A Raisin in the Sun Beneatha Younger Quotes

Beneatha Younger

Quote 10

BENEATHA
It is my business – where is he going to live, on the roof? (There is silence following the remark as the three women react to the sense of it) (1.2.54)

The family is so poverty-stricken that the birth of a new family member is bad news. There's just no more room in their tiny apartment for another person, and there's barely enough money to feed the ones who already live there.

Beneatha Younger

Quote 11

BENEATHA
And where does it end?
[…]
An end to misery! To stupidity! Don’t you see there isn’t any real progress, Asagai, there is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture in front of us – our own little mirage that we think is the future. (3.1.26-8)

Beneatha loses faith in the idea of progress after her family faces yet another blow. In this moment at least, she feels everyone's dreams are doomed to fail, that everyone is doomed to suffer.

BENEATHA
Asagai, while I was sleeping in that bed in there, people went out and took the future right out of my hands! And nobody asked me, nobody consulted me – they just went out and changed my life! (3.1.32)

Beneatha claims that she suffers at the hands of others. She doesn't realize yet that she has the ability to improve her circumstances.