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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mama send Travis out to borrow?

2. What does Beneatha say she's going out to do?

3. Who comes to visit Beneatha in this scene?

4. Under the influence of alcohol, Walter Lee dramatically ridicules what?

5. She puts on a phonograph record of:

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think Ruth fainted at the end of the scene?

2. What function does Joseph Asagai provide in this play about an African-American family?

3. Why did Mama decide to buy a new house for the family?

4. How does the author let the reader know that Beneatha is inauthentic in the way she wears her Nigerian costume?

5. Why does Walter Lee get upset at Mama when she tells him about her plans for the insurance money?

6. Why is Beneatha reluctant to let a visitor come over to the apartment on this morning?

7. What is the importance of Mama's spindly plant to her character?

8. Why do Ruth and Walter Lee react so strongly to the idea of moving to Clybourne Park?

9. Why does Beneatha have to wait to use the bathroom when she wakes up?

10. How does Beneatha surprise George before they go out on their date?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the spirituality of the characters in this play. What is their relationship to God and higher powers? Are the Youngers spiritual or not?

Essay Topic 2

Lorraine Hansberry includes extensive stage directions in her play. Explain how her stage directions add or detract from the play for the reader. Include specific examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Hansberry starts the play with a poem by Langston Hughes about a "dream deferred." Explain how this poem and its images relate to the play.

(see the answer keys)

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