Raisin In The Sun Vocal

Question 1

undistinguished

Answer 1

(adj)
common; nothing special

“Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary features now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years-and they’re tired” (23)

Question 2

pretense

Answer 2

(n)
pretending or feigning; make-believe; a false show of something

“all pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room” (24)

Question 3

exasperated

Answer 3

(adj)
irritated; provoked; irked

“The boy gives her an exasperated look for her lack of understanding, and eats grudgingly.”(28)

Question 4

viciously

Answer 4

(adv)
with violence or fury

“Travis jabs his spoon into his cereal bowl viciously, and rests his head in anger upon his fists.” (29)

Question 5

sullen

Answer 5

(adj)
showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve

“With sullen politeness.”(29)

Question 6

vindicated

Answer 6

(v)
cleared of accusation, blame, or doubt

“The boy finally turns around and rolls his eyes at her, knowing the mood has changed and he is vindicated; he does not however move towards her yet.”(30)

Question 7

proposition

Answer 7

(n)
a suggested plan

“This ain’t no fly-by-night proposition baby.”(33)

Question 8

vengeance

Answer 8

(n)
revenge

“She closes the door with a sleepy vengeance and crosses to the table and sits down a little defeated.”(35)

Question 9

tentatively

Answer 9

(adv)
uncertainly

“She waits several seconds, trying to make up her mind about something, and looks at Ruth a little tentatively before going on.” (44)

Question 10

futile

Answer 10

(adj)
useless

“Dropping her hands in a futile gesture.” (45)

Question 10

furtively

Answer 10

(adv)
stealthily; in a way that hides motive

“Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concentrating on her ironging, anxious to encourage without seeming to.” (44)

Question 11

tyrant

Answer 11

(n)
dictator; harsh ruler

“I also see that everybody thinks it’s all right for Mama to be a tyrant. But all the tyranny in the world will never put God in the heavens!” (52)

Question 12

forlornly

Answer 12

(adv)
pitifully; desperately; hopelessly

“Ruth come in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection.” (57)

Question 13

mutilated

Answer 13

(adj)
maimed; damaged (61)

Question 14

assimilationist

Answer 14

(n) belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture (63)

Question 15

insinuatingly

Answer 15

(adv)
with more meaning than is spoken; implied (66)

Question 16

haphazardly

Answer 16

(adv) carelessly (66)

Question 17

eccentric

Answer 17

(adj)
deviating from the norm; strange

“Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric.”(80)

Question 18

arrogant

Answer 18

(adj)
proud; haughty

“She promenades to the radio and, with an arrogant flourish, turns off the good loud blues that is playing.” (76)

Question 19

oppressive

Answer 19

(adj) tyrannical (81)
“It means someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself completely in the dominant, and in this case oppressive culture!”

Question 20

menacingly

Answer 20

(adv) threateningly (90)
“MAMA clamps her lips together, and RUTH advances toward her son menacingly.”

Question 20

cliché

Answer 20

(n) trite or overused expression or idea (82)
“She smiles happily at this cliché of clichés.”

Question 21

plaintively

Answer 21

(adv) sorrowfully; pathetically (86)
“(Plaintively) Walter Lee—why don’t we just try to talk about it …”

Question 22

exuberant

Answer 22

(adj) marked by unrestrained enthusiasm (93)
“And she builds with momentum as she starts to circle the room with an exuberant, almost tearfully happy release”

Question 23

presumably

Answer 23

(adv) probably; reasonably supposed (96)
“All this, presumably, because, true to character, she speaks and thinks in the language of her generation, shares their dream of a better life and, like millions of her counterparts, takes her Christianity to heart.”

Question 24

rebuff

Answer 24

(n) blunt refusal (96)
“He starts to kiss her, she rebuffs him again and he jumps up.”

Question 25

revelation

Answer 25

(n) new information (91, 105)
“The explosion comes from WALTER at the end of the revelation and he jumps up and turns away from all of them in a fury.”

Question 26

amiably

Answer 26

(adv) good-naturedly (114)
“Amiably, as he sits himself easily on a chair, leaning forward on his knees with interest and looking expectantly into the newcomer’s face”

Question 27

wrought

Answer 27

(v) shaped; made (137)
“Ah—so this is what the New World hath finally wrought …”

Question 28

ominous

Answer 28

(adj) menacing; threatening (131)
“In the living room BENEATHA sits at the table, still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates.”

Question 28

plunder

Answer 28

(v) to rob; to loot (134)
“What about all the crooks and thieves and just plain idiots who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before— only now they will be black and do it in the name of the new Independence—WHAT ABOUT THEM?!”

Question 29

monologue

Answer 29

(n) long speech by one person (138)
“Bénin—and then some poetry in the Bantu— and the whole monologue will end with the word heritage!”

Question 30

eccentricity

Answer 30

eccentricity (n) quality of being strange or unusual in behavior (138)

Question 31

epitaph

Answer 31

(n) inscription on a tombstone (145)
“You done wrote his epitaph too—like the rest of the world?”

Question 32

amid (adv) among; in the midst of (149)
“She flies to get it amid the general bustling of the family, who are deliberately trying to ignore the nobility of the past moment”