10 Quotes from A Raisin in the Sun

last night I crowded around the television with my family and a couple of friends (hey ashley and carrie!) for the first black movie tv event in what seems like a long time. three generations watching something decidedly more substantive than dancing with the stars. my grandma talked about how the love of money is the root of all evil, my mom talked about why lena left her son the room to devastate her or make her proud by giving him responsibility over a portion of the family’s inheritance, my friends, my sister and I applauded asagai’s eloquence. so much so that I couldn’t even transcribe the quote about the calabashes because a sista got too caught up listening to write it down! did he say he wanted to bring her cool drinks from the calabash?!

phylicia rashad and audra mcdonald gave stellar performances. I was concerned about diddy at first, but he did emote well in a few key scenes. props to the cast and especially Kenny leon for a well-made remake of a classic. here are my top ten quotes from the movie.

1. I remember well the things that are important to me. – asagai

2. in my mother’s house, there is still God. – lena/beneatha

3. alaiyo…what’s that? African for beneatha? – lena

4. when a cat takes off with your money he don’t leave no map. – bobo

5. man, I’m a volcano, a giant surrounded by ants. ants can’t understand a thing giants talking about. – walter lee

6. how we get to be at a place where we scared to talk softness to each other? – walter lee

7. life is divided up between the takers and the tooken and some of us always getting tooken. – walter lee

8. you making something inside me cry, son. – lena

9. if you gone measure a man, measure him right. measure all the hills and valleys he been through to get wherever he’s got. – lena

10. goodbye misery! I don’t ever want to see your ugly face again. -- ruth