Name ____________________________

A Raisin in the Sun Webquest

A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry.  Use the following website to learn a little bit more about her.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aframerwriters/p/hansberry.htm

List three civil rights events that Lorraine (or the Hansberry family) was involved with:

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2.

3.

Use the following website to answer the following questions.

http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/covenants.htm

In your own words, what are “restrictive covenants”? ______________________________________________

How have they been used in segregation? ________________________________________________________

The title A Raisin in the Sun comes from Langston Hughes’ poem entitled “Harlem.”  Read the poem at the following website:

http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=640

Use the following website to learn more about the poem.

http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/hughes___harlem__a_dream_deferred_

According to this website, what is the theme of “Harlem”? __________________________________________

Do you think this theme fits with the poem?  Why or why not? ___________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

List two literary elements that can be found in the poem and give an example of each:

Read through the commentary and tell what you think most likely happens to a “dream deferred” and explain why. __________________________________________________________________________________________

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Choose three events from “Truman” to “Edsel is a no go.”  Click on the hyperlink to find out more about that person, thing, or event from the 1950’s and briefly tell who/what it was and why it was important.

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2.

3.

Act II, Scene One opens with a character in the play dressed in her Nigerian robes and attempting to perform a tribal welcome dance.  How much do you know about African culture?  See what you can find out about the Yoruba tribe at the following website.

http://www.postcolonialweb.org/nigeria/yorubamf.html

Where does the Yoruba tribe live? _____________________________________________________________

How large is the Yoruba tribe? ________________________________________________________________

What kinds of crops do they raise? _____________________________________________________________

What are the main religions of the Yoruba tribe? __________________________________________________

What are the Yoruba famous for? ______________________________________________________________

In Act II, Scene Two, a character refers to Booker T. Washington as one of our “great men,” but another character disagrees and calls him a fool.  Learn some facts about Mr. Washington to help you arrive at your own conclusion.  Use the following websites to find three facts that support that he was a “great” man and three facts that may have lead the other character to believe he was a fool.

http://www.biography.com/people/booker-t-washington-9524663?page=1

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington

http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/1998/edu/home/btw.htm

Great Man

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3.

Fool

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2.

There are many issues that are present in Africa today.  Use the search engine of your choice to research one of the following problems and write a paragraph telling what you have learned about the problem and what, if anything, can be done or is being done about it.

poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, civil wars, child soldiers, poor agricultural techniques, genocide, lack of food