ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
All American Literature Videos 200 videos
Modernism was the happy, optimistic bandwagon that every writer just had to jump on. Okay, so only half of that statement is true. But we want you...
You might be hearing a chorus of farewells if you recommend A Farewell to Arms as the next read for your Fabulously Feisty Feminist Book Club.
This video summarizes the play A Raisin in the Sun. It discusses the Youngers, members of an African-American family trying to better themselves wh...
A Raisin in the Sun Summary 45664 Views
Share It!
Description:
We know that snacking on some dry raisins in the beating hot sun doesn't sound like the most appetizing thing in the world. But stick with us and you'll see just how juicy and appetizing this story really is.
Transcript
- 00:06
Raisin in the Sun, a la Shmoop. I don't know what I'm gonna do with this family
- 00:11
of mine. I'm stuck in a tiny apartment with my kids Beneatha <Buh-NEATH-uh> and Walter,
- 00:15
my daughter-in-law Ruth, and my grandson, Travis.
- 00:19
And a lot of roaches.
- 00:22
Travis is just the best, sweetest little baby boy in the whole history of the world...
Full Transcript
- 00:28
...but the others spend most of their time fighting like cats and dogs.
- 00:34
Yep, my children have strong personalities,
- 00:37
to put it lightly. Walter hates being a chauffeur, so he spends a lot of time escaping into a
- 00:42
bottle and dreaming about opening a liquor store with his sleazy buddies.
- 00:47
Then there's Beneatha, a rebel who busted out some serious disco hair to impress her
- 00:53
Nigerian ex-boyfriend.
- 00:56
She wants to be a doctor, even though most doctors these days are men, and our income
- 01:00
is more suited to clown school. ...
- 01:04
I thought Ruth was going to be the well-adjusted adult in the household, but then it turned
- 01:08
out that she was secretly planning an abortion for a baby she couldn't afford.
- 01:13
What's a gramma to do? Travis, I need some hug therapy!
- 01:18
Sometimes I think only my plant understands me...
- 01:22
There was a little bit of good news, though...my husband died!
- 01:27
Oh, um, that wasn't good news, actually, but the ten thousand dollar insurance check
- 01:32
sure was!
- 01:34
Now all I had to do was figure out what to spend it on.
- 01:37
I decided that this family needed a big change.
- 01:40
So I bought us a nice little house in a nice white neighborhood.
- 01:44
Walter didn't take it too well.
- 01:47
But I made up with him. I gave him the rest of the insurance dough to deposit into bank
- 01:54
accounts for Beneatha and him.
- 01:56
Everybody got a fair share, and it was a win-win-win situation! Not to toot my own horn, but
- 02:01
check out those money-managing skills!
- 02:04
Ruth was super-excited about moving into a new place with space for Travis and a baby.
- 02:10
Even Walter seemed like less of a buzzkill.
- 02:15
So what if our future neighbors-to-be hated us so much they wanted to buy back the house
- 02:19
for big bucks? I was going to have my very own garden!
- 02:25
But I should have known it was too good to last. Einstein here lost all of the money
- 02:29
when his so-called "friend" ran off with it. ...
- 02:35
That little setback left us with no liquor store, no med school, and no peace from sad
- 02:39
sack Walter's moping and bellyaching. So much for the Younger family dreams.
- 02:48
Just when I thought Walter couldn't sink any deeper, he dropped the bombshell that
- 02:51
he accepted the offer to buy us out of our new home!
- 02:55
Obviously he didn't inherit his mama's brains.
- 02:59
So there we were on moving day, with a smug white guy in the house, and Walter selling
- 03:03
us down the river. But for some reason, either because of the
- 03:08
tongue lashing we'd given him or Travis' big puppy dog eyes...
- 03:11
...Walter did a 180 and held his ground.
- 03:17
Somebody call the moving van, because we're finally living our dream! Come on, Mr. Plant!
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.