Raisin Vocab

Question 1

Undistinguished

Answer 1

(adj) common; nothing special (23)
“ The Younger living room would be a comfortable and well-ordered room if it were not for a number of indestructible contradictions to this state of being. Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature”

Question 2

pretense

Answer 2

(n) pretending or feigning; make-believe; a false show of something (24)
“ used, scrubbed too often. All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room “

Question 3

exasperated

Answer 3

(adj) irritated; provoked; irked (28)
“The boy gives her an exasperated look for her lack of understanding, and eats grudgingly”

Question 4

viciously

Answer 4

(adv) with violence or fury (29)
“ Travis jabs his spoon into his cereal bowl viciously, and rests his head in anger”

Question 5

sullen

Answer 5

(adj) showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve (29)
“With sullen politeness”

Question 6

vindicated

Answer 6

(v) cleared of accusation, blame, or doubt (30)
“The boy finally turns around and rolls his eyes at her, knowing the mood has changed and he is vindicated”

Question 7

proposition

Answer 7

(n) a suggested plan (33)
“I can tell her the details. This ain’t no fly-by-night proposition”

Question 8

vengeance

Answer 8

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

Question 9

tentatively

Answer 9

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

Question 10

furtively

Answer 10

(adv) stealthily; in a way that hides motive (44)
“ furtively and concentrating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without seeming to”

Question 11

futile

Answer 11

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

Question 12

tyrant

Answer 12

(n) dictator; harsh ruler (52)
“It’s all right for Mama to be a tyrant. But all the tyranny in the world will never put a God in the heavens”

Question 13

forlornly

Answer 13

(adv) pitifully; desperately; hopelessly (57)
“comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her”

Question 14

mutilated

Answer 14

(adj) maimed; damaged (61)
“You wear it well … very well … mutilated hair and all”

Question 15

Assimilationism

Answer 15

(n) the belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture (63)
“Asagui: Assimilationism is so popular in your country. Beneatha: (Wheeling, passionately, sharply) I am not an assimilationist!”

Question 16

insinuatingly

Answer 16

(adv) with more meaning than is spoken; implied (66)
“That’s a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter)”

Question 17

haphazardly

Answer 17

(adv) carelessly (66)
“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”

Question 18

arrogant

Answer 18

(adj) proud; haughty (76)
“She promenades to the radio and, with an arrogant flourish”

Question 19

eccentric

Answer 19

(adj) deviating from the norm; strange (80)
“How can something that’s natural be eccentric?”

Question 20

oppressive

Answer 20

(adj) tyrannical (81)
“completely in the dominant, and in this case oppressive culture!”

Question 21

clichés

Answer 21

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

Question 22

plaintively

Answer 22

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

Question 23

menacingly

Answer 23

(adv) threateningly (90)
“Mama clamps her lips together, and Ruth advances toward her son menacingly”

Question 24

exuberant

Answer 24

(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 25

presumably

Answer 25

(adv) probably; reasonably supposed (96)
“All this, presumably, because, true to character”

Question 26

rebuff

Answer 26

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

Question 27

revelation

Answer 27

(n) new information (91, 105)
“The explosion comes from Walter at the end of the revelation and he jumps up and turns away”

Question 28

amiably

Answer 28

(adv) good-naturedly (114)
“Amiably, as he sits himself easily on a chair, leaning forward on his knees with interest”

Question 29

ludicrous

Answer 29

(adj) ridiculous (124)
“the hat is ludicrous and considerably oversized”

Question 30

ominous

Answer 30

(adj) menacing; threatening (131)
“still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates”

Question 31

plunder

Answer 31

(v) to rob; to loot (134)
“plain idiots who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before”

Question 32

wrought

Answer 32

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

Question 33

monologue

Answer 33

(n) long speech by one person (138)
“Beneatha ignores the eccentricity of his actions and goes on with the monologue of insult”

Question 34

eccentricity

Answer 34

(n) quality of being strange or unusual in behavior (138)
“Beneatha ignores the eccentricity of his actions and goes on with the monologue of insult”

Question 35

epitaph

Answer 35

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

Question 36

amid

Answer 36

(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”