Act I

Reading Check

1. the Southside of Chicago, specifically “sometime between World War II and the present”

2. Saturday

3. bagging groceries

4. a bribe

5. Lena (“Mama”) and Walter Younger Sr.

6. It’s the money from the life insurance policy on Walter Sr., who has just passed away.

7. Ruth

Quiz

1. A. With Walter and his friends in the living room, Ruth is worried that Travis is kept awake.

2. B. Walter is proud and doesn’t think Travis should know that his family doesn’t have a lot of money.

3. D. Walter believes that women should support their husbands. He says, “Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby! And his woman say—Your eggs is getting cold!”

4. C. Ruth senses that Walter Jr. needs something that she can’t provide, and she thinks it might be this chance.

5. B. Mama doesn’t want to invest in liquor in particular.

6. A. After slapping her, Mama makes her say that “In my mother’s house there is still God” (37).

7. B. Mama and Big Walter had planned to buy a house after a year of renting, but they never did.