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.
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.
Oh, my children and their tempers.
Lord have mercy.
If this little ol' plant don't start gettin' more sun than it's been gettin',
it ain't gonna never see spring again.
What's the matter with you this morning, Ruth? You look right peaked.
Bennie, honey, it's too drafty for you to be sittin' around here half-dressed.
-Where's your robe? -It's in the cleaners.
-Well, go get mine and put it on. -I'm not cold, Mama, honest.
-Yeah, I know, but you're so thin. -Mama, I'm not cold.
Lord have mercy. Look at that poor bed.
-Bless his heart. He sure tries, don't he? -No.
He don't half try at all, 'cause he knows you're gonna come along behind him and fix everything.
Well, he's a little boy. He ain't supposed to know nothin' about housekeeping.
My baby. That's what he is.
Well, now that you're gonna be home all the time, that boy is really gonna be spoiled.
My first day home, Ruth.
I'm gonna sit this body down and let it rest.
Just let it rest from here on in.
And thank my husband's sweet memory for makin' it all possible.
You know, Big Walter always hated the idea of being a servant.
Always said a man's hands wasn't meant to carry nobody's slop jars
or make their beds.
Always used to say they was meant to turn the earth with or make things.
That husband of yours, Walter Lee, he's just like him.
Just like him.
Walter.
Bring the car around front, please.
- Hey there, Ruth. - Oh, hi.
No, no, no, no, child. I can manage.
What's the matter with you?
Oh, a little tired, I guess.
I've been ironing since this mornin'.
Well, leave some for me. I'll get to 'em tonight.
You think that's what we want you home for?
So you can start doing everybody else's work now, huh?
Oh, a little ironing ain't never hurt nobody.
And the way you look, you need to be sittin' down immediately.
You know somethin'? I bet you got a touch of that virus been going around.
You don't look no better than you do now, you'd better stay home from work tomorrow.
I can't stay home. She's doin' her Saturday night entertaining.
-She'd have a fit if I don't show up. -Well, let her have it.
-I'll just call up and say you got the flu. -Well, why the flu?
'Cause it sounds respectable to 'em.
Somethin' white folks get too. They know about the flu.
Otherwise they think you been cut up or somethin' when you tell 'em you're sick.
-Where's my baby? -In there doing his homework.
-Tomorrow is Saturday. The child don't need – -You know Travis every Sunday.
He's too tired or he forgot what the teacher told him.
Awful hot to be cooped up there with a pile of books.
-Lena – -I ain't meddlin'.
Just noticed his eyes been lookin' sort of strained lately.
Child oughta have plenty of rest and plenty of sunshine.
-I take care of my son, Lena. -Honey, I ain't meddlin'.
-When you gonna let him out? -In 15 minutes. Is that all right?
Darlin', I ain't meddlin'.
Why don't you make it ten?
Sure loves to play that baseball.
Wonder what's keepin' Miss Beneatha so late. It's gettin' close to 5:00.
Lord, I don't believe this little ol' plant's had more than a speck of sunlight all day.
Ah! Oh, I'm tired.
I had to go way out there to that market again to get some decent groceries.
Ain't you never gonna learn to do your shoppin' in the supermarket, Lena?
What do you think they built 'em for?
Goin' way out there.
Well, I can't stand them buggies rollin' around and the belts movin'
and the meat all wrapped up like it was candy.
Them places frighten me.
You look like you could fall over right there.
I don't see you goin' outta here to do nobody's work tomorrow.
Oh, I got to go. We need the money.
Child, we got a great, big ol' check comin' tomorrow.
Now, that's your money. It ain't got nothin' to do with me.
We all feel like that. Walter, Bennie, me, even Travis.
$10,000.
Sure is wonderful.
$10,000.
-You know what you should do, Miss Lena? -Hmm?
-You should take yourself a trip somewhere. -Oh!
To Europe or South America, someplace.
Just pack up and leave. Go on away. Enjoy yourself some.
Forget about the family. Have yourself a ball for once in your life.
Ruth, what would I look like, wandering all over Europe by myself?
Aw, shoot. These here rich white women do it all the time.
They don't think nothin' of packin' up their suitcases
and pilin' on one of them big steamships, and, swoosh, they're gone, child.
Well, somethin' always told me I wasn't no rich white woman.
Mmm.
Well, what are you gonna do with it then?
Well, I – I ain't rightly decided.
Of course some of that money's got to be put away for Beneatha and her medical schoolin'.
And ain't nothin' gonna touch that part of it. Not nothin'.
Then I, uh –
I've been thinkin' – just – just thinkin', mind you –
that we could maybe meet the notes on a little ol' two-story somewhere
with a backyard where Travis could play in the summertime,
if we use part of the insurance money for a down payment
and everybody kinda pitch in.
I could maybe take on a little day's work again a few days a week.
Well, Lord knows we put enough rent into this here rat trap
to pay for four houses by now.
Rat trap?
Well, I 'spect that's about all it is, but –
But I remember the first day me and Big Walter moved in here though.
We hadn't been married but two weeks,
and we wasn't plannin' on living here more than a year.
We was gonna set away little by little, don't you know,
and buy us a little ol' two-story out in Morgan Park.
We'd even picked out the house.
Looks right dumpy today, but –
Lord, child, you should've known all them dreams I had about buyin' me that house
and then fixin' it up and makin' me a little garden out in back.
But none of it happened.
Ruth, Big Walter used to come in here some nights back then, honey,
and he'd slump down there on that big couch there
and he'd look at that rug and he'd look at me.
He'd look at that rug and he'd look back up at me.
And I knew he was down then, really down.
When we lost that baby...
oh, I thought we was gonna lose Big Walter too.
Oh, that man grieved hisself so.
Honey, he was one man to love his children.
Yeah, ain't nothin' can tear at ya like losin' your baby.
I think that's how come that man finally worked hisself to death like he done.
Like he was fighting his own war
with this here world that took his baby from him.
Crazy about his children.
God knows there was plenty wrong with Walter Younger.
Mean. Hardheaded.
Hmph. Kinda wild with women. Plenty wrong with him.
But he sure loved his children.
Always wantin' them to have somethin', you know, and – and to be somethin'.
I guess that's where Brother gets all them notions from, I reckon.
Ruth, Big Walter used to say sometimes, honey –
And he'd get right wet in the eyes, you know.
And he'd lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes, and he'd say,
"Seem like God didn't see fit to give the black man nothin' but dreams,
but he did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile."
Oh, he could talk like that, don't you know.
Yes, he sure could. He was a good man, Mr. Younger.
Yeah.
Hello, everybody.
Well, did you decide to come home?
I thought your last Friday's class was at 3:30.
It is, but I started my guitar lessons today.
-Your what kind of lessons? -Guitar.
Oh, Father.
Well, how come you done took it in your head to learn to play the guitar?
- I just wanna, that's all. - Lord have mercy.
Child, don't you know what to do with yourself?
Now, how long is it gonna be before you get tired of this now?
Like you got tired of that little ol' playactin' group you joined last year.
-And what was it the year before that? -The horseback riding club.
For which she bought that $55 riding outfit.
It's been hangin' up in the closet ever since.
Baby, why you got to flit so from one thing to another?
You ain't never done nothin' with all that camera equipment you brought home.
Mama, I don't flit. I experiment with different forms of expression.
Like riding a horse?
Well, people have to express themselves in one way or another.
Well, what is it that you wanna express?
Me!
Oh, well, don't worry. I don't expect you to understand it, for God's sakes.
-Bennie. -Just listen to her. Just listen.
Oh, God.
-If you use the Lord's name just one more time – -Mama!
Fresh. Just fresh as salt, this girl.
-Well, where you goin'? -I got a date. George Murchison again.
Oh! Gettin' a little sweet on him, huh?
You ask me, this child ain't sweet on nobody but herself.
-Express herself. -Oh, I like George all right.
I mean, I like him enough to go out with him and stuff.
-What does "and stuff" mean? -Mind your own business.
Oh, now, stop pickin' on her now, Ruth.
What does it mean?
Mama, I just mean that I could never really be serious about George.
-He's too shallow. -Shallow?
What you mean he's shallow? He's rich.
I know he's rich. He knows he's rich too.
And besides, George's mother wouldn't want me to marry little Georgie.
I mean, any more than I'd ever wanna marry little George.
Oh, honey, you mustn't dislike folks 'cause they're well-off.
Don't worry, Lena. She'll get over some of this. That's just her youth talkin' now.
What are you talking about? Get over it?
Hi, Travis.
