A Raisin in the Sun Page #10

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You're getting me all mixed up.

- Why?

- Because.

Because too many things have happened.

Just too many things have happened.

I don't know what I feel or I think

about anything at this minute.

I'm going to sit down and think.

Then I'll leave you.

Don't get up.

Just sit awhile and think.

Never be afraid

to sit awhile and think.

How often I have looked at you

and said to myself...

..."So this is what the New World

hath finally wrought."

Just look at what

the New World hath wrought.

There he is. Just look at him.

There he is.

Symbol of a rising class.

Entrepreneur. Titan of the system.

Did you dream of the yachts

on Lake Michigan?

Did you see yourself sitting down

at a conference table...

...surrounded by all the mighty

bald men in America?

All halted, waiting breathless

for your pronouncements on industry.

You! Chairman of the Board!

I look at you and see the final

triumph of stupidity in this world!

Who was that?

That was your husband.

- Where'd he go?

- Now how do I know?

Maybe he had an appointment

at U.S. Steel.

You didn't say nothing

bad to him, did you?

Bad? Me say something bad to him?

I said he was a sweet kid,

full of dreams.

And everything was strictly

peachy-keen.

Ain't it a mess in here, though.

We better stop moping around

and do some work.

All this unpacking

and everything we got to do.

Where's Brother?

He can help unpack

some of these crates.

And one of you better call the

moving men and tell them not to come.

Tell them not to come?

No sense in having them

come here and go back.

They charge us for that too.

Tell her.

Tell her we can still move.

Notes ain't but 125 a month.

We got four grown people in this house.

We can work. We can all work.

I'll work.

I'll work 20 hours a day...

...in all the kitchens in Chicago.

I'll strap my baby on my back

if I have to.

And I'll wash

all the sheets in America.

I'll scrub.

We got to go.

Got to get out of here.

Honey, please!

I see things differently now.

I been thinking about some

of the things we could do...

...to kind of fix up this place some.

I seen a secondhand bureau

on Maxwell Street the other night.

Fit right there.

Needs some new handles

and another coat of varnish.

But could be made to look brand-new.

And Walter Lee could get

some new screens...

...and put them up around

the baby's bassinet.

Place'll be looking just beautiful.

Make us forget trouble ever come.

Sometimes, children...

...you just got to learn

when to give up some things...

...and to hold on to what you got.

- Where you been?

- I made a call.

- To who?

- To The Man.

- What man, baby?

- Don't you know who The Man is?

The Man.

Like the fellows

in the street say, The Man...

...Old Captain Charlie, Mr. Boss Man.

- Lindner!

That's right. That's good.

I asked him to come over.

Why do you want to see him?

We're going to do some business

with that man.

- What are you talking about?

- I'm talking about life.

You always asking me

to see life as it is.

I laid in there on my back today,

and I saw life just like it is.

He who gets and he who don't get.

It's all divided up between

the takers and the tooken.

And some of us are always being tooken.

People like Willie never get tooken.

You know why the rest of us do?

Because we are mixed up.

Always looking for

the right and wrong of things.

We worry and cry

and stay up nights...

...trying to figure out

what's right, what's wrong...

...while the takers are out there,

just operating.

Taking and taking.

Willie Harris...

...don't even count.

In the big scheme of things,

Willie don't even count.

But I'll say one thing:

Harris taught me how to keep my eye

on what does count in this world.

Thank you, William Harris.

- What'd you call that man for?

- To tell him to come to the show.

We'll put on a show for the man.

Just what he wants to see.

He said them people

out where you want us to move...

...are so upset they'll pay us

not to come.

We told the man to get out.

"Get out," we said. Lord have mercy!

What a proud bunch of people

we were this afternoon.

But that was an old way of thinking.

Are you talking about

taking the money?

I'm not talking.

I'm telling you what'll happen.

Oh, God! Where's the bottom?

Oh, God, where's the bottom?

Where is the bottom?

You and that boy want everybody

to carry a flag and spear...

...and sing marching songs.

You'll spend your life

looking into right and wrong.

You know what'll happen?

He is going to wake up one day

locked in a dungeon.

And the takers

are going to have the key.

You forget it, child.

There ain't no causes!

There is only taking in this world.

He who takes the most is the smartest.

And it don't make

a bit of difference how.

- You making something inside me cry.

- So cry.

- Some awful pain inside me.

- Don't cry. Understand.

That white man will write checks

for more money than we ever had.

It's important to him, and we'll help.

We're going to put on a show.

I come from five generations

of people...

...that was slaves and sharecroppers.

But ain't nobody in my family...

...never took no money from nobody...

...that was a way of saying

we wasn't fit to walk the earth.

We ain't never been that poor.

We ain't never been that dead inside.

We're dead now.

All the talk about dreams and sunlight

that goes on in this house.

It's all dead now.

What's the matter with you?

I didn't make this world.

It was handed to me exactly like it is.

I want some yacht someday.

What's wrong with that?

And I want to put some pearls

on my wife's neck.

Tell me what man decides what woman

should or shouldn't wear pearls?

I tell you, I'm a man!

I say I want her to wear it.

- How will you feel on the inside?

- Fine.

- You won't have nothing left.

- I'll feel fine.

I'll look in his eye.

"All right, Mr. Charlie, Mr. Lindner.

That's your neighbourhood.

You got a right to keep it that way.

Just give me the money

and it's yours."

And I'll feel fine.

I'll say more than that. I'll say...

..."Give me the money and you won't have

to live next to no stinking..."

I'll feel fine.

Maybe I'll get down on my black knees.

"All right, Mr. Charlie.

All right, Mr. Great White Father.

You just give us that money!

And we won't come there and dirty up

your white neighbourhood!"

And I'll feel fine! Fine! Fine!

That's not a man.

That's nothing but a toothless rat.

Death's done come in this house.

Done come walking in my house...

...on the lips of my children.

You were...

...what's supposed to be

my beginning again.

You were...

...what's supposed to be my harvest.

How did we get to this here place?

You! Mourning your brother!

- He's no brother of mine.

- What?

That individual, from this day on,

is no brother of mine!

That's what I thought you said.

You feeling like

you're better than he is today?

What did you tell him a minute ago?

That he wasn't a man?

You give him up for me?

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