Vocab

Question 1

Undistinguished

Answer 1

(adj) common; nothing special (23)
“Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years—and they are tired”

Question 2

Pretense

Answer 2

(n) pretending or feigning; make-believe; a false show of something (24)
“All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room. Moreover, a section of this room, for it is not really a room unto itself, though the landlord’s lease would make it seem so, slopes backward to provide a small kitchen area, where the family prepares the meals that are eaten in the living room proper, which must also serve as dining room”(24.)

Question 3

Exasperated

Answer 3

(adj) irritated; provoked; irked (28)
“RUTH Well, I ain’t got no fifty cents this morning. TRAVIS Teacher say we have to. RUTH I don’t care what teacher say. I ain’t got it. Eat your breakfast, Travis. TRAVIS I am eating. RUTH Hush up now and just eat! (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 (29)
“RUTH Just hush, I said. (Travis jabs his spoon into his cereal bowl viciously, and rests his head in anger upon his fists) If you through eating, you can get over there and make up your bed”(29).

Question 5

Sullen

Answer 5

(adj) showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve (29)
“RUTH Get carfare and milk money—(Waving one finger)— and not a single penny for no caps, you hear me? TRAVIS (With sullen politeness) Yes’m. (He turns in outrage to leave. His mother watches after him as in his frustration he approaches the door almost comically. When she speaks to him, her voice has become a very gentle tease)”.

Question 6

Vindicated

Answer 6

(v) cleared of accusation, blame, or doubt (30)
“(Mocking; as she thinks he would say it) Oh, Mama makes me so mad sometimes, I don’t know what to do! (She waits and continues to his back as he stands stock-still in front of the door) I wouldn’t kiss that woman good-bye for nothing in this world this morning! (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 toward her yet)”(30).

Question 7

Proposition

Answer 7

(n) a suggested plan (33)
“And the next thing you know, she be listening good and asking you questions and when I come home—I can tell her the details. This ain’t no fly-bynight proposition, baby. I mean we figured it out, me and Willy and Bobo.”(33)

Question 8

Vengeance

Answer 8

(n) revenge (35)
“She passes through the room without looking at either RUTH or WALTER and goes to the outside door and looks, a little blindly, out to the bathroom. She sees that it has been lost to the Johnsons. 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 (44)
“(She waits several sec-onds, 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)
“RUTH (Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concen-trating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without seeming to)”

Question 11

Futile

Answer 11

(adj) useless (45)
“(She waits and stops smiling) And didn’t none of it happen. (Dropping her hands in a futile gesture) RUTH (Keeps her head down, ironing) Yes, life can be a barrel of disappointments, sometimes.”

Question 12

Tyrant

Answer 12

(n) dictator; harsh ruler (52)
“BENEATHA I see. (Quietly) 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 a God in the heavens!”

Question 13

Forlornly

Answer 13

(adv) pitifully; desperately; hopelessly (57)
“Ruth comes in forlorn and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her.”
14. mutilated (adj) maimed; damaged (61)

Question 14

Mutilated

Answer 14

(adj) maimed; damaged (61)
“Ah–Oh-pay-gay-day, oh-gbah-mu-shay (A Yoruba exclamation fo admiration) You wear it well … very well … mutilated hair and all.”

Question 15

Assimilationism

Answer 15

(n) belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture (63)
“ (A mock dismissal of the importance of the question) But what does it matter? Assimilationism is so popular in your country.”

Question 16

Insinuatingly

Answer 16

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

“ASAGAI Good-bye, (He exits) MAMA (After him) Lord, that’s a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa ‘round here. Missionaries my aunt Jenny! (She exits) “

Question 17

Haphazardly

Answer 17

(adv) carelessly (66)

“She picks up the Nigerian dress and holds it up to her in front of the mirror again. 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)
“ Isn’t it beautiful? (She promenades to the radio and, with an arrogant flourish, turns off the good loud blues that is playing)”

Question 19

Eccentric

Answer 19

(adj) deviating from the norm; strange (80)
“GEORGE Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric. BENEATHA How can something that’s natural be eccentric? GEORGE That’s what being eccentric means—being natural. Get dressed.”

Question 20

Oppressive

Answer 20

(adj) tyrannical (81)
“BENEATHA (Cutting GEORGE off and staring at him as she replies to RUTH) 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 21

cliché

Answer 21

(n) trite or overused expression or idea (82)
“I mean for September. (Pause) Just like they always say about Chicago weather: If it’s too hot or cold for you, just wait a minute and it’ll change. (She smiles happily at this cliché of clichés) ”

Question 22

plaintively

Answer 22

(adv) sorrowfully; pathetically (88)
“WALTER No, I don’t want no coffee. I don’t want nothing hot to drink. (Almost plaintively) Why you always trying to give me something to eat?”

Question 23

menacingly

Answer 23

(adv) threateningly (90)
“TRAVIS (To his mother) Mama, I— RUTH “Mama I” nothing! You’re going to get it, boy! Get on in that bedroom and get yourself ready! TRAVIS But I— MAMA Why don’t you all never let the child explain hisself. RUTH Keep out of it now, Lena. (MAMA clamps her lips together, and RUTH advances toward her son menacingly)”

Question 24

exuberant

Answer 24

(adj) marked by unrestrained enthusiasm (93)
“All I can say is—if this is my time in life—MY TIME —to say good-bye—(And she builds with momentum as she starts to circle the room with an exuberant, almost tearfully happy release)—to these goddamned cracking walls!—(She pounds the walls)—and these marching roaches!—”

Question 25

presumably

Answer 25

(adv) probably; reasonably supposed (96)
“At rise: Packing crates mark the intention of the family to move. BENEATHA and GEORGE come in, presumably from an evening out again.”

Question 26

rebuff

Answer 26

(n) blunt refusal (96)
“(He starts to kiss her, she rebuffs him again and he jumps up) BENEATHA Why are you angry, George?”

Question 27

revelation

Answer 27

(n) new information (91, 105)
“Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where have you been, Walter Lee Younger? ”

Question 28

amiably

Answer 28

(adv) good-naturedly (114)
“WALTER (Amiably, as he sits himself easily on a chair, leaning forward on his knees with interest and looking expectantly into the newcomer’s face) What can we do for you, Mr. Lindner!”

Question 29

ludicrous

Answer 29

(adj) ridiculous (124)
“(She pops it on her head to prove it to her grandson, and the hat is ludicrous and considerably oversized)”

Question 30

ominous

Answer 30

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

Question 31

plunder

Answer 31

(v) to rob; to loot (134)
BENEATHA: “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 32

wrought

Answer 32

(v) shaped; made (137)
ASAGI: “ How often I have looked at you and said, “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) Did you dream of yachts on Lake Michigan, Brother?”

Question 34

eccentricity

Answer 34

(n) quality of being strange or unusual in behavior (138)
“Hurling things to the floor and tearing things out of their place in his search. BENEATHA ignores the eccentricity of his actions”.

Question 35

epitaph

Answer 35

(n) inscription on a tombstone (145)
MAMA: “ What 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? ”

Question 36

amid

Answer 36

(adv) among; in the midst of “She flies to get it amid the general bustling of the family” (149).