Scarlett O'Hara When Travis gives Mama his gift, of which he is enormously proud, everyone laughs because it is an oversized gardening hat worn, as he says, by [rich] ladies "who always have it on when they work in their gardens." However, instead of looking like a rich "lady" in her garden, in this hat, Mama looks more like a slave who is about to pick cotton, which makes everyone laugh. Mama doesn't want to hurt Travis' feelings, so she tells him how much she likes it even though she probably knows better than the others how ridiculous she looks in the hat. Beneatha laughs and says that their intention in giving the gardening tools was to make Mama look like Mrs. Miniver, while Travis' gift makes Mama look more like Scarlett O'Hara (from Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, a novel that laments the fall of the South after the Civil War).
a settled woman a woman who looks older than her actual years mainly because she has resigned herself to her "lot in life."
sharecroppers Many blacks were sharecroppers in the south before the mass exodus of blacks to the northern cities. A sharecropper lives on someone else's farmland and pays, as his rent, a large share of the crop he yields from this farmland. Sharecroppers were, for this reason, poor; it was nearly impossible to clear up the initial debt incurred by renting someone else's land and farming it for profit, the bulk of which went to the landowner.
slubborness Ruth refers to Travis' habits as being "slubborn" when she really means both "sloppy" and "stubborn." Because of Ruth's lack of formal education, she is not aware (but the audience is) that this is not a real word.
Songhai (Songhay) The Sunni dynastry of Songbai conquered Mali after Mali had progressively grown weaker with its line of ineffective kings. By the 1470s, Songhai had become the largest and richest country in Africa, boasting the city of Timbuktu, which was the center of learning and trade for the Muslim world. In Timbuktu, men and boys (only) studied at its great university, utilizing to great advantage its many active libraries and books on history, medicine, astronomy, and poetry. The first Songhai king, Sunni Ali, destroyed much of Timbuktu, but his successor, Askia, rebuilt this ancient city of learning. However, after the death of Askia, the Songhai Empire weakened and was finally conquered by neighboring enemies. Timbuktu, once the center of learning, became a tiny desert town, important only because of its history. After the fall of the Songhai Empire, the days of the great black kingdoms of West Africa were over. Attesting to Hansberry's preoccupation with the demise of such great African civilizations and her deep regret that there was a universal lack of knowledge of these ancient black kingdoms are her constant references to Africa in Raisin. Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were the three greatest of the many empires that flourished in West Africa, yet all that remains of these advanced civilizations of past great wealth and strength are relics of ruins and the tales of ancient travelers.
spread some money 'round Walter Lee had previously explained to Bobo that the only way to make "big" money was through the payment of required graft, which Walter Lee refers to as having to "spread some money 'round." Bobo is apparently too intellectually dense to understand that this is a term that one does not use openly. Bobo uses the expression casually, as though it were conversationally correct.
that big hotel on the Drive Walter refers to "that big hotel on the Drive" in a conversation with George Murchison as he asks George about the Murchison family's prospective real estate ventures. Clearly, Hansherry uses her own family's livelihood as being the livelihood of the rich black family in Raisin. Lorraine Hansberry's father was a successful real estate businessman; apparently, the Murchison family of Raisin is equally successful, for Walter refers to the Murchisons' purchase of a big hotel on the "Drive." The "Drive" to which Walter refers is an expressway along a scenic stretch of land — a large sprawling park or a river view; in whatever city, this would be expensive property. In 1959, anyone, most especially a black person, who could afford to purchase a hotel — especially a hotel on such expensive property — would have been very wealthy.