Listen, I'm gonna be a doctor. I'm not even worried about who I'm gonna marry yet.
- If I ever get married. - "If"?
-Oh, now, Bennie – -Oh, Mama, I probably will.
But first I'm going to be a doctor.
Now, George, for one, he still thinks that's pretty funny.
I couldn't be bothered with that.
I'm gonna be a doctor, and everybody around here better understand that.
Course you're gonna be a doctor, honey, God willin'.
God hasn't got a thing to do with it.
-Beneatha, that just wasn't necessary. -No, Mama. Neither is God.
-I get sick of hearing about God all the time. -Beneatha!
Mama, I mean it. Now, I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time.
What has he got to do with anything? Does he pay tuition?
-You about to get your fresh little jaw slapped. -Just what she needs, all right.
Why? Now, why can't I say what I want to say around here like everybody else?
'Cause it don't sound nice for a young girl to be talkin' like that.
You wasn't brought up that way.
Me and your daddy went to the trouble to get you and Brother to church every single Sunday.
Mama, you don't understand. You see, it's all a matter of ideas.
And God is just one idea that I don't accept.
Now, it's not important.
I'm not gonna go out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe in God.
I don't even think about that.
It's just that I get so tired of him getting the credit
for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort.
No, there simply is no God.
There's only man,
and it's he who makes miracles.
Now, you say after me:
In my mother's house, there is still God.
Now, there's just some things we ain't gonna have around here,
not long as I'm still head of this family.
Yes, ma'am.
I think she was sorry, Lena.
It frightens me, Ruth, my children.
Oh, now, you got good children. They – They just a little off sometimes.
No. No. There's – There's somethin' done come down between them and me
that – that don't let us understand each other no more.
One's done almost lost his mind talking about money all the time,
and – and now the other's done commencin' to talk about things
I can't seem to understand no form nor fashion.
-What is it that's changin' them, Ruth? -Aw, you're takin' it all too serious.
You just got some strong-willed children,
and it takes a strong woman like you to keep 'em in hand.
Hmm. They're spirited all right, my children.
Got to admit they got spirit, Bennie and Walter.
Kinda like this little ol' plant here that ain't never had enough sunlight or nothin'.
Hmph. And look at it.
Lena, I –
-What are you gonna do about helping him? -You mean about Walter and his liquor store?
I'm worried for him, Lena.
-But liquor, honey – -Well, like Walter Lee say, Mama,
I 'spect people gonna always be drinkin' themselves some liquor.
Well, that don't mean I got to be the one sellin' it to 'em.
It's gettin' too close to the time for me to be meetin' my maker,
and I do not want that on my ledger.
Besides, we ain't no businesspeople, Ruth. We're just plain workin' folks.
Well, ain't nobody businesspeople till they go into business.
Walter Lee say colored people ain't gonna never start gettin' ahead
till they start takin' chances on some different kinds of things in this world,
investments and things.
What's done got into you, girl? Walter Lee done finally sold you on investin'?
No.
Mama, somethin's happenin' between me and Walter.
I don't know what it is, but he needs somethin',
somethin' I can't give him anymore.
He needs this chance, Lena.
Well, that don't make no difference.
I ain't gonna be puttin' the memory of my husband into no liquor.
Lord, there ain't nothin' as dreary as the view from this window
on a dreary evenin', is there?
Hmph.
How come you ain't singin' this evenin', Ruth?
Sing that song, "No Ways Tired."
That song always kinda lifts me up so.
Ruth! Ruth!
'Cause here's one thing you can believe –
people gonna be drinkin' themselves some booze
when they can't even be makin' it with the rent, right?
And that's a fact. That's strictly a fact.
That's why I say now is the time to move.
If we're gonna move together, we gotta move now.
-Now, Bobo's come up with his part of the money. -And it wasn't easy.
-But, man, I'm straight. I'm real straight. -And I got mine.
Now, we got a date to see the guy in Springfield about the license Friday.
Now, baby, if you'd just get up off of your loot, we got this thing made.
Yeah, everything's gonna be cool.
All I need is another day to swing the situation at home. You know how it is.
I got these three women at the barricades,
and, man, if there's anybody you can't persuade to take a larger view of life, it's a woman.
-Man, that's right. -That's why I say it's time to break out.
What do you say, Walter?
It's a deal.
-Hey, Mama. -Mmm?
-Where did Ruth go? -To the doctor, I think.
Oh, the doctor? What for?
-Mama, you don't think she's – -I ain't sayin' what I think.
But I ain't never been wrong about a woman neither.
Hey-lo.
Oh! Well, howdy-do to you too.
Oh, no. No, no. I'm sorry. Housecleaning and all that.
My mama hates it if I have anyone to come over when the house looks like this.
That's right.
Oh, you have?
Oh, well, that's different.
Well, look, what the heck. You just come right on over. Right.
Okay. I'll see you in a little while.
Yeah. Arrivederci.
Who in the world was that you inviting over here with this house looking like this?
You ain't got the pride you was born with.
Asagai doesn't care how houses look. He's an intellectual.
-Who? -Asagai.
Joseph Asagai. He's an African boy I met on campus.
What's his name?
Asagai.
Joseph Ah-sa-guy.
He's from Nigeria.
Oh, yes. That's that little ol' country that was founded by the slaves way back before –
No, Mama. That's Liberia.
I don't think I never seen me no African before.
Well, then, you just do me a favor.
Don't you ask him a whole lot of ignorant questions about Africans.
I mean, "Do they wear clothes?" and all that stuff.
Well, now, if you think we're so ignorant around here,
maybe you shouldn't bring your friends here.
Well, Mama, it's just that people ask such – such crazy things.
All anyone seems to know about when it comes to Africa is Tarzan.
Well, why should I know anything about Africa?
Well, now, why do you give money at church for the missionary work?
Oh, that's to help save folks.
-You mean save them from heathenism. -That's right.
I'm afraid they need more salvation from the foreigners on their lands.
Well,
I guess, from your faces, everybody knows.
-Ruth, you pregnant? -Lord have mercy.
I hope it's a little ol' girl. Travis ought to have a sister.
-How far along are you? -Two months.
Well, did you mean to? I mean, did you plan this or was it an accident?
-What do you know about plannin' or not plannin'? -Oh, Mama.
-She's 20 years old, Lena. -Well, I mean it. Did you plan it?
-Mind your own business. -It is my business.
Where's he gonna sleep, on the roof?
Oh – Oh, Ruth, I didn't mean that.
Well – Well, I don't feel like that at all. It's –
Ruth, I think it's wonderful.
-Wonderful. -Really, I do.
Well, now, did the doctor say everything's gonna be all right?
Oh, yes, yes. She said everything was gonna be fine.
Good –
She? What doctor you went to?
Don't you feel well?
-Ruth, baby! Ruth! Ruth! Ruth! -What's the matter with her?
Come on now. Come on now. She'll be all right.
Women gets depressed when they get her way. Come on, darlin'.
Just relax now. That's it, baby. Don't think about nothin' now.
-Come on. You need to lie down. -Oh, my God, that must be Asagai.
You need to lie down and rest a while. Then we'll have some nice, hot food.
Come on, baby. No, no, no. Come on, sweetheart.
Hello, Alaiyo.
Hello.
W-W-Well – Well, come on in.
Oh, and, uh, please excuse everything.
My mother was so upset about my having anyone to come here
with the house looking like this.
You seem disturbed too.
-Is there something wrong? -Yeah.
We've all got acute ghetto-itus.
Oh. I see.
Well, um –
So – So sit down.
Oh.
What did you bring me?
Open it and see.
Oh, you got it for me.
Oh, it's beautiful.
-And the records too. -Of course.
Thank you very much.
-I'll put it on. -All right.
No, no.
Here, I shall have to teach you how to drape it properly. Come.
Now, you take it like so.
There we are.
Like so.
And you drape it around here.
And then –
Now, turn.
All right. That's enough.
Tuck it here.
All right, that's fine.
Ah!
You wear it well. Very well.
You really think so?
Do you remember when I first met you at school?
You came up to me and you said –
And I thought you were the most serious little thing I'd ever seen.
You said, "Mr. Asagai,
I should like very much to talk with you about Africa.
You see, Mr. Asagai, I am looking for my identity."
Yes?
Well, it's true that this is not so much the profile
of a Hollywood queen.
I'd say the Queen of the Nile, huh?
Well, what does it matter? Assimilationism is so popular in your country.
I am not an assimilationist.
Such a serious one.
So, you like the robes.
You must take excellent care of them.
