A Raisin In The Sun Short Summary

A Raisin In the Sun begins in a small, somewhat rundown apartment in Chicago in the early morning, sometime in the 1950s. It is a fairly average morning for the family that resides in this apartment. This family consists of Mama, her son Walter, her daughter Beneatha, Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son Travis. The members of the family all wake one by one and go about their normal activities, all bickering amongst themselves. One topic that they all bring up frequently is a check that is coming in the mail the next day, a life insurance check for Mama’s late husband which is worth $10,000. What the money will be spent on is a topic of debate, as Beneatha needs it for medical school, Walter wants to invest in a business - a liquor store- with it, and Mama wants to buy a home with

Eventually, after everyone but Mama and Ruth have left the apartment, Ruth passes out on the floor due to her ill feelings, which Mama later attributes to her being newly pregnant, The next scene opens the next day when the family is cleaning the apartment. Ruth, however, is missing from the scene and is apparently at the doctor, although it is later revealed that she has instead visited a woman who performs abortions in order to set up an appointment with her. In the mean time, Beneatha’s friend Asagai comes to the apartment. Asagai is from Africa and he has just returned from studying abroad in Canada. Asagai clearly has romantic feelings for Beneatha, and she seems to feel somewhat the same way about him. He presents her with many gifts and clothes from Africa. The mail eventually comes that day, and as expected it contains Mama’s $10,000. Walter continues to try and convince his mother to give him the money so that he can invest in a liquor store, but she refuses, and scolds him for causing rifts in the family, especially between him and Ruth, and for obsessing too much over