ACT I

SCENE TWO

It is the following morning; a Saturday morning, and house cleaning is in progress at the YOUNGERS. Furniture has been shoved hither and yon and MAMA is giving the
kitchen-area walls a washing down. BENEATHA, in dungarees, with a handkerchief tied around her face, is spraying insecticide into the cracks in the walls. As they
work, the radio is on and a Southside disk-jockey program is inappropriately filling the house with a rather exotic saxophone blues. TRAVIS, the sole idle one, is leaning on
his arms, looking out of the window.

TRAVIS Grandmama, that stuff Bennie is using smells awful. Can I go downstairs, please?

MAMA Did you get all them chores done already? I ain’t seen you doing much.

TRAVIS Yes’m—finished early. Where did Mama go this morning?

MAMA (Looking at BENEATHA) She had to go on a little errand.

(The phone rings. BENEATHA runs to answer it and reaches it before WALTER, who has entered from bedroom)

TRAVIS Where?

MAMA To tend to her business.

BENEATHA Haylo … (Disappointed) Yes, he is. (She tosses the phone to WALTER, who barely catches it) It’s Willie Harris again.

WALTER (As privately as possible under MAMA’S gaze) Hello, Willie. Did you get the papers from the lawyer? … No, not yet. I told you the mailman doesn’t get here till ten-thirty … No, I’ll come there … Yeah! Right away. (He hangs up and goes for his coat)

BENEATHA Brother, where did Ruth go?

WALTER (As he exits) How should I know!

TRAVIS Aw come on, Grandma. Can I go outside?

MAMA Oh, I guess so. You stay right in front of the house, though, and keep a good lookout for the postman.

TRAVIS Yes’m. (He darts into bedroom for stickball and bat, reenters, and sees BENEATHA on her knees spraying under sofa with behind upraised. He edges
closer to the target, takes aim, and lets her have it. She screams) Leave them poor little cockroaches alone, they ain’t bothering you none! (He runs as she swings the
spray gun at him viciously and playfully) Grandma! Grandma!

MAMA Look out there, girl, before you be spilling some of that stuff on that child!

TRAVIS (Safely behind the bastion of MAMA) That’s right—
look out, now! (He exits)
BENEATHA (Drily) I can’t imagine that it would hurt him—it has never hurt the roaches.

MAMA Well, little boys’ hides ain’t as tough as Southside roaches. You better get over there behind the bureau. I seen one marching out of there like Napoleon yesterday.

BENEATHA There’s really only one way to get rid of them, Mama—

MAMA How?

BENEATHA Set fire to this building! Mama, where did Ruth go?

MAMA (Looking at her with meaning) To the doctor, I think.

BENEATHA The doctor? What’s the matter? (They exchange glances) You don’t think—

MAMA (With her sense of drama) Now I ain’t saying what I think. But I ain’t never been wrong ’bout a woman neither.

(The phone rings)

BENEATHA (At the phone) Hay-lo … (Pause, and a moment of recognition) Well—when did you get back! … And how was it? … Of course I’ve missed you—in my way … This morning? No … house cleaning and all that and Mama hates it if I let people come over when the house is like this … You have? Well, that’s different … What is it—Oh, what the hell, come on over … Right, see you then. Arrivederci.

(She hangs up)

MAMA (Who has listened vigorously, as is her habit) Who is that you inviting over here with this house looking like this? You ain’t got the pride you was born with!

BENEATHA Asagai doesn’t care how houses look, Mama— he’s an intellectual.
MAMA Who?

BENEATHA Asagai—Joseph Asagai. He’s an African boy I met on campus. He’s been studying in Canada all summer.

MAMA What’s his name?

BENEATHA Asagai, Joseph. Ah-sah-guy … He’s from Nigeria.

MAMA Oh, that’s the little country that was founded by slaves way back …

BENEATHA No, Mama—that’s Liberia.

MAMA I don’t think I never met no African before.