They're from my sister's personal wardrobe.
You sent all the way home for me?
Oh, well, for you...
I'd do much more.
Well, that's what I came for. I must go.
Well – Well, will you call me, uh, Monday?
Oh, yes, of course. We have a great deal to talk about, you and I.
-Yes. -I mean about identity and all that.
Yes, and time.
-Time? -Yes.
How much time one needs to know what one feels.
You see? You see, you never understood.
There's more than one kind of a feeling that can exist between a man and a woman.
-No, no. No, no. -Or at least there should be.
Between a man and woman, there need be only one kind of feeling,
and I have that for you, now even, right this moment.
I know. And by itself it won't do. I can find that anyplace.
-For a woman it should be enough. -I know.
And that's because that's what it says in all the novels that men write.
But it isn't.
Well, you just go ahead and laugh,
but I'm not interested in being someone's little episode in America.
Or one of them.
-It's real funny, huh? -No, no.
It's just that every American woman I have ever met
has always said that to me.
In this you are all the same. And the same speech too.
Yuk, yuk, yuk.
You know, it's how you can tell that the world's most liberated woman is not liberated at all.
You all talk about it too much.
It's my mother.
Mama,
this is Mr. Asagai.
-How do you do? -How do you do, Mrs. Younger?
Uh, please forgive me for coming at such an outrageous hour on a Saturday.
Oh, that's quite all right. Quite all right.
I just hope you understand our house don't always look like this.
-Yes, of course. -You, uh – You must come again.
I'd love to hear all about your country.
I think it's so sad the way our American Negroes don't know nothin' about Africa,
'cept Tarzan and all that.
And all that money they pour in these churches when they oughta be helping you folks over there
drive out them foreigners done took away your land!
Why, yes, of course.
How, uh – How many miles is it from here to where you come from?
Oh, many thousands.
Bet you don't half take care of yourself neither,
being away from your mama so far.
Well, I 'spect you'd better come around here from time to time
and get yourself some home-cooked meals.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, well, I really must be going.
-I'll call you Monday, Alaiyo. -What's that he called you?
Oh. Alaiyo. I hope you don't mind.
It's, uh, what you would call a nickname, I think.
It's a Yoruba word. I'm Yoruba.
I thought you said he come from –
Well, Nigeria is my country. Yoruba is my tribal origin.
Oh, you never did tell us what "Alaiyo" means.
For all I know, you might be calling me "little idiot" or something.
Oh, well, let me see. I don't know if I can explain it.
You see, the sense of a thing is sometimes quite different when it changes languages.
-You're evading. -No, no, really, it's quite difficult.
It means – It means,
"One for whom bread – "
No, no. "Food... is not enough."
Is that all right?
Thank you.
Well, that's nice. You must come again, Mr., uh –
-Asagai. -Hmm?
-A-sa-gai. -Yes, well, do come again.
-Call me. -I will.
Oh, that sure was a pretty thing that just walked outta here.
I see how come we done become so interested around here in Africa all of a sudden.
Missionaries, my Jenny!
Oh, Mama.
-You crackin' up? -You shut up.
Well, she's restin' now.
Mailman must be late, Grandma. I'm tired of waitin'.
Oh, it'll be all right, honey.
He'll be ringin' that bell soon,
just like he's been doin' every day for the last umpteen years.
Well, where are you goin'?
To become a queen of the Nile.
Who told you to get up?
Oh, ain't nothin' wrong with me to be layin' in no bed for.
-Where'd Bennie go? -Far as I could make out, to Egypt.
Get down them steps, boy.
-Do you reckon it's done come already? -Oh, Miss Lena.
Oh, now, now, ain't no point in us gettin' all excited.
W-W-We'd knowed it was comin' for months.
But that's a whole lot different from havin' it come and bein' able to hold it in your hand –
a piece of paper worth $10,000.
Go on, open it.
Lord have mercy, I wish Walter Lee was here.
Open it, Grandma.
N-Now, don't be gettin' excited. It's only a check.
-Open it. -N-Now, don't be actin' silly now.
We ain't never been a people to act silly about money.
We ain't never had none before.
Open it.
Travis,
is them the right amount of zeros?
Yes'm. $10,000.
Golly, Grandma, you're rich!
$10,000.
Put it away, Ruth.
$10,000 they give you.
$10,000.
What's the matter with Grandma? Don't she wanna be rich?
Go on downstairs and play now, baby.
Now, you done gone and got yourself upset.
You know, Ruth, I – I 'spect if it wasn't for y'all,
I'd put that money away or give it to the church or somethin'.
What kind of talk is that?
Mr. Younger'd be just plain mad if he could hear you talkin' foolish like that.
Yes, he would, wouldn't he?
Oh, we got plenty to do with that money, all right.
Where'd you go today, girl?
To the doctor.
Now, Ruth, you know better than that.
Old Dr. Jones is peculiar in his way,
but 'tain't nothin' about him to make nobody slip and call him "she,"
like you done this mornin'.
Well, that's just what happened. My tongue slipped.
-You went to that woman, didn't you? -What woman you talkin' about?
That woman up the street that takes money from women for doin' things that she ain't got –
Did it come?
What are you doin' home at this hour?
And can't you give people a Christian greetin' before you start askin' about money?
Did it come?
Mama.
Me and Willy Harris put everything on paper, Mama.
The lawyer just looked it over and everything.
Son, I think you oughta have a talk with your wife.
Now I'll go on out and leave you alone if you want.
-Mama. I can talk to her anytime, Mama. -Son –
Mama, would somebody listen to me today?
I don't allow no yellin' in this house, Walter Lee, and you know it.
And there ain't gonna be no investin' in no liquor stores!
And I do not aim to have to speak on it again!
But, Mama, you haven't even looked at it.
I mean, you haven't even looked at it, Mama.
You haven't even looked at it, and you don't even have to speak on it again?
Well, you tell that to my boy tonight
when you put him to sleep on the livin' room couch.
And you tell it to him in the mornin'
when his mother goes outta here to take care of somebody else's kids.
And tell it to me when we want some curtains or drapes
and you sneak outta here and go work in somebody's kitchen.
All I want is to make a future for this family.
All I want is to be able to stand in front of my boy,
like my father never was able to do to me,
and tell him that he'll be somebody in this world
besides a servant and a chauffeur, huh?
You tell me then, hear?
-Where you goin'? -Out.
-Where? -Just outta this house someplace.
-I'll come with you. -I don't want you.
-I got somethin' to talk to you about. -That's too bad.
Walter Lee! Sit down.
-I'm a grown man, Mama! -Ain't nobody said you wasn't grown!
But you are still in my house and my presence,
and as long as you are, you will talk to your wife civil!
-Now sit down! -Oh, let him go on out and drink himself to death.
You make me sick to my stomach.
Yeah, well, you turn mine too, baby.
That was my biggest mistake.
-Walter Lee, what is the matter with you? -Me?
-There's nothin' the matter with me. -Yes, there is.
There's somethin' that's eatin' you up like a crazy man,
somethin' more than me not givin' you this money.
The past few years I've been watchin' it happen to you.
You get all nervous-actin' and kind of wild in the eyes.
-I said sit there – -I don't need your naggin' at me today!
How's that?
Seems like you always tied up into some kind of knot or somethin'.
But if anybody asks you about it, you just yell, bust outta the house and go get drunk.
Walter Lee, people cannot live with that.
Ruth is a nice, patient girl in her way, but you're gettin' to be too much.
Boy, don't you make the mistake of drivin' that girl away from you.
-Why? What did she ever do for me? -She loves you!
Mama, I gotta go out now.
I gotta go out and be by myself!
Son, I am sorry about your liquor store, but it just weren't the thing for us to do.
Now, that's what I wanted to tell you about. It's dangerous, Son.
What's dangerous?
When a man goes outside his house to look for peace.
Well, then, how come there can't never be no peace in this house?
-You done found it in some other house. -No. No.
Why do you always have to think there's a woman somewhere when a man –
Mama –
-Mama, I want so many things. -Oh –
I mean, I want so many things that sometimes I think they're gonna drive me crazy.
-Mmm. -See, I'm 35 years old and I ain't got nothin'.
I ain't gonna be nothin', Mama. Just look at me.
-Look at me! -I'm lookin' at you. And you a good-lookin' boy.
You got a job, a fine wife, a son.
A job? No, I open and close car doors all day.
I drive a man around in his limousine and I say, "Yes, sir" and "No, sir"
and "Shall I take the Drive, sir?"
Mama, that ain't no kind of a job. That ain't nothin' at all.
