After Asagai left, Beneatha sat on the couch alone for a few moments. Her world changed so much in one day! First excitement, then disappointment, and now confusion. What should she do?

While she was thinking about it all, Walter walked into the room. He began looking for some papers. Beneatha’s thoughtful expression changed. She frowned at him. She hated him now.

Beneatha said angrily, “Look at you. Mr. Entrepreneur! A great man! Ha!”

Walter ignored her. He kept looking for something. He was looking for the card from Lindner. Finally, he found it on the floor. He held the card and ran out the door without talking to her.

Ruth heard the door close loudly. She came out of Lena and Beneatha’s room. “Who was that?” she asked. Her eyes were red. She didn’t look excited about the house anymore. She looked tired and small.

“Your husband,” said Beneatha bitterly.

“Where did he go?”

Beneatha rolled her eyes. “Who knows.” She said sarcastically, “Maybe he has an important business appointment.”

Ruth was worried about him. “You didn’t say anything bad to him, did you?”

Beneatha continued to speak sarcastically, “Bad? Say anything bad to him? No. I told him that he was a sweet boy full of dreams. I told him that everything is fine.”

Lena followed Ruth into the living room. She also looked tired. She looked defeated. Her shoulders were low and her face was sad. She walked to the table and took her little plant out of the box. She set it on the table and looked at it for a moment. She sighed, and brought it to the window. Lena put the plant outside on the windowsill and looked at it for a long time. Finally, she closed the window and turned around to face her children.

Lena took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and tried to smile. “Well, it’s too messy in here. I guess we had better stop being sad and get to work. We need to unpack and clean everything.”

Ruth looked at Lena slowly. Unpack? What was Lena saying?

Lena continued, “One of you had better call the moving people and tell them not to come.”

Ruth said sharply, “Tell them not to come?”

“Of course,” said Lena, trying to smile. “We don’t need them to come all the way here and then tell them to go back. You have to pay for that.”

Lena sat down at the table and began to unpack a box. “Ever since I was a little girl, I remember people saying, ‘Lena Eggleston, you aim too high all the time. You need to slow down. You need to see life for what it is. Just slow down some.’ That’s what they always used to say. They thought my dreams were too big. They knew I would get hurt one day.”

Ruth couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her heart felt like it stopped. Her head felt light. She could hardly breathe. She said, “No, Lena…”

“Big Walter and I just didn’t understand the world,” Lena said while she shook her head sadly.

Ruth saw her future fading away. “Lena, no!” she said with panic. “Bennie, tell her. Tell her that we can still move! The mortgage is only one-hundred and twenty-five dollars a month. We have four grown people in this house, we can all work…”

Lena said quietly to herself, “I just dreamed too big…”

Ruth went on her knees in front of Lena. She was speaking quickly, “Lena, I’ll work. I’ll work twenty hours a day in all of the kitchens in Chicago. I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and clean all of the floors in America. I’ll wash all of the sheets in America if I have to. But we have to MOVE! We have to get OUT OF HERE!”

Lena touched Ruth’s hand gently. She spoke slowly and quietly. “No, I see things differently now. I’ve been thinking about how we can make this apartment a little better. I saw a second-hand desk on Maxwell Street the other day. It could fit right there. It needs some new handles and a little paint, and then it would look brand new. And we can hang up those curtains in the kitchen. We can make this apartment look nicer. It will cheer us up. We could get some nice screens to put up in your room around the baby’s bassinet.” Lena looked at Ruth and Beneatha. They looked so sad. “Sometimes,” she continued, “you just have to know when to give some things up. You need to hold on to what you already have…”

Lena continued unpacking the boxes. Beneatha began to help her, but Ruth just stood silently.

Everyone looked up when Walter came back into the apartment. He looked exhausted and was breathing heavily. “I made a call,” he said. “I called The Man.”

“What man, baby?” asked his mother.

“The Man, Mama. Don’t you know who The Man is?” he said bitterly. “The Man. Captain Boss, Old Captain, Mr. Bossman.”

Beneatha said suddenly, “Lindner!”

