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Yaritza Nava Ms. Bloch/ Ms. Saxinger English B2 March 20, 2012 FCAs: 1. Format: Write a 5-paragraph essay with an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. End your introduction with a strong thesis that is underlined. In each body paragraph, include at least two embedded quotations from the play. Write in the present tense. (40 points) 2. Content: Include DETAILED quotation interpretation. For each quotation, include two sentences of interpretation. Focus on analyzing how and why your evidence supports your thesis. Effective methods of interpretation include but are not limited to: a. Analysis of a specific words meaning b. Comparing pieces of evidence c. Explanation of a literary device d. Patterns of cause and effect (30 points) 3. Grammar: Highlight 4 sentences that include some form of parallel structure. These could include but are not limited to the following: a. Parallel main verbs b. Parallel gerunds or infinitives c. Parallel prepositional phrases d. Parallel participles or participial phrases (30 points)

The Play A Raisin in the Sun In class, students have read a play called A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry that shows dedication, love, and tenderness. This play tells the story of a lower-class black family who struggles for their dreams. Mama is waiting for a $10,000 insurance check from the death of her husband, and the problem is how the $10,000 should be spent. Walter is her son who wants to have a liquor store that also has a kid and a wife who is pregnant, and Beneatha is the daughter who wants to become a doctor. Mama buys a home and tells Walter to keep the money, but his friend ends up stealing the money and leaving. All of the characters have live in difficult conditions without having a car, a nice home, and money. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun money is viewed as a way to a better future until forces the Younger family to struggle and break apart.

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The characters from the play have shown struggles with family and money related. At one point mama says, Son how come you talk so much bout money? (Hansberry 74). Walter is so interested in having money to use it for his special needs. Mama notices that his son just thinks about a day when he can finally receive part of the money from his fathers insurance check. Walters hopes are down when mama tells him, Im sorry bout your liquor store, son. It just wasnt the thing for us to do (Hansberry 72). The author demonstrates that Walter has not enough of allowance to buy a liquor store, a new home for Travis to live in, and a bed with supplies for his upcoming baby. He is in need of money and decides to wait when his mom decides to give him the money he needs for his store. The Younger family is tired of not having money for their special needs and wants especially for their future dreams. Earlier in Act III, with a disapproval mood, Beneatha tells Asagai that, While I was sleeping in that bed in there, people went out and took the future right out of my hands! (Hansberry 134). Beneatha is referring to Walter, her brother, who never thought about her future but just his interest in having a liquor store. She struggles with providing money to pay for her medical school because of her brothers unthinkable actions. Beneatha argues that her dreams are gone when she says, All the talk about dreams and sunlight that goes on in this house. Its all dead now (Hansberry143). Benny considers that it is pointless to keep dreaming and building a dream that is never going to happen. She believes that the dream is no longer within her and shows struggles that make her weaker every time she sees her brother Walter. In the play, Mama and Walter had differences of how to work for their dreams and handle the use of money. Mama informed her family and said, We aint never been that poor (Hansberry 143). Mama knew that even though they did not have enough money for the family it

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is not like they were in need of the money right away. She has struggle with achieving her dream of a new home but still keeps working hard to getting something accomplished. At a point in the play, Walter tells Lindner about the new home that they currently have: And we have decided to move into our house because my father-my father- he earned it for us brick by brick (Hansberry 148). Walter suggest that he will be moving to the house even though he feels nervous of living in a home in which he did not pay but the insurance check from his father. He struggles to have sufficient amount of money to be proud and say he bought the house rather than being the other way around. Money issues prevent a better future for the Younger family that brings their hopes down and makes them break apart. Benny, Walter, and Mama apparently seem to struggle with money issues and know that with the death of a family member they have possibilities of achieving their dreams. The money that is needed for the Younger family is negative because Walter does not have a type of god communication with Travis and Travis is shown to be involved when he does not have enough room in the apartment and sleeps in the old couch. Walter should keep working at the job, teaching Travis new things, and spending time with Ruth and the baby. Money seems to make everything else better but not the choice of having a family member dead in order to take the money. Instead, individuals should work for what they want.