Reading and understanding extracts from A Raisin in the Sun by

Lorraine Hansberry

1. Introduction

Welcome back to another English Lesson! My name is Eugenia Jimenez and today
we will be reviewing language by looking at words, definitions, and what they mean
in a text.
Today we will be looking at extracts from the text “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine
Hansberry.
This is an American drama play that was produced in 1959. It is about black family
values and dynamics, feminism, identity.
This play takes place in Chicago’s Southside. It is set to a time between World War
II and 1959. This was a time, where racial segregation vas very prominent in that
area, and black people lived confined into very small neighborhoods and streets, in
this case, in Black Belt.
This play tells the story about the Youngers, who are a working-class family wanting
to increase their social and financial status and move out of that neighborhood.

2. The Play

Now, let's take a look at some extracts from the play. Notice important words, and
we will look at their definition and meaning in the text:

Take a look at the first paragraph in Act 1, Scene 1.

“The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were
not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being. Its
furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that
they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many
years—and they are tired.”

Let's take a look at the highlighted words. Both words; “indestructible” and
“undistinguished” have prefixes, which remember; breaking down words always
helps understand their meaning.

(P4) Indestructible can be broken down into:

the prefix: in-,
the root Word: destruct and
the suffix: -ible”.

The prefix “in-” can have different meanings, but in this case it means “not” or
“without”, and “-ible” means “capable of”. Destructible is a word you may already
know its meaning, it means: causing great and irreparable harm or damage, or
tending to refute or disparage; negative and unhelpful.

When the three are put together, the meaning of the word is: something that cannot
be destroyed. In this text, the word is used to emphasize how strong the
contradictions are, so much that they cannot be destroyed.

On the other hand, when we break down the word “undistinguished” we find:
the prefix: “un-” which means “not'' and
the suffix: “-ed” which means “past”,
Together with the root Word: “distinguish”, which means; “successful, authoritative,
and commanding great respect” or “showing dignity or authority in one's appearance
or manner”, it means something that is not distinguished, or that is unexceptional
(synonym).
Now, let's take a look at the third paragraph.
“Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything has been polished, washed, sat
on, used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished
from the very atmosphere of this room.”

As we read this paragraph, we first overcome with the word weariness. As you
probably noticed, the word contains:
the suffix: “-ness”. This suffix means “state, condition, or quality”.
The root Word: “Weary” means “feeling or showing tiredness, especially as a result
of excessive exertion or lack of sleep.” When you put the two words together,
“weariness” means tiredness.

In the text, it means that the family is extremely tired about the room being
mentioned.
The word “weariness” in this case is also being used figuratively, since it is being
used to describe the feeling of the room, as a personification.

3. Extracts from the Play

Now we will look into some extracts from Act II. We have already learned some new
vocabulary words, and deducted its meaning by breaking them down and looking at
its prefixes or suffixes. Another way we can also learn about the meaning of words
is using context clues.

Read the following extract with me:

“BENEATHA The martyr!

ASAGAI (He smiles) … or perhaps I shall live to be a very old man, respected and
esteemed in my new nation … And perhaps I shall hold office and this is what I’m
trying to tell you, Alaiyo: Perhaps the things I believe now for my country will be
wrong and outmoded, and I will not understand and do terrible things to have things
my way or merely to keep my power. Don’t you see that there will be young men and
women—not British soldiers then, but my own black countrymen—to step out of the
shadows some evening and slit my then useless throat? Don’t you see they have
always been there … that they always will be. And that such a thing as my own death
will be an advance? They who might kill me even … actually replenish all that I was.”

As we read these lines, even without having read the whole text, we can get some of
the context. The word “martyr” means a person who is killed because of their
religious or other beliefs, but in this case, it is used to refer to a person who is
victimizing.

As we continue reading, we can see the word “esteemed” is used next to the word
“respected”. In this case we can observe a synonym context clue. Since the words
are used both to describe the same thing, which in this case is the nation, you can
assume they may have a similar meaning. “Esteemed” means “held in great respect,
admired”. You can notice that without knowing the word’s definition you can guess
it using context clues.

Another word that we should look into is “outmoded”; in this case, the same thing as
the previous example occurs: two words are used to describe, in this case, the things
he thinks for his country. “Outmoded” means old-fashioned. Even though it is not a
synonym of wrong, as we continue reading the text that follows, the meaning could
be derived.

4. Deducting the Meaning

Now that we have learned some new vocabulary and learned how to deduct the
meaning, I want you to help me match the following unfamiliar words found on
another extract of this text, with its corresponding definition. Assign the number of
the word to the definition it belongs to.

“...(He exits. BENEATHA sits on alone. Presently WALTER enters from his room and
starts to rummage through things, feverishly looking for something. She looks up
and turns in her seat) BENEATHA (Hissingly) Yes—just look at what the New World
hath wrought! … Just look! (She gestures with bitter disgust) There he is! Monsieur
le petit bourgeois noir—himself! There he is—Symbol of a Rising Class! Entrepreneur!
Titan of the system! (WALTER ignores her completely and continues frantically and
destructively looking for something and hurling things to floor and tearing things out
of their place in his search…”

NOTE: When looking at the words, remember to look back at the text and use context
clues to figure out the meaning of each word.

Take a look at the following table and find the meaning of each word.

Table 1 – Word Definition

Word Definition

1. Presently to throw forcefully. 7

2. Rummage archaic third person singular present of have. 4

3. Hissingly search unsystematically and untidily through a mass or

receptacle. 2

4. Hath (of a person) make a sibilant sound as a sign of disapproval

or derision. 3

5. Wrought archaic past and past participle of work. 5

 6. Frantically at the present time; now. 1

7. Hurling in a distraught way owing to fear, anxiety, or other emotion. 6

5. Determining Meaning

We have learned several ways in which we can determine an unfamiliar word's

meaning. One way is looking at prefixes and suffixes. Another, is through context
clues found in a text.

Some word’s meanings cannot be determined by any of these, some words have
different meanings, and some others can be used as nouns, verbs, or even
adjectives.

Why is this important to know? Because if looking at word parts or context clues is
not good enough, we can always look up the word in the dictionary.

Let's look at this example from the text:

(...Groveling and grinning and wringing his hands in profoundly anguished imitation
of the slowwitted movie stereotype…)

The word “groveling” means “To behave in a servile or obsequious manner” it is used
as a verb, whereas “grinning” is also used as a verb in this example, but it can be
used as a noun or as an adjective. “Grinning” means “smiling or grimacing
grotesquely so as to reveal the teeth” , but can be used to describe the facial
expression.
“Wringing” means: “to squeeze or twist especially so as to make dry or to extract
moisture or liquid” but “wring” can also be used as a noun.
Lastly, slowwitted is used as “mentally slow”.
In this example, it is very hard to determine the meaning of the words based on word
parts and context clues, which is why sometimes it is necessary to search it in the
dictionary. Remember it is very important to understand how the word is used in
each sentence. The dictionary will provide you with all of the word meanings and
forms (if any; verb, noun, adverb, etc.). The context clues will allow you to determine
what meaning of the word is being used, in case it has several meanings, as well as
the form.

6. Conclusion:

Thank you for listening to one more English Lesson.

Today we learned how to determine the meaning of words in a text in different ways!

Remember the importance of always using word parts, word relationships, figurative
language, and context clues, to understand what is being expressed in a text. Lastly,
remember to use the Dictionary correctly, a very important resource that helps us
understand the language.

Until next time!

References:
https://khdzamlit.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261956/a_raisin_in_the_sun_-
_lorraine_hansberry.pdf
https://www.cpalms.org/