BENEATHA Well, do me a favor and don’t ask him a whole lot of ignorant questions about Africans. I mean, do they wear clothes and all that—

MAMA Well, now, I guess if you think we so ignorant ’round
here maybe you shouldn’t bring your friends here—

BENEATHA It’s just that people ask such crazy things. All anyone seems to know about when it comes to Africa is Tarzan—

MAMA (Indignantly) Why should I know anything about Africa?

BENEATHA Why do you give money at church for the missionary work?

MAMA Well, that’s to help save people.

BENEATHA YOU mean save them from heathenism—

MAMA (Innocently) Yes.

BENEATHA I’m afraid they need more salvation from the British and the French.

(RUTH comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her)

RUTH (Dispiritedly) Well, I guess from all the happy faces— everybody knows.

BENEATHA You pregnant?

MAMA Lord have mercy, I sure hope it’s a little old girl. Travis ought to have a sister.

(BENEATHA and RUTH give her a hopeless look for this grandmotherly enthusiasm)

BENEATHA How far along are you?

RUTH Two months.

BENEATHA Did you mean to? Imean did you plan it or was it an accident?

MAMA What do you know about planning or not planning?

BENEATHA Oh, Mama.

RUTH (Wearily) She’s twenty years old, Lena.

BENEATHA Did you plan it, Ruth?

RUTH Mind your own business.

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) Gee—I didn’t mean
that, Ruth, honest. Gee, I don’t feel like that at all. I—I think it is wonderful.

RUTH (Dully) Wonderful.

BENEATHA Yes—really. (There is a sudden commotion from the street and she goes to the window to look out) What on earth is going on out there? These kids. (There are, as she throws open the window, the shouts of children rising up from the street. She sticks her head out to see better and calls out) TRAVIS! TRAVIS … WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE? (She sees) Oh Lord, they’re chasing a rat!

(RUTH covers her face with hands and turns away)

MAMA (Angrily) Tell that youngun to get himself up here, at once!

BENEATHA TRAVIS … YOU COME UPSTAIRS … AT ONCE!

RUTH (Her face twisted) Chasing a rat.…

MAMA (Looking at RUTH, worried) Doctor say everything going to be all right?

RUTH (Far away) Yes—she says everything is going to be fine …

MAMA (Immediately suspicious) “She”—What doctor you went to?

(RUTH just looks at MAMA meaningfully and MAMA opens her mouth to speak as TRAVIS bursts in)

TRAVIS (Excited and full of narrative, coming directly to his mother) Mama, you should of seen the rat … Big as a cat, honest! (He shows an exaggerated size with his hands) Gaaleee, that rat was really cuttin’ and Bubber caught him with his heel and the janitor, Mr. Barnett, got him with a stick—and then they got him in a corner and—
BAM! BAM! BAM!—and he was still jumping around and bleeding like everything too—there’s rat blood all over the street—

(RUTH reaches out suddenly and grabs her son without even looking at him and clamps her hand over his mouth and holds him to her. MAMA
crosses to them rapidly and takes the boy from her)

MAMA You hush up now … talking all that terrible stuff …

(TRAVIS is staring at his mother with a stunned expression. BENEATHA comes quickly and takes him away from his grandmother and ushers him to the door)

BENEATHA You go back outside and play … but not with any rats. (She pushes him gently out the door with the boy straining to see what is wrong with his mother)

MAMA (Worriedly hovering over RUTH) Ruth honey—what’s the matter with you—you sick?

(RUTH has her fists clenched on her thighs and is fighting hard to suppress a scream that seems to be rising in her)

BENEATHA What’s the matter with her, Mama?

MAMA (Working her fingers in RUTH’S shoulders to relax her) She be all right. Women gets right depressed sometimes when they get her way. (Speaking softly,
expertly, rapidly) Now you just relax. That’s right … just lean back, don’t think ’bout nothing at all … nothing at all —

RUTH I’m all right …

(The glassy-eyed look melts and then she collapses into a fit of heavy sobbing. The bell rings)

BENEATHA Oh, my God—that must be Asagai.