“That’s right,” said Walter, “That’s good. I told him to come right over.”

Beneatha understood. She was angry. “For what? Why do you want to see him?”

“We are going to do business with him,” replied Walter.

“What are you talking about, son?” said Lena.

“I’m talking about life, Mama,” said Walter. “You are always telling me to see life like it is. Well, I laid in my bed today and I figured it out. I figured out life. I figured out who gets what they want and who doesn’t get what they want.”

Walter sat down in a chair and laughed. It was not a happy laugh. “Mama, you know life is all divided up. There are winners and losers. People who take and people who get stolen from. Takers and ‘tooken.’ The people who take whatever they want are the takers, and the people who are stolen from are the ‘tooken.’ People like Willy Harris, they are ‘takers.’ They never lose. And do you know what the rest of us do?”

Walter laughed and shook his head. “We are all mixed up,” he said. “We worry about what is right and what is wrong. We worry about it and cry about it. We stay up all night trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong. But the ‘takers’ like Willy Harris don’t worry about that. They just take and they win. Willy Harris taught me something. He taught me to stop worrying about right and wrong. He taught me that I need to just take. Yeah… Thanks Willy!”

Ruth said slowly, “Why did you call that man, Walter Lee?”

Walter smiled bitterly. “I called him to tell him to come on over. We are going to show the man what he wants to see. Mama, that man came here today and he told us that the people in Clybourne Park don’t want us to live there. They were so upset that they offered us money to stay away. And Mama, Bennie and Ruth and I told him to get out. We told that man to get out! We were proud this morning. We worried about right and wrong. We told him to get out!” Walter laughed and shook his head. He was going to take the man’s money. Their dream was over.

“Oh, God!” said Beneatha angrily. “I am ashamed of you, Walter.”

Walter looked at her. He said, “You and that African man want to spend your life looking for what is right and what is wrong. Yeah? Do you know what is going to happen to him? One day, he will be arrested. The ‘takers’ will have the key. Forget it! There isn’t anything worth fighting for. The person who takes the most is the smartest.”

Lena frowned and looked at her son. She was disappointed and sad. “You are making something inside me cry, son. I feel an awful pain inside me.”

“Don’t cry, Mama,” said Walter calmly. “Understand. That white man is going to walk in our door. He is going to write us a check for more money than we ever had.”

Lena shook her head. “Son, I come from five generations of people in this country. First they were enslaved, and then they were sharecroppers. But in my family we have never been so poor to accept money from a man who thought that we weren’t good enough to walk the earth. We have never been so dead inside.”

“Well,” said Beneatha. “We are dead now. All the dreams and sunlight in this house are dead.”

“What is the matter with you all!” shouted Walter. “I didn’t make this world! It was given to me this way! Yes, I want money some day! I want to give my wife pearls! Somebody tell me, who in this world decides which women can have pearls! I tell you, I am a man. And I think my wife should wear some pearls!”

Walter walked back and forth in the apartment. He didn’t want to take the money, but he didn’t have a choice. He said passionately, “And I’m going to feel fine.”

Lena said softly, “If you take that man’s money, you won’t have anything left, Walter Lee.”

Walter walked to his mother. He had tears in his eyes and his voice was breaking. “I’m going to feel fine, Mama. I’m going to look that terrible man in the eyes and I’m going to say, ‘Alright, Mr. Lindner. That’s your neighborhood out there! You can keep it white! Just write the check, and the house is yours.’”

He began to cry and he continued, “I’m going to say, you just give us the money and you won’t have to live next to us. We won’t make your neighborhood dirty. Just give us the money and you can keep your white neighborhood. And I’ll feel fine! FINE!” Walter stood up and went into his room to be alone.

Beneatha looked at Walter’s door angrily. “He is not a man. He is a rat!”

Lena looked at the door, too. Then she looked back at Beneatha. “Yes, death has come into this house.” Lena thought about her children. They were supposed to be her future, but now their dreams were dying.

Beneatha said angrily, “He’s not my brother anymore.”

“What did you say?” said Lena.

“I said that person in the other room is not my brother.”

