Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [15]
RUTH Fresh—just fresh as salt, this girl!
BENEATHA (Drily) Well—if the salt loses its savor—
MAMA Now that will do. I just ain’t going to have you ’round here reciting the scriptures in vain—you hear me?
BENEATHA How did I manage to get on everybody’s wrong side by just walking into a room?
RUTH If you weren’t so fresh—
BENEATHA Ruth, I’m twenty years old.
MAMA What time you be home from school today?
BENEATHA Kind of late. (With enthusiasm) Madeline is going to start my guitar lessons today.
(MAMA and RUTH look up with the same expression)
MAMA Your what kind of lessons?
BENEATHA Guitar.
RUTH Oh, Father!
MAMA How come you done taken it in your mind to learn to play the guitar?
BENEATHA I just want to, that’s all.
MAMA (Smiling) Lord, child, don’t you know what to do with yourself? How long it going to be before you get tired of this now—like you got tired of that little playacting group you joined last year? (Looking at RUTH) And what was it the year before that?
RUTH The horseback-riding club for which she bought that fifty-five-dollar riding habit that’s been hanging in the closet ever since!
MAMA (To BENEATHA) Why you got to flit so from one thing to another, baby?
BENEATHA (Sharply) I just want to learn to play the guitar. Is there anything wrong with that?
MAMA Ain’t nobody trying to stop you. I just wonders sometimes why you has to flit so from one thing to another all the time. You ain’t never done nothing with all that camera equipment you brought home—
BENEATHA I don’t flit! I—I experiment with different forms of expression—
RUTH Like riding a horse?
BENEATHA —People have to express themselves one way or another.
MAMA What is it you want to express?
BENEATHA (Angrily) Me! (MAMA and RUTH look at each other and burst into raucous laughter) Don’t worry—I don’t expect you to understand.
MAMA (To change the subject) Who you going out with tomorrow night?
BENEATHA (With displeasure) George Murchison again.
MAMA (Pleased) Oh—you getting a little sweet on him?
RUTH You ask me, this child ain’t sweet on nobody but herself—(Underbreath) Express herself!
(They laugh)
BENEATHA Oh—I like George all right, Mama. I mean I like him enough to go out with him and stuff, but—
RUTH (For devilment) What does and stuff mean?
BENEATHA Mind your own business.
MAMA Stop picking at her now, Ruth. (She chuckles—then a suspicious sudden look at her daughter as she turns in her chair for emphasis) What DOES it mean?
BENEATHA (Wearily) Oh, I just mean I couldn’t ever really be serious about George. He’s—he’s so shallow.
RUTH Shallow—what do you mean he’s shallow? He’s rich!
MAMA Hush, Ruth.
BENEATHA I know he’s rich. He knows he’s rich, too.
RUTH Weil—what other qualities a man got to have to satisfy you, little girl?
BENEATHA You wouldn’t even begin to understand. Anybody who married Walter could not possibly understand.
MAMA (Outraged) What kind of way is that to talk about your brother?
BENEATHA Brother is a flip—let’s face it.
MAMA (To RUTH, helplessly) What’s a flip?
RUTH (Glad to add kindling) She’s saying he’s crazy.
BENEATHA Not crazy. Brother isn’t really crazy yet—he—he’s an elaborate neurotic.
MAMA Hush your mouth!
BENEATHA As for George. Well. George looks good—he’s got a beautiful car and he takes me to nice places and, as my sister-in-law says, he is probably the richest boy I will ever get to know and I even like him sometimes—but if the Youngers are sitting around waiting to see if their little Bennie is going to tie up the family with the Murchisons, they are wasting their time.
RUTH You mean you wouldn’t marry George Murchison if he asked you someday? That pretty, rich thing? Honey, I knew you was odd—
BENEATHA No I would not marry him if all I felt for him was what I feel now. Besides, George’s family wouldn’t really like it.
MAMA Why not?
BENEATHA Oh, Mama—The Murchisons are honest-to-God-real-foe-rich colored people, and the only people in the world who are more snobbish than rich white people are rich colored people. I thought everybody