MAMA (To RUTH) Come on now, honey. You need to lie down and rest awhile … then have some nice hot food.

(They exit, RUTH’S weight on her mother-in-law. BENEATHA, herself profoundly disturbed, opens the door to admit a rather dramatic-looking young man with a large package)

ASAGAI Hello, Alaiyo—

BENEATHA (Holding the door open and regarding him with pleasure) Hello … (Long pause) Well—come in. And please excuse everything. My mother was very upset
about my letting anyone come here with the place like this.

ASAGAI (Coming into the room) You look disturbed too … Is something wrong?

BENEATHA (Still at the door, absently) Yes … we’ve all got acute ghetto-itis. (She smiles and comes toward him, finding a cigarette and sitting) So—sit down! No! Wait!
(She whips the spray gun off sofa where she had left it and puts the cushions back. At last perches on arm of sofa. He sits) So, how was Canada?

ASAGAI (A sophisticate) Canadian.

BENEATHA (Looking at him) Asagai, I’m very glad you are back.

ASAGAI (Looking back at her in turn) Are you really?

BENEATHA Yes—very.

ASAGAI Why?—you were quite glad when I went away. What happened?

BENEATHA You went away.

ASAGAI Ahhhhhhhh.

BENEATHA Before—you wanted to be so serious before there was time.

ASAGAI How much time must there be before one knows what one feels?

BENEATHA (Stalling this particular conversation. Her hands pressed together, in a deliberately childish gesture) What did you bring me?

ASAGAI (Handing her the package) Open it and see.

BENEATHA (Eagerly opening the package and drawing out some records and the colorful robes of a Nigerian woman) Oh, Asagai! … You got them for me! … How
beautiful … and the records too! (She lifts out the robes and runs to the mirror with them and holds the drapery up in front of herself)

ASAGAI (Coming to her at the mirror) I shall have to teach you how to drape it properly. (He flings the material about her for the moment and stands back to look at
her) Ah—Oh-pay-gay-day, oh-gbah-mu-shay. (A Yoruba exclamation for admiration) You wear it well … very well … mutilated hair and all.

BENEATHA (Turning suddenly) My hair—what’s wrong with my hair?

ASAGAI (Shrugging) Were you born with it like that?

BENEATHA (Reaching up to touch it) No … of course not. (She looks back to the mirror, disturbed)

ASAGAI (Smiling) How then?

BENEATHA YOU know perfectly well how … as crinkly as yours … that’s how.

ASAGAI And it is ugly to you that way?

BENEATHA (Quickly) Oh, no—not ugly … (More slowly, apologetically) But it’s so hard to manage when it’s, well —raw.

ASAGAI And so to accommodate that—you mutilate it every week?

BENEATHA It’s not mutilation!

ASAGAI (Laughing aloud at her seriousness) Oh … please! I am only teasing you because you are so very serious about these things. (He stands back from her and folds
his arms across his chest as he watches her pulling at her hair and frowning in the mirror) Do you remember the first time you met me at school? … (He laughs) You
came up to me and you said—and I thought you were the most serious little thing I had ever seen—you said: (He imitates her) “Mr. Asagai—I want very much to talk with
you. About Africa. You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity!”

(He laughs)

BENEATHA (Turning to him, not laughing) Yes— (Her face is quizzical, profoundly disturbed)

ASAGAI (Still teasing and reaching out and taking her face in his hands and turning her profile to him) Well … it is true that this is not so much a profile of a Hollywood
queen as perhaps a queen of the Nile—(A mock dismissal of the importance of the question) But what does it matter? Assimilationism is so popular in your country.

BENEATHA (Wheeling, passionately, sharply) I am not an assimilationist!

ASAGAI (The protest hangs in the room for a moment and

ASAGAI studies her, his laughter fading) Such a serious one. (There is a pause) So—you like the robes? You must take excellent care of them—they are from my sister’s personal wardrobe.