-I don't even know if I can make you understand. -Understand what, baby?
Well, sometimes it's like I can see my future
just stretched out in front of me, my whole future.
A big, blank, empty space full of nothin'
just hangin' at the edge of my days, waitin' for me, Mama.
But it don't have to be.
Mama, sometimes when I'm downtown drivin' that man around,
we pass them cool, quiet-lookin' restaurants.
I look in. I see these white boys. They're sittin', talkin' –
Talkin' about deals. Deals worth millions of dollars, Mama.
And half the time they don't look no older than me.
Oh, Son, how come you talk, talk, talk so much about money?
'Cause it's life.
Oh.
So now money is life.
Once upon a time freedom used to be life, but now it's money.
Mama, it was always money. We just didn't know it.
No, no, no.
Somethin's changed. You're somethin' new, boy.
In my time we was worried about not bein' lynched and gettin' to the North
and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too.
Now here come you and Beneatha,
talkin' about things we ain't hardly ever thought about, me and your daddy.
You ain't satisfied or proud of nothin' we done.
I mean that you had a home, and that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown,
and that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's streetcar.
You're my children, but how different we've become.
You don't understand.
Son, don't you know your wife's expectin' another baby?
Now, that's what she wanted to talk to you about.
Now, this ain't for me to be tellin', but – but I thought you oughta know.
I think Ruth is thinkin' about gettin' rid of that child.
No, she wouldn't do that.
When the world gets ugly enough, a woman'll do anything for her family,
the part that's already livin'.
You don't know her, Mama, you think she'd do somethin' like that.
Yes. Yes, I would too, Walter.
I gave her a five-dollar down payment.
Well? Well, Son, I'm waitin' to hear you say somethin'.
I'm waitin' to hear how you'd be like your father, be the man that he was.
Your wife said she's gonna destroy your child,
and I'm waitin' to hear you talk like your father
and say that we're a people who gives children life, not who destroys 'em!
I'm waitin' to see you stand up
and look like your daddy and say that we done give up one baby to poverty,
and we ain't gonna give up nary another one!
I'm waitin'!
If you be a son of mine, you'll tell her.
You... You're a disgrace to your father's memory.
Where did I put my hat?
Well, what have we got on tonight?
You are now looking at what a well-dressed Nigerian woman would wear.
Isn't that beautiful?
Enough of that assimilationist junk.
Ocomogosiay!
-Well, what kind of dance is that? -It's a folk dance.
What kind of folks do that, honey?
It's from Nigeria. It's a dance of welcome.
-Well, who are you welcoming? -The men, back to the village.
Where they been?
Now, Ruth, how do I know where they've been?
Out hunting or something.
Anyway, they're comin' back now.
Well, that's good.
Yeah!
And Ethiopia stretched forth her arms again.
Yes, and Africa sure is claimin' her own tonight.
Shut up. I'm diggin' them drums.
Them drums move me.
In my heart of hearts, I'm much warrior.
Yes. In your heart of hearts, you're much drunkard.
Yeah, that's my man, you know – Kenyatta.
Hot damn.
Flamin' Spear.
Ah.
The lion wakin' now, honey.
Ocomogosiay!
Flamin' Spear!
Listen,
my black brothers.
Ocomogosiay.
Do you hear the waters rushin' against the shores of our coastlands?
Ocomogosiay.
Do you hear the screeching of the cocks in yonder hills,
beyond where our chiefs meet in council for the comin' of the mighty war?
Ocomogosiay!
Do you hear the beating of the wings of the birds
as they fly low over our mountains and the low places of our land?
Ocomogosiay!
Do you hear the singing of the women, singing their sweet war song?
Oh, do you hear, my black brothers?
We hear you, Flamin' Spear!
Tellin' us to prepare!
To prepare for the greatness of the times!
-Black brother. -Black brother, hell.
Beneatha, you got company. What's the matter with you?
Walter Lee Younger, get down off that table! And stop actin' like a fool.
He's had a little to drink.
I don't know what her excuse is.
Hey, look, honey, we're going to the theater.
We're not going to be in it, you know.
Oh, George, I don't like that.
Do you expect this boy to go out with you lookin' like that?
Well, now, that's up to George.
If he's ashamed of his heritage.
Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
Here we go again.
A lecture on our African past, on our great West African heritage.
In one second we're gonna hear all about the great Ashanti empires,
the Songhai civilization, the sculpture of Benin, some poems in the Bantu,
and then the whole monologue is going to end up with the word "heritage."
Let's face it, baby.
Your heritage ain't nothin' but a bunch of raggedy spirituals and some grass huts.
Grass huts?
Why, you see, George? You see?
You would rather stand there in your splendid ignorance
and know absolutely nothing about the people
who were the first to smelt iron on the face of this earth,
while the Ashantis were performing surgical operations!
When the English were still tattooing themselves with blue dragons!
Oh!
Have a seat, George.
Would you like a nice, cold beer?
No, thank you. I don't care for beer.
You know, I hope she hurries up.
-What time is the show? -It's an 8:30 curtain!
That's just Chicago though.
In New York, standard curtain time is always 8:40.
Oh. You get to New York a lot?
- Oh, sure. A few times a year. - That's nice.
-You know, I've never been to New York. -Oh, no?
New York.
New York ain't got nothin' Chicago ain't,
'cept a bunch of hustlin' people all squeezed up together, bein' Eastern.
-Oh. You've been? -Plenty of times.
-Walter Lee Younger – -Plenty!
What you got in this house to drink?
And why don't you offer the man some refreshments?
Not entertaining enough.
No, thank you. I don't care for anything.
How come all you college boys wear them faggoty-lookin' white shoes?
Walter Lee!
You'll have to excuse him.
They look funny as hell, you know?
Bad as them black knee stockings Beneatha wears outta here all the time.
-It's the college style, Walter. -Style, hell.
-She look like she got burnt legs or somethin'. -Oh, Walter!
"Oh, Walter. Oh, Walter."
How's your old man makin' out?
I understand that you're gonna buy that big hotel down on the Drive.
That right?
Yeah, well, that's a shrewd move, boy.
Your old man knows how to operate. He thinks big. You know what I mean?
I mean, for a home, you know.
But I kind of think he's runnin' out of ideas now, see.
Boy, I sure would like to talk to him.
Mmm!
I got me some plans, man.
I got me some plans that'll turn this city upside down.
You know what I mean? I mean, I think like your old man – big.
You invest big, you gamble big, and hell, you lose big if you have to.
You know what I mean?
Hard to find another man on the whole south side of Chicago
who understands that kind of thinkin'.
You know, if me and you get down and start talkin' about things –
Sometimes we'll have to do that, Walter.
Yeah.
When you get the time, man.
I know you are a busy little boy.
Walter, please.
I know ain't nothin' in the world as busy as you colored college boys,
with your fraternity pins and your white shoes.
Oh, Walter!
I see you all the time with your books tucked under your arm,
going to your "classes."
What are you learnin' down there? What are they fillin' your head with, eh?
Sociology? Psychology?
They teachin' you how to be a man?
How to take over and run this world, boy? Huh?
How to run a rubber plantation or a steel mill or somethin'?
No. Just how to read books and talk proper.
Yes, and wear faggoty white shoes.
You know, man, you are all wacked up with bitterness.
How 'bout you? Ain't you bitter, man?
Don't you see no stars gleamin' that you can't reach out and grab? Huh?
I'm talkin'.
I'm tellin' you.
Bitter?
I'm a volcano, I'm a giant,
and I'm surrounded by ants, ants who don't even know what I'm talkin' about.
-How's that? -Walter.
Ain't you with nobody?
No. Ain't nobody with me.
Not even my own mother.
Walter, that's a terrible thing to say.
Well. Hey, you look great.
See you later.
-Come along, George. -Have a nice time now.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Good night, Prometheus.
Who's Prometheus?
I don't know, honey. Don't worry about it.
See that?
They gettin' to a point they can't even insult you man-to-man.
They gotta go talk about somethin' nobody never heard of.
How you know it was an insult? Maybe Prometheus is a nice fella.
Prometheus. I bet you there ain't even no such thing.
I bet you that simpleminded clown just made it up outta his head.
-Walter. -Don't you start.
-Start what? -Your naggin'.
Where you been? Who you been with? How much money you spend? All right?
-Honey, why can't you stop fightin' me? -Who's fightin' ya?
Who even cares about ya?
Guess I may as well go on to bed.
I don't know where we lost it, but we have.
I'm sorry about this new baby, Walter.
Guess I better go ahead and do what I started.
