A Raisin in the Sun

Wake up.

Come on, honey. Get up.

Come on.

It's 7:30.

I said hurry up, Travis.

You're not the only person in the world gotta use the bathroom.

Walter Lee? It's after 7:30.

Let me see you do some waking up in here now.

All right, you just go ahead and lay there.

Next thing you know, Travis will be finished and Mr. Johnson will be in there,

and you'll be fussin' and cussin' round here like a madman and be late.

Walter Lee Younger?

It is time for you to get up!

Ain't he out yet?

What you mean out? He ain't hardly got in there good yet.

What you doing all that yellin' for if I can't get in there? Tsk.

-That check comin' today? -They said Saturday. This is just Friday.

And I sure hope you ain't gonna get up here first thing this mornin',

talkin' to me about no money, 'cause I don't wanna hear it.

What's the matter with you this morning?

I'm just sleepy.

-What kind of eggs you want? -Not scrambled.

You're just a little old happy woman this mornin', ain't ya?

And what does that boy do in that bathroom?

-He's gonna have to start gettin' up earlier. -Oh, no.

He won't be gettin' up one second earlier. No such thing.

I can't afford to be late for work on account of him messin' around.

It ain't his fault he can't get to bed no earlier nights.

'Cause he's got a bunch of crazy, good-for-nothin' clowns

sittin' up runnin' their mouths in what's supposed to be his bedroom.

Yeah, and that's what you're mad about, ain't it? Eh?

Things I wanna talk to my friends about

just couldn't be important in your mind, now, could they?

Yeah, such friends as you got.

-You look young this mornin', baby. -Yeah?

Yeah.

Just for a second, stirrin' them eggs, you looked real young again.

It's gone now.

You look like yourself again.

Man, if you don't shut up and leave me alone.

You know, the first thing a man oughta learn in this life

is not to make love to no woman early in the mornin'.

You all are some evil creatures 8:00 in the mornin'.

Daddy, come on!

Grandma's gonna be staying home from work from now on, huh, Mama?

That's right, baby.

Hey, insurance check comin' tomorrow, huh?

Will you get your mind off money and eat your breakfast?

This is the morning I'm supposed to bring the 50 cents to school, Mama.

Yeah, well, I ain't got no 50 cents this mornin'.

-Teacher said we have to. -I don't care what your teacher say.

-I ain't got it. -Aw, Mama.

Hush! Just eat.

Could I maybe go carry groceries at the supermarket after school then?

Look, you through eatin', you can get over there and make up your bed.

-I'm gone. -You got your milk money?

Yes, ma'am.

Ooh, I wouldn't kiss that woman good-bye this mornin'.

Not for nothin' in this world.

Not for nothin' in this world.

Now, whose little angry man are you?

Oh, golly, Mama.

"Oh, golly, Mama."

You better get on out of here now 'fore you be late.

Mama, could I please go carry groceries?

Honey, you should play evenings.

Bang!

-What's that he wants to do? -Go carry groceries after school at the supermarket.

Well, let him go. It's good for him to be business-minded.

I have to. She won't give me the 50 cents.

-Why not? -'Cause we don't have it.

What do you tell the boy things like that for?

-Here you are, Son. -Thanks, Daddy.

In fact, here's another 50 cents.

Get yourself some fruit or something or take a taxicab to school.

Hot dog!

I think you'd better get down and go to school, man.

-Okay. -Okay.

Bye.

That's my boy.

You know what I was thinkin' about in the bathroom this mornin'?

I know what you was thinkin', and I don't wanna hear it again.

About what me and Willy Harris was talkin' about last night.

Willy Harris is a good-for-nothin' loudmouth.

Anybody who'd talk to me has got to be a good-for-nothin' loud –

Charlie Atkins was a good-for-nothin' loudmouth too, wasn't he?

When he wanted me to go in the dry cleaning business with him.

Now he's grossing $1 00,000 a year. $1 00,000 a year.

You still call him a loudmouth good-for-nothin'.

-Oh, Walter Lee. -"Oh, Walter Lee."

You tired, ain't ya, baby? You oh-so-tired of everything.

Me, the boy, the way we live in this beat-up hole, everything.

Moanin' and groanin' all the time. But you wouldn't do nothin' to help, would you?

-You couldn't be on my side that long for nothin'. -Walter, please, leave me alone.

-A man needs a woman to back him up. -Walter.

Mama would listen to you. She listens to you more than she do me and Bennie.

She thinks more of you.

All you got to do is sit down with her one mornin'

when you're having your coffee and talkin' about things like you do.

Just say kinda easy-like that you've been thinkin' about this little deal

Walter Lee is so interested in, about the store and all.

Just keep sippin' away at your coffee like what you're sayin' ain't that important to you.

