Post-Show Discussion Activity

Use these questions to reflect, discuss, or journal about your experience and reactions to A Raisin in the Sun! Explore any of the questions that interest you.

If engaging in this activity independently, consider taking notes or writing your reflections down. If engaging in this activity with a class or group, decide if you would like to answer every question in order, skip around, or select certain questions to spend time on.

Discussion Questions

1. What do you think Lena is feeling in the final moment of the play? 
2. What role does misogynoir (bias against Black women/femmes) play in A Raisin in the Sun, and how does it illuminate the intersection of race and gender in the United States? 
3. Beneatha has two very different suitors. What pasts, presents, and futures do George Murchison and Joseph Asagai represent? 
4. The set in Court Theatre’s production is cramped, illustrative of a small apartment full to bursting with people and their histories and dreams. How do these constricted quarters serve as a character in the play? 
5. To Walter, money is life. What essential idea or item seems to be the root of life for each of the characters? If you were to similarly distill your philosophy on life, what would yours be? 
6. In what ways is A Raisin in the Sun a love story? 
7. Towards the end of the play, Mama says, “…We ain’t never been that – dead inside.” (p. 128). What is the moment that “death” strikes the Younger family? What has died?
8. The play hums with the specificity of this Black family on the South Side of Chicago. In what ways does this specificity speak to the universal? 
9. In what ways does the play show the strictures on Black boys’ and black men’s dreams? 
10. Why is Beneatha’s bid for self-expression so astonishing to the rest of the Younger family? 

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• This activity aligns with the following standards:
  • Illinois Arts Learning Standards 
    • Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
    • Anchor Standard 8: Construct meaningful interpretations of artistic work.
    • Anchor Standard 11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
  • Common Core State Standards 
    • CCSS.ELA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
    • CCSS.ELA.RL.3  Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

Posted on January 28, 2025 in Learning Guides, Productions