I guess I just didn't realize how bad things was with us.
I guess I just didn't really realize.
Oh. Them stairs gettin' longer and longer.
-How you feelin' this evenin', Ruth? -Mama, where were you this afternoon?
Where's Travis?
I let him go out earlier, and he ain't come back yet.
-Boy, is he gonna get it. -Mama?
-Yes, Son? -Where were you this afternoon?
I went downtown to attend to some business I had –
What kind of business?
Now, you know better than to question me like a child, Brother.
Where were you, Mama?
You didn't go outta here and do something with that insurance money, somethin' crazy.
-Mama, I – -"Mama, I" nothin'. You're gonna get it, boy.
Get on in that bedroom and get yourself ready.
Why don't y'all never let the child explain hisself none?
Keep out of it now, Lena.
A thousand times I have told you not to go off like that, didn't I?
Well, at least let me tell him somethin'. I want him to be the first to hear.
Come here, Travis. Come on, baby. Come on to Grandma. Come on, baby.
Come on. Come on. Yes, yes, yes.
Travis, you know that money we got in the mail this mornin'?
Yes'm.
Well, what do you think your grandmama done went and done?
I don't know, Grandma.
Well, she went and she bought you a house.
You glad about the house? It's gonna be yours when you get to be a man.
Yes'm. I always did wanna live in a house, Grandma.
Well, give me a little sugar then.
Now when you say your prayers tonight,
you thank God and your granddaddy,
'cause he's the one who give it to you in his way.
You get on outta here now, Travis, and – and get ready for your beatin'.
-Oh, Mama. -Get on in there now.
So you went and did it.
Yes, I did.
Praise God!
Honey. Please.
Let me be glad.
You be glad.
Walter.
A home.
Well, where is it? How big? How much? When we movin'?
Th-The first of the month.
Praise God!
It's a nice house.
It's got three bedrooms, and there's a big one for you and Ruth.
Course, me and Beneatha still has to share ours,
but Travis'll have a room of his own and –
And I figures, if the new baby is a boy, we could get one of them –
-them double-decker outfits, you know? -Double – Yes.
And it's got a yard with a little patch of dirt in it,
that I could maybe get to grow me a few flowers.
-And it's got a great big basement. -Honey –
Honey, be glad!
Course, I – I don't wanna make it sound fancier than it is.
It's just a plain little old house,
but it's built good and solid,
and it'll be ours.
Walter Lee, it makes a difference to a man
when he can walk on floors that belong to him.
Where is it?
Clybourne Park.
Where?
4930 Clybourne Street, Clybourne Park.
Clybourne Park?
Mama, there ain't no colored people livin' in Clybourne Park.
Well, there's gonna be some now.
Is that the peace and comfort you went outta here and spent that money for today?
I just tried to find the nicest place for the least amount of money for my family!
Well, I ain't never been one afraid of no crackers, mind you.
Mama?
Wasn't there no other houses nowhere?
Well, them houses they build for colored way out in them areas,
they all seemed to cost twice as much.
I did the best I could!
Well –
All I can say –
this is my time in life –
my time...
to say good-bye to these...
old, tired walls...
and these marchin' cockroaches.
And this cramped little closet, which ain't now or never was no kitchen.
And I say it loud and good. Hallelujah!
Good-bye, misery.
I don't never wanna see your ugly face.
Lena?
Yes, honey?
Is there a whole lot of sunlight?
Yes, child, there's a whole lot of sunlight.
Well...
I guess I'd better go see about Travis.
Lord,
I sure don't feel like whippin' nobody today.
Son.
You understand what I done today, don't you?
I seen my family fallin' apart today,
fallin' to pieces in front of my eyes.
We couldn't go on like we was today.
We was goin' backwards instead of forwards,
talkin' about killin' babies and wishin' each other was dead.
When it gets like that in life, Son, you just gotta go on out and do somethin' different,
push on out and-and do somethin' bigger.
Son, I wish you'd say somethin'.
I wish you'd say how, deep inside you,
you feel I done the right thing.
What you want me to say you done the right thing for?
You're the head of this family.
You run our lives the way you want.
It was your money to do with what you want.
What you want me to say you done the right thing for?
Because you butchered up a dream of mine?
You, Mama, who's always talkin' about your children's dreams.
No.
Hello?
Yes. Yes, this is his wife.
Oh, he isn't here just now.
Uh, he had to go to the doctor's.
Well, it was the only appointment he could get, Mrs. Arnold.
Yes, I know he should've called, but, uh,
we wasn't so sure he could come to work –
Oh, no, no, I – I don't blame you.
Yes.
Thank you.
What'd she say?
She said...
they're gonna get somebody else if he don't come in tomorrow.
She said Mr. Arnold had to take a cab for three days.
Lena, what's happenin' to him?
Where's he been goin' every day?
Where you goin'?
I'm goin' to get my boy. What's the name of that drinkin' place he goes to?
Lena, it won't do no good. There ain't no sense in you –
What's the name of it?
The Kitty Kat.
Want a drink, Mama?
Want a little drink?
Get down from there this instant.
-Does he owe you any money? -Just for the last one. Eighty-five cents.
My change, please.
What have you been doin' for the past three days, Walter Lee,
pretendin' you've been goin' to work every mornin'?
Mama –
How long before I have to come and pick you up off the sidewalk?
You got hurtin' pain in you?
Well, I used to know a man who knew how to live with his pain and make his hurt work for him.
Your daddy died with dignity. There wasn't no bum in him.
And he'd known some hurts that you ain't never even heard of!
Mama. Mama.
Why did you leave the South? I mean that.
Forty years ago when you were a young woman, why did you leave the South?
Well, I 'spect for the same reason that everybody else does.
I thought maybe if I could come up here, I'd do better for myself.
Course, I don't say I exactly turned over the world since then –
But you didn't give nobody the right to stop you once you decided you had to go.
Even though you weren't goin' no place at all, you thought you were.
Didn't you, Mama? Didn't you?
Then why in the name of God couldn't you let me get on my train when my time come?
I don't think it's ever gonna come again, Mama.
I don't think it's ever gonna come again.
Now, Walter Lee.
Now, I paid the man $3,500 down on the house.
There's $6,500 left.
On Monday mornin', I want you to take $3,000 of this money
and put it in a savings account for Beneatha's medical schoolin'.
And the rest –
the rest I want you to put in a checkin' account with your name on it.
And from now on,
any penny that comes out of it or goes into it
is for you to look after, for you to decide.
Now, it – it ain't much, but it's all I got in the world,
and I'm puttin' it in your hands.
And I'm tellin' you, Son,
that from now on, you be the head of this family
the way you supposed to be.
Mama?
You trust me like that?
I ain't never stopped trustin' you, just like I ain't never stopped lovin' you.
All right. 4930, sir.
Well, let's get out and see what it looks like.
Hey, old Moms. Uh, come on.
Let's take a little ol' walk and see what the backyard's lookin' like.
Oh, I'll "old Moms" you.
Oh, I don't even know whether we should give this to her.
She hasn't been very cooperative around here lately.
- What is it? - Should we give it to her?
Oh, she's been pretty good today.
-Oh, how could you? -Boom.
Open it, Mama.
Open it, Mama. It's for you.
Oh.
Read the note, Mama.
-Ruth wrote the note. -Okay.
"To our own Mrs. Miniver.
With love from Brother, Ruth, and Beneatha."
Ain't that lovely?
-Can I give her mine now, Daddy? -Yeah.
Travis didn't want to go in with us, Mama, so he went out and got his own.
-Now, we don't know what he got there. -Open it.
Lord have mercy, Travis, honey. You done went and bought Grandma a hat.
Travis, honey, what is that?
It's a gardening hat, the kind the ladies wear in the magazines
when they work in their gardens.
Travis, honey, we're tryin' to make Mama Mrs. Miniver, not Scarlett O'Hara.
Oh, now, darlin', this is a beautiful hat. Beautiful hat.
Always wanted me one just like it. Just like it.
-Hot dog, Mama. -There we are.
Mama, you look like you're fixin' to go on out and chop you some cotton, sure enough.
Oh, now, darlin', come on. Give Grandma a hug.
Don't you pay 'em no mind, darlin'.
Now you come on and help me with these things down in the basement,
and come next spring I'll show you how we grow azaleas.
Come on now, honey. Come on.
-Where's the iron? -It's in here.
-And you're nailin' it up? -Didn't you tell me to nail it up?
I expressly heard you say, "Nail it up."
Common sense oughta tell anybody over seven years old
not to pack an iron in with your mama's good dishes.