BENEATHA (With incredulity) You—you sent all the way home—for me?

ASAGAI (With charm) For you—I would do much more … Well, that is what I came for. I must go.

BENEATHA Will you call me Monday?

ASAGAI Yes … We have a great deal to talk about. I mean about identity and time and all that.

BENEATHA Time?

ASAGAI Yes. About how much time one needs to know what one feels.

BENEATHA You see! You never understood that there is more than one kind of feeling which can exist between a man and a woman—or, at least, there should be.

ASAGAI (Shaking his head negatively but gently) No. Between a man and a woman there need be only one kind of feeling. I have that for you … Now even … right
this moment …

BENEATHA I know—and by itself—it won’t do. I can find that anywhere.

ASAGAI For a woman it should be enough.

BENEATHA I know—because that’s what it says in all the novels that men write. But it isn’t. Go ahead and laugh— but I’m not interested in being someone’s little episode in
America or—(With feminine vengeance)—one of them! (ASAGAI has burst into laughter again) That’s funny as hell, huh!

ASAGAI It’s just that every American girl I have known has said that to me. White—black—in this you are all the same. And the same speech, too!

BENEATHA (Angrily) Yuk, yuk, yuk!

ASAGAI It’s how you can be sure that the world’s most liberated women are not liberated at all. You all talk about it too much!

(MAMA enters and is immediately all social charm because of the presence of a guest)

BENEATHA Oh—Mama—this is Mr. Asagai.

MAMA How do you do?

ASAGAI (Total politeness to an elder) How do you do, Mrs. Younger. Please forgive me for coming at such an outrageous hour on a Saturday.

MAMA Well, you are quite welcome. I just hope you understand that our house don’t always look like this. (Chatterish) You must come again. I would love to hear
all about—(Not sure of the name)—your country. I think it’s so sad the way our American Negroes don’t know nothing about Africa ’cept Tarzan and all that. And all that money they pour into these churches when they ought to be helping you people over there drive out them French and Englishmen done taken away your land.

(The mother flashes a slightly superior look at her daughter upon completion of the recitation)

ASAGAI (Taken aback by this sudden and acutely unrelated expression of sympathy) Yes … yes …

MAMA (Smiling at him suddenly and relaxing and looking him over) How many miles is it from here to where you come from?

ASAGAI Many thousands.

MAMA (Looking at him as she would WALTER) I bet you don’t half look after yourself, being away from your mama either. I spec you better come ’round here from time to
time to get yourself some decent home-cooked meals …

ASAGAI (Moved) Thank you. Thank you very much. (They are all quiet, then—) Well … I must go. I will call you Monday, Alaiyo.

MAMA What’s that he call you?

ASAGAI Oh—“Alaiyo.” I hope you don’t mind. It is what you would call a nickname, I think. It is a Yoruba word. I am a Yoruba.

MAMA (Looking at BENEATHA) I—I thought he was from— (Uncertain)

ASAGAI (Understanding) Nigeria is my country. Yoruba is my tribal origin—

BENEATHA YOU didn’t tell us what Alaiyo means … for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something …

ASAGAI Well … let me see … I do not know how just to explain it … The sense of a thing can be so different when it changes languages.

BENEATHA You’re evading.

ASAGAI No—really it is difficult … (Thinking) It means … it means One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough. (He looks at her) Is that all right?

BENEATHA (Understanding, softly) Thank you.

MAMA (Looking from one to the other and not understanding any of it) Well … that’s nice … You must come see us again—Mr.——

ASAGAI Ah-sah-guy …

MAMA Yes … Do come again.

ASAGAI Good-bye.

(He exits)

MAMA (After him) Lord, that’s a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa
’round here. Missionaries my aunt Jenny!

