Description
The Youngers are a
Negro family living in
three crowded, sunless
rooms on Chicago's
South Side. The squalid
routine of their lives
is suddenly disrupted
when Lena Younger
receives a $10,000
check from the company
that insured her late
husband. Lena wants to
use the money to buy a
house and to help her
daughter, Beneatha,
finish medical school.
Lena's son, Walter Lee,
however, wants to
invest the money in a
liquor store so he can
rise above his status
of chauffeur for a
wealthy white man. Lena
disapproves of the idea
and makes a down
payment of $3,500 on a
small house in a white
neighborhood.
Frustrated and enraged,
Walter Lee quarrels
with his mother and his
wife, Ruth, and storms
out of the flat. He
stays away from work
for 3 days, and Lena
finds him in a bar. She
offers him the
remaining $6,500
($3,500 of which is to
be set aside for
Beneatha's education).
Once more united and
optimistic, the family
prepares to move into
their new home. Not
even a visit from a
hypocritical
representative of an
"improvement
association," who
offers to buy back the
house at a higher price
to preserve the
community's all-white
character, can alter
their decision to move.
Then their world
collapses. Unknown to
the rest of the family,
Walter Lee invests the
entire $6,500 in a
liquor store and is
swindled. Realizing he
has betrayed his
mother's trust,
threatened his sister's
future, and thrown away
his father's life
savings, Walter Lee
desperately decides to
accept the "improvement
association"'s offer.
But under the eyes of
his entire family, he
sees that such a move
is only a step
backwards, and he once
more rejects the offer.
Though it means hard
work and years of
sacrifice for all, the
Youngers make their
move.
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