-I'll mark it "fragile." -Oh.
You better get on away from me now.
Look here. I got all this work to do, man.
-Whoo! -Talk about old-fashioned Negroes.
-What kind of Negroes? -Old-fashioned.
Girl, when them new Negroes have their convention,
you are gonna be voted chairman on the Committee for Unending Agitation.
Race, race, race.
Girl, I do believe you'll be the first person in the history of the world
who ever successfully brainwashed themself.
You know, even the NAACP takes a holiday sometime.
Give her time, honey.
You know, when you become a doctor and you perform your first operation, huh?
Lookee here.
You grab your scalpel. You sharpen it.
You're just gettin' ready to cut the dude, you lean over and you say,
"By the way, what are your views on civil rights down there, old baby?"
Oh!
Well, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
That's what you think.
Oh.
-How do you do, miss? -How do you do?
I'm looking for a –
Yes? Who do you want, please?
Oh, uh, Mrs. Lena Younger.
Oh, that's my mother. P-Please excuse me just one second.
Won't you come in, please?
Well, thank you.
My mother isn't here just now.
-Is it on business? -Uh, yes. Well, of a sort.
Won't you have a seat?
Oh, thank you.
Oh.
Oh, I'm-I'm, uh, Mrs. Younger's son.
I-I take care of most of her business matters and things.
Oh, oh. Well, my name is Mark Lindner –
-Walter Lee Younger. -How do you do?
-Hi. My sister over here. -Uh, I'm –
-Oh. Miss. -How do you do?
-That's my wife over here. -Ma'am.
Um –
Uh –
Uh, what can we do for you, Mr. Lindner?
Well, I'm a representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association.
Why don't you rest your hat and your bag on the floor there?
-We're all cluttered up, packin' and all that jazz. -Oh, well, thank you.
Uh, but as I was saying,
I'm from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association,
and we had it brought to our attention at the last meeting that –
that you people – or at least your mother –
has bought a piece of residential property at 4 –
Uh–
Uh, 4930 Clybourne Street.
That's right. Would you care for somethin' to drink?
-Oh, no, please. -Get him a beer. A beer?
-I thank you very much, but no thank you, please. -Some coffee?
Thank you. Nothing at all.
Uh, well, now,
I don't know how much you folks know about our organization, uh –
Well, i-it's one of those community organizations set up to look after, uh –
Oh, you know, things like –
like block upkeep and special projects and –
Oh, and then we also have what we call
our New Neighbors Orientation Committee.
-And they – -Yes. And what do they do?
Well, uh, they, uh, um –
Well, it's a – Oh, what you might call a sort of welcoming committee, I guess.
I, uh – I-I mean they –
No, we, well –
Well, I'm chairman of the committee –
go around and see the new people who move into the neighborhood
and sort of give 'em the lowdown on the way we do things out in Clybourne Park.
- Mm-hmm. - But then –
And then we have the category
of what the association calls "special community problems."
Yes, and what are some of those?
Will you be quiet and let the gentleman talk?
Um –
Well – Well, I'm sure that – that you people must be aware
of some of the incidents that have happened in various parts of the city
when, uh, colored, uh, people have moved into certain areas.
Well – Well, because we have what –
what I think is gonna be a unique type of organization in American community life,
not only do we deplore that kind of thing,
but we're trying to do something about it.
Now-Now-Now we feel that –
We feel that most of the trouble in this world, when you come right down to it,
most of the trouble exists because people just don't sit down and talk to each other.
-Oh, you can say that again, mister. -Mmm.
That we don't try hard enough in this world to understand the other fella's problem.
-Yes. -The other guy's point of view.
Now that's the truth.
Well, you see, our community is made up of people
who've worked hard as the dickens for years to-to build up that little community.
Oh, n-now we're not rich or fancy people.
I mean, we're just hardworking, honest people who –
who don't really have much but those little homes
and a – and a dream
of the kind of community that we wanna raise our children in.
W-Well, now, I don't say that we're perfect,
and there's a lot wrong in some of the things that we want,
but you've got to admit that a man, right or wrong,
has the right to want to have the neighborhood he lives in in a certain kind of way.
Yes.
Well, at the moment, the overwhelming majority of people out there feel that –
well, th-that people get along better,
take more of a common interest in the life of the community
when they share a common background.
Oh, n-now wait.
Now wait.
Believe me, I want you to believe me when I tell you
that – that race prejudice simply doesn't enter into it.
Why, n-now, it's a matter of the people of Clybourne Park
believing now-- now, rightly or wrongly, as I say –
that – that for the happiness of all concerned –
well, th-that our Negro families are –
are happier when they live in their own communities.
This, friends, is the welcoming committee.
So, uh...
this is what you come all the way across town to tell us, huh?
W-Well, now we've been having a fine conversation.
-I hope you'll hear me all the way through. -Come on.
Well, you see, in the face of all the things I've said,
we're prepared to make your family a very generous offer.
Thirty pieces, and not a coin less.
-Yeah? -N-Now our association is prepared,
through the collective efforts of our people,
to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family.
Lord have mercy. Ain't this the livin' gall!
All right. Are you through?
Well, I want to give you the exact terms of the financial arrangements.
I don't want no exact terms of no financial arrangements.
You-You got anything else to say about how people should sit down
and talk these things over?
Well, I – I guess you don't feel –
Never you mind how I feel. You get outta here.
Well, now, I don't understand why you people are reacting this way.
What do you think you're gonna gain by moving into a neighborhood
where you just aren't wanted and where some elements –
Now, look, people get awful worked up when their whole way of life
and everything they ever worked for is threatened!
Get out.
Why, I'm sorry it went like this.
Just leave.
You just can't force people to change their hearts, Son.
Oh, Lord.
Well, now, children.
Ah.
Is this all the packin' that's been done since I left here this mornin'?
I testify before God, my children got all the energy of the dead.
Pow!
-What time's the movin' men due? -4:00.
Mmm!
-Hey, Mama? -Huh?
-You had a caller. -Sure enough? Who?
-The welcoming committee. -Who?
The welcoming committee.
They said they sure are gonna be glad to see you when you get there.
Yep.
They say they can hardly wait to see your face.
What's the matter with y'all?
Ain't nothin' the matter with us.
We're just tellin' you about the gentleman who came to call on you today
from the Clybourne Park Improvement Association.
Well, what'd he want?
He said that the one thing that they don't have out there,
that they are just simply dyin' to have out there,
is a fine family of colored people.
He left his card, in case.
Father, give us strength.
-Did he threaten us? -Oh, Mama, they don't do it like that anymore.
He talked brotherhood.
He said he can't understand why people can't learn how to sit down
and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.
But, Mama, you should hear the money them folks raised to buy the house back from us.
-All we paid and then some. -What do they think we're gonna do?
-Eat 'em? -No, honey. Marry 'em.
Oh, Lord, Lord.
Well, that's the way the crackers crumble.
-Joke. -Mmm-mmm-mmm.
-Hey, Mama? -Hmm?
What ya doin'?
I'm fixin' my plant so it won't get hurt none on the way.
Mama, you gonna take that thing with us to the new house?
-Mm-hmm. -That ragged-lookin' old thing?
It expresses me.
Ooh!
So there, Miss Thing.
-Oh, Lord, Lord. -Ha-ha-ha.
Brother, you're gonna make me mess up my thing here now.
-Brother, get on away from me now. -Mama, how did the song go again? Sing it.
-Brother, go on and finish up packin'. -? Oh, I got wings and you got wings ?
-Go on. -? And all God's children got wings ?
? All God's children got wings ?
Come on, now, children. We ain't finished packin'.
The men'll be here soon. Beneatha, you ain't packed one book yet.
That couldn't be the moving men. It's not hardly 2:00!
-Mama, I'll get it. I'll get it. -You expectin' company, Son?
-Yes, ma'am. -Go on, let 'em in, let 'em in.
We need some more string.
Travis, run on down to the hardware store and get me some more string. Hurry.
Well, why don't you answer the door, man?
Because... sometimes it's just hard to let the future begin.
? Oh, I got wings, you've got wings ?
? You've got wings ?
-Hey, man. Where's Willy? -He ain't with me.
Come on in. Come in.
-You know my wife, don't you? -Yeah.
-Hiya, Miss Ruth. -Hi, Bobo.
Right on time, baby. Right on time. Come on. Sit down. Sit down.
Let me hear.
Could I please have a drink of water before I tell you about it, Walter Lee?
-Nothing go wrong, did it, man? -Well, let me tell you –
No, nothing went wrong, man.
