work! I'll work twenty hours a day in all
the kitchens in Chicago! I'll strap my baby on my back
if I have to - and scrub all the floors in America and
wash all the sheets in America if I have to - but we got
to MOVE! We got to get OUT OF HERE!
(She is near hysteria, out of wurds but eyes still pleading
help!,essly as she gropes to continue, knowing even ·as she.
does that she has lost. MAMA reaches out to comfort her
and RUTH turns sobbing into her arms.)
(bravely, a stab at the old assurance) No - I sees things
differently now. Been thinking 'bout how we could fix
this place up some . I seen a second hand bureau over
on Maxwell Street just the other day - fit right there.
MAMA.
(She points f,o back of the sofa and Rum wanders away
from her.)
And - we can put up them new curtains in the kitchen
- (toRUTII)And some nice screens in your room round
the baby's bassinet - Why this place be looking fine.
Cheer us all up so that we forget trouble ever come -
(She looks at them both, pleadingly, without conviction,
sits.)
125
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
126
MAMA. Sometimes you just got to know when to give up
some things - and hold on to what you got.
enters from the outside looking spent and
waning agaimt the door with coat hanging from him.
At the sight of him BENEATHA turns away, and RUTH,
too, can scarcely bear to look at him. But ifWALTfilt
reacts, he corueals it beneath a facade of coolly defiant,
almost jaunty bravado. He has made a decision,
rationalized a course of action for himself because he has
had to. He fulieves a man must be tough, "realistic. "
And preciseb; because he is uneasy with it - is in fact
churning within - he must press on, permit no doubt
from within or response from without to come between
him and his -purpose. *)
(WALTER
MAMA. Where yu been, son?
WALTER. (with forced nonchalance) Made a call.
MAMA. To who, son?
WALTER. To The Man.
MAMA. What maIJ, baby?
WALTER. The Man, Mama. Don't you know who The Man
is?
RUI'H. Walter Lee?
WALTER. THE MAN. Like the
guys in the streets say-The
Man. Captain Boss - Mistuh Charley - Old Cap'n
Please Mr. Bossman.
BENEATHA. (suddenly) Lindner!
WALTER. That's right. That's good. I told him to come right
over.
BENEATHA. (fiercely, understanding) For what? What do you
want to see him for!
WALTER. (l.ooking at his sister) We going to do business with
him.
*At some point later on in this scene, in one particularly telling
production, WALTER began, as he talked and argued, to frantically clear
the table, crumple and throw out newspapers and packaging stuffing, set
beer cans in place for his· meeting with LINDNER.
'
''
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
:MAMA. What you talking 'bout, son?
WALTER. Talking 'bout life, Mama. You all always telling
me to see life like it is. Well - I laid in there on my
back today - and I figured it out. Life just like it is.
Who gets and who don't get. (He sits down in his coat
and laughs.) Mama, you know it's all divided up. Life
is. Sure enough. Between the takers and the "tooken."
(He laughs.) Yeah. And some of us always getting
"tooken." (He laughs.) People like Willy Harris, they
don't never get "tooken." And you know why the rest
of us do? 'Cause we all mixed up. Mixed up bad. We
get to looking round for the right and the wrong; and
we worry about it and cry about it and stay up nights
trying to figure out 'bout the wrong and the right
of things all the time - And all the time, man, them
takers is out there operating, just taking and taking.
Willy Harris? Shoot - Willy Harris don't even count.
He don't even count in the big scheme of things.
But I'll say one thing for old Willy - he's taught me
something: to keep my eye on what does count in this
world. Yeah. (shouting out a little) Thanks, Wil1y! (crosses
right above soja to rk>or right)
RUTH. (step center) What did you call that man for, Walter
Lee?
(crosses left to center) Called him to come on over to
the show. Gonna put on a show for The Man.Just what
he wants to see. You see, Mama? The man came here
today himself to tell us that them people out there w~ere
you want us to move - well, they so upset they willing
to pay us not to move I (He laughs again.) And - and oh,
Mama - you would of been so proud of me and Ruth
and Bennie - we told him to get out! Lord have mercy,
we told the man to get out! Oh, we was some proud
folks this afternoon, yeah, (crosses downstage lift abooe
table to icebox) We were full of that old-time stuff Rum. (crossing fiercely downstage left to him at icebox) You
talking 'bout taking them people's money to keep us
from moving in our house?
WALTER.
127
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
128
(jaw-tf>-jaw- riding over her) I ain'tjust talking 'bout
it, baby- I'm telling you that's what's going to happen!
BENEATIIA Oh God! Where is the bottom! Where is the
honest-to-God bottom so he can't go any farther! (She
crosses away downstage right.)
WALTER. (crosses right above tab/,e to above sofa) Where is the
bottom? Where is the bottom! You and that boy that
was here today. You all want everybody to carry a flag
and a spear and sing some marching songs, huh? You
wanna spend your life looking into things and trying
to find the right and the wrong part, huh? Yeah.
You know what's going to happen to that boy some
day - he'll find himself sitting in a dungeon, locked
in forever - and the takers will have the key! Forget
it, baby! There ain't no causes - there ain't nothing
but taking in this world and he who takes most is the
smartest- and it don't make a damn bit of difference
WALTER.
how.