Lena said sadly, “That’s what I thought you said. Are you better than him today? You told him that he isn’t a man? Did you give up on him? Just like everybody else?”

“You saw what he did!” said Beneatha defensively. “You saw him, down on his knees. You taught us to hate any man who would do that!”

“Yes,” said Lena. “Your father and I taught you that. But we taught you something else, too. We taught you to love him.”

“Love him?” said Beneatha with an angry laugh. “There is nothing left to love.”

“There is always something left to love,” said Lena softly. “And if you haven’t learned that, then you haven’t learned anything.”

The room was silent for a moment. Then Lena continued, “Have you cried for your brother today? I don’t mean for yourself or for the family because we lost the money. I mean for him. Think about what he has been through. Think about what happened to him today. When should you love somebody the most? It’s when a person is at their lowest. The world hasn’t treated Walter Lee right. When you judge a person, measure them right. Make sure you measure the hills and valleys in their life.”

At that moment, Travis came into the room. “Grandmama! The moving men are downstairs! The truck just arrived!”

Lena looked at the little boy. “Are they? They’re downstairs?”

But just at that moment, Lindner also arrived. He knocked at the open door to get everyone’s attention, and came in. He was holding his hat and briefcase. Ruth stood up and went to the bedroom door. She opened the door and said to Walter, “He’s here.”

The room was quiet for a minute. Walter slowly stood up from the bed. Meanwhile, Lindner came to the table and put his briefcase on it. He opened it and began to bring out some papers and pens. He smiled and said, “Well, I was glad to hear from you.”

Walter slowly walked into the living room, and Lindner continued speaking with a smile, “You made the right decision. It’s better not to fight these things. Well,” he paused. “Who do I talk to? You, Mrs. Younger, or your son here?”

Lena sat with her hands on her lap. She closed her eyes. Travis walked closer to Lindner. He wanted to see the papers.

“Travis,” said Ruth, “Go downstairs now.”

Lena opened her eyes and looked at Walter. “No,” she said. “Travis, you stay right here. Walter Lee, you make sure Travis understands what you are doing. You teach him, like Willy Harris taught you. You show him who our family is.”

Walter looked at his mother. He looked at his little boy. Travis was smiling and happy. He didn’t understand what was happening.

“Go ahead,son,” said Lena in her beautiful, deep voice. “Go ahead.”

Walter took a breath. He said anxiously, “Well, Mr. Lindner. We called you because… well, me and my family…”

Walter looked around the room. He looked at his little family. He thought about all of their struggles. He thought about Ruth and his mother working so hard. He thought about his sister and her dreams of becoming a doctor. He thought about his father who worked until he died. He thought about his son. His son who didn’t know what he wanted to be when he grew up.

“My family,” said Walter. “Well—we are very plain people.”

“Yes—” said Lindner.

Walter continued, “I mean, I have worked as a driver for most of my life. And my wife here, she does domestic work in people’s kitchens. So does my mother. I mean—we are plain people.”

“Yes, Mr. Younger—” said Lindner.

Walter looked at his shoes as he talked. “And, uh, well, my father, well he was a laborer for most of his life.”

Lindner was confused, but he kept listening as he held the contract with one hand, “Uh, yes—yes, I understand.”

Walter thought about his father. He thought about how proud his father was. Walter said with sudden passion, “My father once almost killed a man because this man called him a bad name, you know what I mean?”

Lindner looked up in surprise. “No, no I’m afraid I don’t understand—”

“Well, ” continued Walter more calmly. His words were quiet, but confident. He said, “What I mean is that we come from a very proud family. I mean, we are very proud people. And that’s my sister over there, and she’s going to be a doctor. And we are very proud—”

Beneatha looked at Walter as he spoke. Their eyes met, and her heart felt full.

“Well,” interrupted Lindner. “I am sure that is very nice, but—”

“What I am telling you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud, and that this…” Walter looked at his son. “Travis, come here.”

Travis walked to his father. Walter held him close and looked in his son’s hopeful eyes. He loved his son so much. He wanted to give him the world.