Let me tell you, Walter. You know how it was.
Now I got to tell you how it was.
I mean, first I got to tell you how it was all the way.
-I mean, about the money I put in. -What about the money you put in?
Well, it wasn't as much as we told you, me and Willy.
I'm sorry, Walter. I got a bad feeling about it.
-Man, what are you telling me all this for? -Got a real bad feeling.
Tell me what happened down in Springfield.
-Springfield. -What was supposed to happen in Springfield?
Well, this deal that me and Walter went into with Willy –
Me and Willy was gonna go down to Springfield and spread a lot of money around
so's we wouldn't have to wait so long to get the liquor license.
That's what we was gonna do.
Well, everybody said that's the way you had to do. You understand, Miss Ruth?
What happened down there, man?
-I'm tryin' to tell you, Walter. -Then tell me!
-What's the matter with you? -I didn't go to no Springfield yesterday, boy.
-Why not? -'Cause I didn't have no reason to go.
What are you talkin' about?
I'm talkin' about the fact that when I got to the train station yesterday morning,
8:00 like we planned,
man, Willy never did show up.
Why not? Where was he? Where is he?
That's what I'm tryin' to tell you. I don't know.
I waited six hours.
I called his house and I waited.
I waited in that train station six hours.
That was all the extra money I had in this world.
Man, Willy's gone.
What do you mean, Willy is gone? Gone where?
You mean he went on down there by himself to take care of gettin' the license.
You mean he went to Springfield by himself?
He didn't want too many people in on the business.
Now, you know Willy got his own ways.
Maybe you were late yesterday, and he went on down there without you.
Or maybe he's sick.
He's somewhere. Man, he's somewhere.
We gotta find him, you hear me? We gotta find him.
He's gone.
Willy.
Willy, don't do it, man.
Not with that money.
I trusted you.
I put my whole life in your hands.
Man, do you know that that money –
that money is made out of my father's flesh!
Willy! Willy!
I'm sorry, Walter.
I had my life staked on this deal too.
Son, is it gone?
Son, I gave you $6,500.
Is it gone? All of it?
-Beneatha's money too? -Mama, I didn't go to the bank at all.
I seen him...
night after night come in.
And he'd look at the rug and he'd look at me...
the red showin' in his eyes...
and the veins movin' in his head.
I seen him grow old and thin
before he was 40,
workin' and workin' and workin' like somebody's old horse –
-Willy! -killin' hisself.
And you –
you give it all away in one day!
Mama!
Oh, God!
Please look down
and give me strength.
Willy!
My Lord!
- Lord God! - Mama.
Mama. Mama.
Hello. I had some free time, so I came over.
I thought I might help with the packing.
Oh-ho-ho!
I love the look of packing crates.
The sight of a household in preparation. Movement, progress.
-It makes me think of Africa. -Africa?
Hey, well, what kind of mood is this?
I thought I'd find you full of sunlight today.
Aw. Have I told you how deeply you move me?
Hey. Is something wrong?
Asagai, he gave away the money.
-Well, who gave away what money? -The insurance money.
-My brother, he just gave it away. -Gave it away?
He made an investment with a man
even Travis wouldn't have trusted with his most worn-out marbles.
And it's gone, huh?
It's gone.
I see. I'm very sorry.
But, you know, my brother's not the one who's to blame.
Oh, no. By his lights, he did what made sense to him.
My mama's the crazy one.
My mama's the one who just handed him the money.
She just got up one fine day and just gave away my future.
Perhaps you don't see things as well as your mother does.
Oh, this is the end for me. You know, it takes money to go to school.
Well, what difference does it make anyway?
Why would anybody wanna be a doctor in this nutty world?
Oh, my. Aren't we full of despair?
Look here. Was it your money?
I said, was it your money that was lost?
It belonged to all of us.
Ah, but can't this make you see that there is something wrong
when all the dreams in this house – good or bad –
had to depend on something that might never have happened
if a man had not died.
We used to say back home,
"Accident was at the first and will be at the last,
but a poor tree from which the fruits of life may bloom."
Asagai, what is the matter with you? Listen, my family has been wiped out.
What's the matter? Don't they use money where you come from?
I see only that you, with all of your keen mind,
cannot understand the greatness of the thing that your mother tried to do.
You're not too young to understand.
For all of her backwardness, she still acts –
she still believes that she can change things.
And to that extent, she is more of the future than you are at this moment.
Well, all I know is that when somebody can get up in the morning
and, without consulting you, just blithely hand away your future,
then life is impossible, it's futile, it's despair.
-Listen – -No!
I'm tired of listening.
I said that you will listen.
-I have a bit of a suggestion. -What?
That when it's all over, you come home with me.
Oh, Asagai.
At this moment, you decide to be romantic.
My dear young creature of the New World.
I don't mean across the city. I mean across the ocean.
Home to Africa.
-You mean to Nigeria? -Yes.
300 years later, the African prince rose up out of the sea
and swept the maiden back across the middle passage
over which her ancestors had come.
-Nigeria? -Nigeria. Home.
I'll show you our mountains and our stars
and serve you cool drinks from gourds
and teach you the old songs and the ways of our people.
And in time, we'll pretend that you've only been away for a day.
You're making me – No, no.
-You're just getting me all mixed up. -Why?
Because.
Well, because too many things have happened.
No, no, no. Just too many things have happened.
I don't know what I feel or I think about anything at this minute.
But if –
I'm gonna sit down and think.
-All right, then I'll leave you. -Oh, no –
No, don't get up. You just sit a while and think.
Never be afraid to sit a while and think.
How often I have looked at you and said to myself,
"Ah, so this is what the New World hath finally wrought."
Yes.
Yes, just look at what the New World hath wrought.
There he is. Just look at him.
Monsieur le petit bourgeois noir himself.
There he is, symbol of a rising class.
Entrepreneur. Titan of the system.
Brother, did you dream of yachts on Lake Michigan?
Did you see yourself on that great day sitting down at a conference table,
surrounded by all the mighty bald-headed men in America,
all halted, waiting, waiting breathless for your pronouncements on industry?
You, chairman of the board!
I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in this world!
Who was that?
That was your husband.
-Well, where'd he go? -Now, how do I know?
Maybe he had an appointment at US Steel.
You didn't say nothin' bad to him, did you?
Bad? Me say something bad to him?
No. No, I told him he was a sweet kid, full of dreams,
and everything was strictly peachy keen.
Well, now, ain't it a mess in here though?
Well, we all better stop mopin' around and get some of this work done.
All this unpackin' and everything we got to do.
Where's Brother? He can help start unpackin' some of these crates.
And one of y'all better call the movin' men, tell 'em not to come.
-Tell 'em not to come? -Yes, baby.
Ain't no sense in having 'em come all the way out here and go back.
-They charge us for that too, you know. -No, Lena.
No.
Bennie, tell her. Tell her we can still move.
The note's ain't but 1 25 a month. We got four grown people in this house.
-We can work. We can all work. -Ruth!
Lena, I'll work.
I'll work 20 hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago.
I'll strap my baby on my back if I have to.
And I'll wash all the sheets in America.
I'll scrub.
We got to go.
-We got to get out of here. -No, no, no.
Now, Ruth, no, honey. Honey, please.
No, darlin'.
I see things differently now.
I've been thinkin' about some of the things we could do
to kinda fix up this place some.
I seen a secondhand bureau over on Maxwell Street the other night.
Fit right there.
Needs some new handles and another coat of varnish,
but it could be made to look brand-new, brand-new.
And, Ruth, honey, Walter Lee could get some new screens
and put 'em up around the baby's bassinet.
Place'd be lookin' just beautiful. Just make us forget trouble ever come.
Sometimes, children, you just got to learn when to give up some things
and to hold on to what you got.
-Where you been, Son? -I made a call.
-To who, Son? -To the man.
-What man, baby? -The man. Don't you know who the man is?
-Walter Lee – -The man.
Like the fellas in the street say, the man, old Captain Charley, Mr. Bossman.
-Lindner. -That's right. That's good. That's good.
-I asked him to come right over. -What do you want to see him about?
We're gonna do some business with that man.
-What are you talkin' about, Son? -I'm talkin' about life, Mama.
You're always askin' me to see life as it is.
Well, I laid in there on my back today, and I saw life just like it is.
He who gets and he who don't get.
It's all divided up, you know, Mama, life is, between the takers and the tooken.
And some of us are always being tooken.
People like Willy Harris never get tooken.
You know why the rest of us do? Because we are mixed up.