Before you know it, she's listening good and asking you questions.

-Then when I come home, I fill in the details. -Walter, please, leave me alone.

Baby, this ain't no fly-by-night operation.

I mean, we've got this thing figured out, me, Willy and Bobo.

-Bobo? -Yeah.

We figure the initial investment on the place to be about $30,000.

That's $10,000 apiece.

Of course we got to spread around a few hundred

so as not to spend your life waiting for them clowns to let your license get approved.

-You mean graft. -Don't call it that.

Goes to show you how much women know about the world.

Baby, don't nothin' happen for you in this world unless somebody gets paid off.

Walter, leave me alone. Eat your eggs. They're gonna be cold.

See?

A man say to his woman, "I got me a dream." She says, "Eat your eggs. They're gettin' cold."

Man say to his woman, "Help me now to take a hold in this world somehow,"

and she says, "Eat your eggs and go to work."

I tell you, I gotta change my life because I'm chokin' to death,

and all you say to me is eat these eggs.

That ain't none of our money, and I ain't gonna be harassing your mama about it.

Yeah, well, I'm lookin' in the mirror this mornin' and I'm thinkin',

"I'm 35 years old, I'm married 11 years,

and I got a boy who's got to sleep in the living room because I got nothin'."

Nothin' to give him but stories. Like on how rich white people live, eh?

-Eat your eggs, Walter. -Damn these eggs!

Damn all the eggs that ever was.

And go to work.

I'm tryin' to talk to you about me.

Now all you gonna say to me is eat these eggs?

You never say anything new.

I listen to you every day, every mornin', every night. You never say nothin' new.

So you'd rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So?

I'd rather be living in Buckingham Palace.

And that's just what's wrong with the colored woman in this world today.

You don't understand about building your men up,

making 'em feel like they's somebody, like they can do something.

-There are colored men who do things. -No thanks to the colored woman.

Well, being a colored woman, I guess I can't help myself none.

-I'm gonna start timin' those people. -You should get up earlier.

Really? When would you suggest, dawn?

You're a horrible-lookin' child this time of mornin'.

Good morning, Brother.

-How's your school comin'? -Oh, lovely, lovely.

You know, biology's the greatest.

I dissected something looked just like you yesterday.

Well, I was just, uh...

wondering whether you made up your mind and everything.

And what did I answer you yesterday morning and the day before that?

-Don't be so nasty, Bennie. -And the day before that and the day before that.

Well, I'm interested in you. Anything wrong with that?

- It ain't every day no girl – - Decides to be a doctor!

Come on out of there, please!

All right. You know that check is comin' tomorrow.

That money belongs to Mama. It's for her to decide how she wants to use it.

I don't care if she wants to buy herself a house or a rocket ship, or just nail it up and look at it.

It's hers, not ours. Hers.

Well –

You... are such a nice girl.

You've got your mother's interest at heart, ain't ya?

Well, Mama got that money.

She can always take a few thousand and help you through school.

I never asked anyone around here to do anything for me.

Well, now, the line between askin' and just acceptin' is big and wide.

What do you want from me? That I quit school or just drop dead?

I don't want nothin' from you but for you to stop actin' holy around here.

Now, me and Ruth done made some sacrifices for you.

It's about time you do something for this family.

-Walter, don't be draggin' me in it. -You are in it.

You go work in somebody's kitchen for two, three years to put clothes on her back.

-Walter, that's not fair. -Well, damn it, ain't nobody askin' her

to get on her knees and say, "Thank you, Ruth" and "Thank you, Brother" and "Thank you, Mama."

"Thank you, Travis, for wearing the same pair of shoes for the last two semesters."

Well, I do. All right? Thank everybody.

And you just forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all.

Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.

Your mama'll hear you.

Who in the hell told you you had to be a doctor?

You're so interested in messin' around with sick people,

go on out of here and be a nurse like other women.

Or get married and shut up.

So you finally got it said, huh?

Took you three years, but you finally got it said.

Walter, you give up and leave me alone. It's Mama's money.

He was my father too.

Well, so what? He was mine too, and Travis's grandfather.

But the insurance money belongs to Mama.

Now, picking on me isn't going to make her give it to you to invest in any liquor stores.

And I, for one, say God bless Mama for that.

You, for one, always say God bless Mama for that.

Go to work.

Nobody in this house is ever gonna understand me.

'Cause you're a nut.

-Who's a nut? -You. You're a nut. Thee is mad, boy.

The world's most backward nation of women, and that is a fact.

Well, then there are all those prophets who would lead us out of the wilderness

into the swamps!

Who in the world is that around here slammin' doors at this hour?

That was Walter Lee. He and Bennie was at it again.