Beneatha In 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's'

Beneatha also has George Murchison to deal with when it comes to her identity, as well. One can see that he has no regard to his African heritage. For example, when George comes to pick Beneatha up for their date and she comes out in her Nigerian robe and natural hair, George all but has a fit about it. As the argument over her appearance ensues, Beneatha states that she, “…hates assimilationist Negroes (81)!” George goes on to say this:
Oh dear, dear, dear! Her we go! A lecture on the African past! On our Great West African Heritage! In one second we will hear all about the great Ashanti empires; the great Songhay civilizations; and the great sculpture of Bénin – and then some poetry in the Bantu – and the whole monologue will end with the word heritage! Let’s face it, baby, your heritage is nothing but a bunch …show more content…
In Act two, scene two, we see George and Bennie talking even though George is opposed to it, whereas Bennie wants to continue talking and even says that she loves to talk. George then responds with:
I know it and I don’t mind it sometimes…I want you to cut it out, see – The moody stuff, I mean. I don’t like it. You’re a nice-looking girl…all over. That’s all you need, honey, forget the atmosphere. Guys aren’t going to go for the atmosphere – they’re going to go for what they see. Be glad for that. Drop the Garbo routine. It doesn’t go with you. As for myself, I want a nice – simple – sophisticate girl…not a poet – O.K. (96)?
This scene right here shows us that not only does George not want Bennie to pursue her heritage along with himself, he also wants Bennie to be his trophy wife and not follow her desires to be what she wants herself to become. We then see that by the end of the play, George isn’t going to be in the picture very long. It’s not a surprise that Beneatha isn’t feeling George when we get to the end of the