We are mixed up bad.
Always lookin' around for the right and wrong of things, all the time.
We worry and cry and stay up nights trying to figure out
what's right, what's wrong, all the time.
And all the time the takers are out there just operating.
Takin' and takin'.
Willy Harris.
He don't even count.
In the big scheme of things, Willy don't even count.
But I will say one thing for Harris:
He sure taught me how to keep my eye on what does count in this world.
Thank you, William Harris.
What'd you call that man for, Walter Lee?
I called him to tell him to come on over to the show.
We're gonna put on a show for the man, just what he wants to see.
Mama, that man come over here today and he said
that them people out there where you want us to move,
they're so upset, they're willin' to pay us not to come out there.
Well, Beneatha, Ruth, and me, we told the man to get out. "Get out," we said.
Lord have mercy. What a proud bunch of people we were this afternoon.
Huh. But that was an old way of thinkin'.
Are you talkin' about takin' them people's money to keep us from movin' in that house?
I am not talkin' about it. I'm tellin' you what's gonna happen!
-Oh, God, where's the bottom? -Oh, God, where's the bottom?
Where is the bottom? You and that boy that was here today.
You want everybody to carry a flag and a spear and sing some marchin' songs, huh?
You're gonna spend your whole life lookin' at the right and wrong.
You know what's gonna happen to that boy?
He is gonna wake up one day locked in a dungeon,
and the takers are gonna have the key.
You forget it, child. There ain't no causes.
There is only takin' in this world.
He who takes the most is the smartest.
And it don't make a bit of difference how.
You're makin' somethin' inside of me cry, Son.
-Don't cry, Mama. -Some awful pain inside me.
Don't cry. Just understand.
Now, that white man's gonna walk in that door able to write checks
for more money than we ever had.
It's that important to him, and we're gonna help him. We're gonna put on a show.
Son.
I come from five generations of people that was slaves and sharecroppers.
But ain't nobody in my family never took no kind of money from nobody
that was a way of tellin' us we wasn't fit to walk the earth.
We ain't never been that poor. We ain't never been that dead inside.
Well, we're dead now.
All the talk about dreams and sunlight that goes on in this house.
-It's all dead now. -What's the matter with you?
I didn't make this world.
It was handed to me exactly like it is.
Yes, I want some yachts someday. What's wrong with that?
And I wanna put some pearls on my wife's neck.
You tell me what man decides in this world
what woman should wear pearls and what woman shouldn't.
I tell you, I'm a man! I say I want her to wear it. You hear me?
- How you gonna feel on the inside? - I'm gonna feel fine.
-You won't have nothing left, Walter Lee. -I'm gonna feel fine.
I'll look that man right in his eye, "All right, Mr. Charley.
All right, Mr. Lindner, that's your neighborhood out there.
You wanna keep it that way, you got a right to keep it that way.
Just give me that money and the house is yours."
And I'll feel fine, fine!
I'll say more than that. I'll say, "You give me that money,
and you won't have to live next door to no bunch of stinkin' –"
-Walter! -I'll feel fine.
Maybe I'll get down on my black knees.
"All right, Mr. Charley. All right, Mr. Great White Father.
You just give us that money,
and we won't come out there and dirty up your white folks' neighborhood."
And I'll feel fine! Fine! Fine!
That's not a man. That's nothing but a toothless rat.
Yes.
Death's done come in this house.
Done come walkin' in my house on the lips of my children.
You were what's supposed to be my beginning again.
You were what's supposed to be my harvest.
Oh.
How did we get to this here place?
You, mournin' your brother.
-He's no brother of mine. -What you say?
I said that that individual in that room from this day on is no brother of mine.
That's what I thought you said.
You feelin' like you're better than he is today? Yes?
What did you tell him a minute ago? That he wasn't a man? Yes?
You give him up for me?
You done wrote his epitaph too, like the rest of the world?
Well, who give you the privilege?
Mama, will you be on my side for once?
Mmm.
Now, you saw what he did. You saw him, down there on his knees.
Yes.
Now, wasn't it you who taught me to despise any man who would do that,
who would do what he's going to do?
Yes, I taught you that. Me and your daddy.
But I thought I taught you somethin' else too.
I thought I taught you to love him.
Love him? There's nothing left to love.
There's always somethin' left to love.
Have you cried for that boy today?
I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money!
I mean for him and what he's gone through.
And God help him –
God help him what it's done to him.
Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most?
When he's done good and made things easy for everybody?
Mm-mmm.
No, no.
No, that ain't the time at all.
It's when he's at his lowest
and he can't believe in hisself 'cause the world's done whipped him so.
When you starts measurin' somebody,
measure 'em right, child.
Measure 'em right.
You make sure that you done taken into account
the hills and the valleys he's come through
to get to wherever he is.
Oh.
The movin' men are downstairs. The truck just pulled up.
Are they, baby? They're downstairs?
-Hello. -Hello.
I came right over.
He's here.
Well, I was certainly glad to hear from you people today.
Life can really be so much simpler than people let it be most of the time.
Well, now, uh, with whom do I negotiate?
Uh, you, Mrs. Younger?
Or your son there?
Just some official papers, sonny.
Travis, honey, you go on downstairs now, baby.
No.
No, you don't, Travis. You stay right here.
And you make him understand what you're doing, Walter Lee.
You teach him good, like Willy Harris taught you.
And you show him where our five generations done come to, Son.
Go ahead.
Mr. Lindner.
We called you, uh –
me and my family –
because we are plain people, you know.
-We are plain people. -Yes.
I work as a chauffeur, you know.
Most of my life.
And my wife works in people's kitchens.
And so does my mother.
I mean, we are plain people.
-Well, Mr. Younger, do – -My father –
My father was a laborer...
all of his life.
Yes?
And my father once –
My father once almost beat a man to death
'cause this man, he called him some kind of name, you know.
That's my sister.
And she...
is gonna be...
a doctor.
- And we are very proud of her. - Well, I'm sure –
You see, we come from a long line of proud people.
This... is my son.
This is my son.
And he makes the sixth generation.
The sixth generation of my family
in this country.
And we have –
We have all thought about your offer.
And we've decided
to move into our house...
because my father, he earned it,
brick by brick.
Now, we don't intend to cause no trouble or fight no causes.
And we're gonna try to be good neighbors.
That's all.
That's all we had to say.
We don't want your money.
I take it, then, you've decided to occupy.
That's what the man said.
Well, then I appeal to you, Mrs. Younger. You're older and wiser.
I'm afraid you don't understand.
My son said we was gonna move.
And ain't nothin' left for me to say.
You know these young folks nowadays, mister.
You can't hardly do a thing with 'em. Good-bye.
Well, uh, if you're final about it, there's nothing left for me to say.
I sure hope you people know what you're doing.
Well... for goodness sake,
if the moving men are here, let's get the heck out of here.
Yeah. Yes. Ain't it the truth.
Ruth. Ruth, put Travis's good jacket on him.
Walter Lee, fix your tie and tuck in your shirt. You look like anybody's old hoodlum.
Lord have mercy. Where's my plant?
Y'all start on down, children. Start on down.
Travis, now, don't go empty-handed. Don't go empty-handed.
Ruth, what'd you do with that box with my skillets in 'em?
I wanna be in charge of them myself.
I'm gonna fix us the biggest ol' dinner we ever had tonight.
Hey, Mama? Mama, Asagai asked me to marry him today.
Go with him to Africa.
Yes, well, you ain't old enough to marry nobody.
Darlin' – Darlin', that ain't no bale of cotton.
Now, I've had that chair 25 years, and I would like to be able to use it again.
No, no, no, Mama. I mean, he wants me to be a doctor,
to go with him and be a doctor in Africa.
What's that about Africa?
Asagai asked me to marry him today, go with him to Africa.
Girl, you better get them silly notions out of your head once and for all
and start lookin' for you a man with some loot.
Well, now, what do you have to do with who I marry?
Plenty. I'm the head of this family.
And I've been thinkin' about marryin' you off to George Murchison, as a matter of fact.
George Murchison? I wouldn't marry him if he was Adam and I was Eve.
Yes.
They're somethin', all right, my children.
Yes. They're somethin', all right.
-Well, let's go, Lena. -Yes, I'm comin'.
-Ruth? -Yes?
He come into his manhood today, didn't he?
Kinda like the rainbow after the rain.
- Yes, Lena. - Mama, come on!
Yes, yes, I'm comin'. Go along, darlin'. Go along. I'll be right down. Go along.
Mama, what are you doin' –
I'm comin'.