“This is my son,” said Walter, full of pride and love. “He is the sixth generation of our family in this country. And we have all thought about your offer—”

“Well, good… good,” said Lindner expectantly.

As Walter spoke, he was filled with a feeling of love and pride. There were tears in his eyes and he stood straight and tall. He took a deep breath and said slowly and clearly, “And we have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick.”

Lena’s eyes were closed as she listened to her son. She nodded her head and began to cry with a smile on her face.

Walter continued calmly, “And we don’t want to make any trouble for anybody. We don’t want to fight, and we will try to be good neighbors. And that’s all we have to say about that.”

Walter looked directly into Lindner’s eyes. He said, “We don’t want your money,”

Lindner looked around the room. He looked at the family in surprise. “So,” he said, “You are going to move into the house?”

Beneatha said simply, “That’s what the man said.”

Lindner looked at Lena desperately. “Mrs. Younger, you are older and wiser and understand things better, please—”

“I’m afraid you don’t understand,” said Lena with a proud smile. “My son said we are going to move, and there is nothing left for me to say.” Lena laughed a little and said, “You know how these young people are today. You can’t change their minds! Good-bye!”

Lindner stood up and began putting the papers back into his briefcase. “Well,” he said, “if you have made your decision, there is nothing left for me to say.”

He walked to the door and looked back at the family. He said with a worried voice, “I hope you people know what you’re getting into.” Lindner shook his head one more time and left.

The apartment was quiet for one short moment. Everyone looked at Walter Lee. They smiled gently and tried not to cry.

Suddenly, Ruth said happily, “Well, for God’s sake—if the moving men are here—let’s get the hell out of here!”

Lena laughed, “Look at this mess, Ruth! Put Travis’s good jacket on him. Walter Lee, fix your tie and tuck your shirt in! Lord, where is my plant!”

Lena went to the window and continued giving instructions to the family, “You all start down. Travis, child, don’t go empty-handed. Ruth, where did I put that box with my pots and pans in it? I want to be in charge of it myself. I’m going to make us the biggest dinner we have ever had tonight!”

The family took some boxes downstairs as the moving men came into the apartment. They took the heavy furniture, and slowly they began to bring everything down to the truck.

While they were moving everything, Beneatha said quietly to her mother, “Mama, Asagai asked me to marry him today and go to Africa…”

Lena listened while she watched the movers work. She told them to be careful as they almost broke a chair. “He did?” she asked.

Beneatha continued, “To go to Africa, Mama. To be a doctor in Africa…”

“Yes, baby,” said Lena, still paying attention to the movers.

“Africa!” said Walter, overhearing the conversation. “Why does he want you to go to Africa?”

“To be a doctor there…” said Beneatha.

“Girl,” said Walter lovingly, “You need to get those silly ideas out of your head. You had better marry a man with some money…”

Beneatha and Walter were arguing again, but now it was loving and playful, “Who I marry is none of your business!”

“Now,” said Walter, “ I think George Murchison—”

“George Murchison!” said Beneatha passionately. “I wouldn’t marry him if he was the last man on earth!”

Walter and Beneatha continued arguing as they carried boxes down the stairs together, talking like good friends.

Lena put on her hat. She looked at the door and thought about her children. She smiled.

Ruth said, “Let’s go Lena.”

“Yes,” said Lena. “I’m coming. Ruth—”

“Yes?”

Lena looked around the apartment. She said quietly, “Walter Lee became a man today, didn’t he? Like a rainbow after the rain…”

Ruth tried not to cry. She said with a smile, “Yes, Lena.”

They heard Walter call up from downstairs in a loud voice, “Come on everybody! These people charge by the hour!”

Lena told Ruth to go ahead without her. “I’ll be down in a minute,” she said.

Ruth waited for a moment, and then went downstairs. Lena stood in her apartment, alone in the living room, for one last time. She looked around at the walls and ceiling. She breathed deeply. Her heart was full of pain and memories and hope. It was full of love. She put her hand on her mouth to stop herself from crying. Then she pulled on her coat and went out the door.

A moment later she came back inside, took the little plant from the window, and left the apartment for the last time.