(She exits)

BENEATHA Oh, Mama! … (She picks up the Nigerian dress and holds it up to her in front of the mirror again. She sets the headdress on haphazardly and then notices her
hair again and clutches at it and then replaces the headdress and frowns at herself. Then she starts to wriggle in front of the mirror as she thinks a Nigerian woman might. TRAVIS enters and stands regarding her)

TRAVIS What’s the matter, girl, you cracking up?

BENEATHA Shut up.

(She pulls the headdress off and looks at herself in the mirror and clutches at her hair again and squinches her eyes as if trying to imagine something. Then, suddenly, she gets her raincoat and kerchief and hurriedly prepares for going out)

MAMA (Coming back into the room) She’s resting now. Travis, baby, run next door and ask Miss Johnson to please let me have a little kitchen cleanser. This here can
is empty as Jacob’s kettle.

TRAVIS I just came in.

MAMA Do as you told. (He exits and she looks at her daughter) Where you going?

BENEATHA (Halting at the door) To become a queen of the Nile!

(She exits in a breathless blaze of glory. RUTH appears in the bedroom doorway)

MAMA Who told you to get up?

RUTH Ain’t nothing wrong with me to be lying in no bed for. Where did Bennie go?

MAMA (Drumming her fingers) Far as I could make out—to Egypt. (RUTH just looks at her) What time is it getting to?

RUTH Ten twenty. And the mailman going to ring that bell this morning just like he done every morning for the last umpteen years.

(TRAVIS comes in with the cleanser can)

TRAVIS She say to tell you that she don’t have much.

MAMA (Angrily) Lord, some people I could name sure is tight-fisted! (Directing her grandson) Mark two cans of cleanser down on the list there. If she that hard up for
kitchen cleanser, I sure don’t want to forget to get her none!

RUTH Lena—maybe the woman is just short on cleanser—

MAMA (Not listening)—Much baking powder as she done borrowed from me all these years, she could of done gone into the baking business!

(The bell sounds suddenly and sharply and all three are stunned—serious and silent—midspeech. In spite of all the other conversations and distractions of the morning, this is what they have been waiting for, even TRAVIS who looks helplessly from his mother to his grandmother. RUTH is the first to come to life again)

RUTH (To TRAVIS) Get down them steps, boy!

(TRAVIS snaps to life and flies out to get the mail)

MAMA (Her eyes wide, her hand to her breast) You mean it done really come?

RUTH (Excited) Oh, Miss Lena!

MAMA (Collecting herself) Well … I don’t know what we all so excited about ’round here for. We known it was coming for months.

RUTH That’s a whole lot different from having it come and being able to hold it in your hands … a piece of paper worth ten thousand dollars … (TRAVIS bursts back into
the room. He holds the envelope high above his head, like a little dancer, his face is radiant and he is breathless. He moves to his grandmother with sudden
slow ceremony and puts the envelope into her hands. She accepts it, and then merely holds it and looks at it) Come on! Open it … Lord have mercy, I wish Walter Lee
was here!

TRAVIS Open it, Grandmama!

MAMA (Staring at it) Now you all be quiet. It’s just a check.

RUTH Open it …

MAMA (Still staring at it) Now don’t act silly … We ain’t never been no people to act silly ’bout no money—

RUTH (Swiftly) We ain’t never had none before—OPEN IT!

(MAMA finally makes a good strong tear and pulls out the thin blue slice of paper and inspects it closely. The boy and his mother study it raptly
over MAMA’S shoulders)

MAMA Travis! (She is counting off with doubt) Is that the right number of zeros?

TRAVIS Yes’m … ten thousand dollars. Gaalee, Grandmama, you rich.

MAMA (She holds the check away from her, still looking at it. Slowly her face sobers into a mask of unhappiness) Ten thousand dollars. (She hands it to RUTH) Put it away
somewhere, Ruth. (She does not look at RUTH; her eyes seem to be seeing something somewhere very far off) Ten thousand dollars they give you. Ten thousand dollars.

TRAVIS (To his mother, sincerely) What’s the matter with Grandmama—don’t she want to be rich?

