A Raisin in the Sun Vocab

undistinguished

(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”

pretense

(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”

exasperated

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

viciously

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

sullen

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

vindicated

(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; he does not, however, move toward her yet”

proposition

(n) a suggested plan (33) “This ain’t no fly-by-night proposition, baby”

vengeance

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

tentatively

 (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”

furtively

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

futile

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

 tyrant

(n) dictator; harsh ruler (52) “I also see that everybody thinks it’s all right for Mama to be a tyrant”

forlornly

(adv) pitifully; desperately; hopelessly (57) “Ruth comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection”

mutilated

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

 assimilationism

(n) belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture  (63) “Assimilationism is so popular in your country”

 insinuatingly

(adv) with more meaning than is spoken; implied (66) “Insinuatingly, to her daughter”

haphazardly

(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”

arrogant

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

eccentric

(adj) deviating from the norm; strange (80) “‘Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric’”

oppressive

(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!’”

cliché

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

plaintively

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

menacingly

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

exuberant

(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”

presumably

(adv) probably; reasonably supposed  (96) “Packing crates mark the intention of the family to move Beneatha and George come in, presumably from an evening out again”

 rebuff

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

revelation

(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 Mama continues, to Travis” “This is a revelation to her”

amiably

(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”

 ludicrous

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

 ominous

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

 plunder

(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?!”

wrought

(v) shaped; made  (137) “How often I have looked at you and said, “Ah—so this is what the New World hath finally wrought …”

 monologue

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

eccentricity

(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”

epitaph

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

 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”