A Raisin in the Sun

An hour after Act II ends, Walter is lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, “much as if he were alone in the world” (121). Beneatha “sits at the table, still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates” (121). The doorbell rings, and Asagai enters, full of joy. He has come to help the family pack, declaring, “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!” (121).

Asagai asks why she seems so unhappy, and Beneatha explains how Walter lost their insurance money. Dejected, Beneatha tells Asagai about the day she realized that she wanted to be a doctor. As a child, a neighborhood boy badly injured his face while sledding and returned from the doctor with only a “little line down the middle of his face” (122). Beneatha says, “That was what one person could do for another, fix him up—sew up the problem, make him all right again. […] Fix up the sick, you know—and make them whole again. This was truly being God…” (123).