RUTH (Distractedly) You go on out and play now, baby. (TRAVIS exits. MAMA starts wiping dishes absently, humming intently to herself. RUTH turns to her, with kind
exasperation) You’ve gone and got yourself upset.

MAMA (Not looking at her) I spec if it wasn’t for you all … I would just put that money away or give it to the church or something.

RUTH Now what kind of talk is that. Mr. Younger would just be plain mad if he could hear you talking foolish like that.

MAMA (Stopping and staring off) Yes … he sure would. (Sighing) We got enough to do with that money, all right. (She halts then, and turns and looks at her daughter-inlaw
hard; RUTH avoids her eyes and MAMA wipes her hands with finality and starts to speak firmly to RUTH) Where did you go today, girl?

RUTH To the doctor.

MAMA (Impatiently) Now, Ruth … you know better than that. Old Doctor Jones is strange enough in his way but there ain’t nothing ’bout him make somebody slip and call him “she”—like you done this morning.

RUTH Well, that’s what happened—my tongue slipped.

MAMA You went to see that woman, didn’t you?

RUTH (Defensively, giving herself away) What woman you talking about?

MAMA (Angrily) That woman who—

(WALTER enters in great excitement)

WALTER Did it come?

MAMA (Quietly) Can’t you give people a Christian greeting before you start asking about money?

WALTER (To RUTH) Did it come? (RUTH unfolds the check and lays it quietly before him, watching him intently with thoughts of her own. WALTER sits down and grasps it
close and counts off the zeros) Ten thousand dollars— (He turns suddenly, frantically to his mother and draws some papers out of his breast pocket) Mama—look. Old Willy Harris put everything on paper—

MAMA Son—I think you ought to talk to your wife … I’ll go on out and leave you alone if you want—

WALTER I can talk to her later—Mama, look—

MAMA Son—

WALTER WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY!

MAMA (Quietly) I don’t ’low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, and you know it—(WALTER stares at them in frustration and starts to speak several times) And there
ain’t going to be no investing in no liquor stores.

WALTER But, Mama, you ain’t even looked at it.

MAMA I don’t aim to have to speak on that again.

(A long pause)

WALTER You ain’t looked at it and you don’t aim to have to speak on that again? You ain’t even looked at it and you have decided—(Crumpling his papers) Well, you tell
that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living-room couch … (Turning to MAMA and speaking directly to her) Yeah—and tell it to my wife, Mama,
tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else’s kids. And tell it to me, Mama, every time we need a new pair of curtains and I have to watch
you go out and work in somebody’s kitchen. Yeah, you tell me then!

(WALTER starts out)

RUTH Where you going?

WALTER I’m going out!

RUTH Where?

WALTER Just out of this house somewhere—

RUTH (Getting her coat) I’ll come too.

WALTER I don’t want you to come!

RUTH I got something to talk to you about, Walter.

WALTER That’s too bad.

MAMA (Still quietly) Walter Lee—(She waits and he finally turns and looks at her) Sit down.

WALTER I’m a grown man, Mama.

MAMA Ain’t nobody said you wasn’t grown. But you still in my house and my presence. And as long as you are— you’ll talk to your wife civil. Now sit down.

RUTH (Suddenly) Oh, let him go on out and drink himself to death! He makes me sick to my stomach! (She flings her coat against him and exits to bedroom)

WALTER (Violently flinging the coat after her) And you turn mine too, baby! (The door slams behind her) That was my biggest mistake—

MAMA (Still quietly) Walter, what is the matter with you?

WALTER Matter with me? Ain’t nothing the matter with me!

MAMA Yes there is. Something eating you up like a crazy man. Something more then me not giving you this money. The past few years I been watching it happen to you. You
get all nervous acting and kind of wild in the eyes— (WALTER jumps up impatiently at her words) I said sit there now, I’m talking to you!

WALTER Mama—I don’t need no nagging at me today.