You making something inside me cry, son. Some
awful pain inside me.
RUI'H. (crosses right to center) Walter WALTER. Don't cry, Mama. Understand. That white man
is going to walk in that door able to write checks for
more money than we ever had. It's important to him
and I'm going to help him - I'm going to put on the
show, Mama.
MAMA. (advancing resolutely) Son - I come from five
generations of people who was slaves and share
croppers - but ain't nobody in my family never took
no money from nobody that was a way of telling us we
wasn't fit to walk the earth. We ain't never been that
poor. (raising her eyes and looking at him) We ain't never
been that - (Voice breaks and she turns away, unab/,e to
continue.)- dead inside.
BENEA'IHA. Well - we are dead now. All that talk about
dreams and sunlight that goes on in this house. It's all
dead now.
MAMA.
l~
!
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
WALTER. What's the matter with you all! I didn't make this
world! (RUTII crosses kjtjront of tabl,e.) It was given to me
this way! Hell yes, I want me some yachts some day! Yes,
I want to hang some real pearls round my wife's neck!
Ain't she supposed to wear no pearls? Somebody tell
me - tell who it is decides which woman is supposed to
wear pearls in this world? I teU you I am a MAN - and
I think my wife should wear some pearls in this world.
(This last line hangs a good whil,e and WALTER crosses
left front of so/a to center; the word "Man" has penetrated
his ov.m consciousness perhaps mqre than anyone else s
and he mumbles it to himself repeatedly with strange
agitated pauses between as he moves about.)
MAMA. Baby, how you going to feel on the inside?
WALTER. Fine! - Going to feel fine- a man -
MAMA. You won't have nothing left then, Walter Lee.
WALTER. (coming to her) I'm going to feel fine, Mama. I'm
going to look that son--of-a-bitch in the eyes and say (He falters but presses on - punishing him.self whipping
himself and his mother.) that's your neighborhood out
there! You got the right to keep it like you want! You
got the right to have it like you want! Just write the
check and - the house is yours. And - and I am going
to say- (His voice almost !Yreaks.) and you -you people
just put the money in my hand and you won't have to
live next to this bunch of STINKING NIGGERS!
(as the others react:)
Maybe - maybe I'll just get down on my black knees -
(He does so, angl£d half out toward the audience, but
still playing to MAMA, as she, Rum and BENFATHA
watch in frozen horror.)
"Captain, Mistuh, Bossman - "
(grovelling and grinning, rolling his eyes and ringing his
hands in imitation of the sWw-witted movi,e stereotype:)
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180
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
"Ah-bee-bee-heel 0, yasssuh, boss! Yasssuh, Great
White - " (His voice breaks, he fm-ces himself to go on.) " Father!
(He grabs his hat, hollows it and holds it out begging.)
WALTER.
Just gi' ussen de money fo' God's sake and we's we's ain't gwine out deh 'n' dirty up yo' white folks'
neighborhood - "
(It hangs. He turns to MAMA.)
And I'll feel fine! Fine! FINE!
(He rises and, summoning his last resources, wa!Rs into
his room.)
BENEATIIA. That is not a man. That is nothing but a
toothless rat.
(RUI'H remains far !£.ft in kitchen.)
MAMA. Yes - death done come in this here house. (She is
nodding, slnwly, reflectively.) Done come walking in my
house. On the lips of my children. You what supposed
to be my beginning again. You - what supposed to
be my harvest. How did we get to this here place? (to
BENEATHA)You moumin' your brother?
BENEATHA. He's no brother of mine, (rises, crosses to center.)
MAMA. What you say?
BENEATIIA. (halts left of sofa) I said that that individual in
that room is no brother of mine.
MAMA. That's what I thought you said. You feeling like you
better than he is today?
(BENEATHA does not answer.)
(MAM.A, rising and crossing towards her:) Yeah? What you
tell him a minute ago? That he wasn't a man? Yeah?
You give him up for me? You done wrote his epitaph,
too - like the rest of the world? Who give you that
privilege?
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
BENEATIIA. (crosses downstage center above the coffee tab/£) Will
you be on my side for once! You saw what he just did,
Mama! You saw him - down on his knees. Wasn't it you
who taught me to despise any man who would do that?
Do what he's going to do?
MAMA. Yes - I taught you that. Me and your daddy. But
I thought I taught you something else, too - I thought
I taught you to love him.
BENEATHA. Love him? There is nothing left to love.
MAMA. (answering herself as well) There is always something
left to love. And if you ain't learned that you ain't
learned nothing. (looking at her) Have you cried for
that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the
family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what
he been through and what it done to him. Child,
when do you think is the time to love somebody the
most - when they done good and made things easy
for everybody? Well, that ain't the time at all. It's when
he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause
the world done whipped him so ... When you starts
measuring somebody - measure him right, child.
Measure him right. Make sure you done taken into
account what hills and valleys he come through before
he got to wherever he is. (She sighs and sits in armchair.)
{TRAVIS bursts into the room at the end of the speech,
leaving the do
Purchase answer to see full
attachment