MAMA Seem like you getting to a place where you always tied up in some kind of knot about something. But if anybody ask you ’bout it you just yell at ’em and bust out
the house and go out and drink somewheres. Walter Lee, people can’t live with that. Ruth’s a good, patient girl in her way—but you getting to be too much. Boy, don’t make the mistake of driving that girl away from you.

WALTER Why—what she do for me?

MAMA She loves you.

WALTER Mama—I’m going out. I want to go off somewhere and be by myself for a while.

MAMA I’m sorry ’bout your liquor store, son. It just wasn’t the thing for us to do. That’s what Iwant to tell you about—

WALTER I got to go out, Mama—

(He rises)

MAMA It’s dangerous, son.

WALTER What’s dangerous?

MAMA When a man goes outside his home to look for peace.

WALTER (Beseechingly) Then why can’t there never be no peace in this house then?

MAMA You done found it in some other house?

WALTER No—there ain’t no woman! Why do women always think there’s a woman somewhere when a man gets restless. (Picks up the check) Do you know what this money means to me? Do you know what this money can do for us? (Puts it back) Mama—Mama—I want so many things …

MAMA Yes, son—

WALTER I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy … Mama—look at me.

MAMA I’m looking at you. You a good-looking boy. You got a job, a nice wife, a fine boy and—

WALTER A job. (Looks at her) Mama, a job? I open and close car doors all day long. I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, “Yes, sir; no, sir; very good, sir; shall I
take the Drive, sir?” Mama, that ain’t no kind of job … that ain’t nothing at all. (Very quietly) Mama, I don’t know if I can make you understand.

MAMA Understand what, baby?

WALTER (Quietly) Sometimes it’s like I can see the future stretched out in front of me—just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me—a big, looming blank space—full of nothing. Just waiting for me. But it don’t have to be. (Pause. Kneeling beside het chair) Mama—sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ’bout things … sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars … sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me—

MAMA Son—how come you talk so much ’bout money?

WALTER (With immense passion) Because it is life, Mama!

MAMA (Quietly) Oh—(Very quietly) So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it’s money. I guess the world really do change …

WALTER No—it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it.

MAMA No … something has changed. (She looks at him) You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too … Now here come you and Beneatha— talking ’bout things we ain’t never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain’t satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don’t have to ride to work on the back of nobody’s streetcar— You my children—but how different we done become.

WALTER (A long beat. He pats her hand and gets up) You just don’t understand, Mama, you just don’t understand.

MAMA Son—do you know your wife is expecting another baby? (WALTER stands, stunned, and absorbs what his mother has said) That’s what she wanted to talk to you about, (WALTER sinks down into a chair) This ain’t for me to be telling—but you ought to know. (She waits) I think Ruth is thinking ’bout getting rid of that child.

WALTER (Slowly understanding) No—no—Ruth wouldn’t do that.

MAMA When the world gets ugly enough—a woman will do anything for her family. The part that’s already living.

WALTER You don’t know Ruth, Mama, if you think she would do that.

(RUTH opens the bedroom door and stands there a little limp)

RUTH (Beaten) Yes I would too, Walter. (Pause) I gave her a five-dollar down payment.

(There is total silence as the man stares at his wife and the mother stares at her son)

MAMA (Presently) Well – (Tightly) Well — son, I’m waiting to hear you say something … (She waits) I’m waiting to hear how you be your father’s son. Be the man he
was … (Pause. The silence shouts) Your wife say she going to destroy your child. And I’m waiting to hear you talk like him and say we a people who give children life, not who destroys them—(She rises) I’m waiting to see you stand up and look like your daddy and say we done give up one baby to poverty and that we ain’t going to give up nary another one … I’m waiting.

WALTER Ruth— (He can say nothing)

MAMA If you a son of mine, tell her! (WALTER picks up his keys and his coat and walks out. She continues, bitterly) You … you are a disgrace to your father’s memory. Somebody get me my hat!

Curtain